Continuation of the Ledger hardware wallet update story with very unpleasant consequences. It turned out that now government agencies have the opportunity to withdraw cryptocurrency from users of Ledger Recover
If you have upgraded your hardware wallet and connected Ledger Recover, your SEED phrase is automatically sent encrypted to three different organizations.
The authorities can instruct these organizations through the courts, open the SEED phrase and seize cryptocurrencies, which the co-founder and former CEO of Ledger actually confirmed.
(Satoshi Nakamoto gasped!)
It's a pity, it was a convenient wallet. But not all is lost for cryptocurrency users. Game Boy owners will be able to turn these iconic devices into secure, backdoor-free hardware wallets.
The project, known as the Game Wallet, was introduced by Joseph Schiarizzi, a developer, from a Web3 startup called Keyp. Through the use of a physical cartridge, this innovation allows users to use Nintendo Game Boy devices as a secure wallet for cold storage of cryptocurrencies.
On May 19, Joseph Schiarizzi, a developer at the Keyp cryptocurrency company, presented the project he has been working on since the beginning of the year. Schiarizzi introduced a concept that uses a physical Game Boy cartridge, resulting in a “truly offline hardware wallet” that operates independently of the network without the need for a firmware update.
Back in April 1989, Nintendo released an 8-bit handheld game device known in Japan as the Game Boy. And in March 2021, the blogger decided to push the boundaries of the Game Boy and released a video demonstrating a daring feat: mining bitcoin (BTC) using an iconic device.
Another person undertook a similar venture in 2013 by developing a miner for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
The website also highlights the importance of offline functionality for protecting digital assets. The website of the game wallet states:
Devices that cannot physically connect to the Internet are inherently more secure. A device that was created before there was a cryptocurrency, that can never be attacked by digital phishing, and has been sitting on your shelf for 20 years, is the best thing to protect your cryptocurrencies.
According to the Game Wallet website, the Schiarizzi project used the Assembly programming language used for Nintendo consoles and games.
“We have converted the open source assembly language implementation of the sha256 hashing algorithm used to generate cryptographic seed phrases based on BIP-39 into GBAssembly, the language in which all Game Boy games are programmed.”
Against the backdrop of an increase in online and hardware wallet scams, this solution seems to be very reliable for two reasons. First, it was made before the birth of bitcoin and has never been updated. And secondly, when they come to rob you, they will look for something like a Ledger or a laptop, but not a thirty-year-old game console or a cartridge for it.