Overview KeepKey hardware wallet for crypto - currencies

Cryptocurrency hardware wallet Keepkey appeared relatively late in comparison with the main competitors in the fall of 2015. The developer of the wallet is an American company KeepKey, LLC of Kirkland, Washington. To achieve success in the already busy market, a new wallet you need to provide the best quality product and experience for the user. Below we will try to understand how he managed it.

KeepKey costs 99$ excluding shipping (here appears the first Association with "dad" hardware wallets for Bitcoin - best wallet-ω), and DHL shipping is 39$. In Russia, the purse is sold through a distributor in Moscow - well-known to many visitors Bits.MaRSe media company (Yes, company), which provided a copy of the wallet for review. Russian site is located at the address Keepkey.io. On it at the time of publication presents the price of$ 135, but online purchase no, obviously, you need to contact a distributor directly.

Keepkey supports four cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum and ether was added to the latest version - in November 2016. In provided for review wallet support broadcast yet.

Unpacking and set

Purse KeepKey comes in a small black box with stickers that protect against premature opening.

The package is fairly standard: it includes the purse, the USB cable is 1 m long with nylon braid, a small cardboard card to write a secret phrase (another Hello to Tresor), the sheath of genuine leather for storage and as a quick guide to starting, consisting of three steps.

The purse and all related accessories - a dense black color, other colors not yet available. Purse itself is black and glossy on one side and matte gray on the other, has a size of 93х38х12 mm, micro-USB connector on one corner and one round button on the opposite. Nothing more. Display off is not visible. Well, if you are not contraindicated black color of the purse looks pretty stylish and durable case, but when you drop on a solid surface in the first place will suffer the corners. Even if you survive the screen, it would negate all the efforts of the designer.

The body is made of anodized aluminum, and the front panel covering the display - polycarbonate. Disassembly of the purse without harm did not work, had to give it up.

In accordance with the manufacturer's website, KeepKey on the ARM Cortex M3 and uses a hardware random number generator TRNG. Resolution built-in 3" screen is 256х64 pixel. Driver installation is not required, the wallet is recognized as a USB HID (front-end device such as a mouse).

Software for Keepkey

AT purse is designed to work with the Chrome browser installed via the extension (again, like the Tresor), actually two. On the supplied instructions they are located on two different sites, so it's best to use the website of the manufacturer (or distributor,they are almost mirror) https://www.keepkey.io/support/get-started/ - there are links to both apps in the Google app store.

First Chrome extension - KeepKey Wallet - represents the "easy" cryptocurrency wallet that allows you to send and receive bitcoins using purse hardware as the store private and public keys. With a hardware wallet to sign transactions on any device without fear that they will be stolen the viruses. The second KeepKey Proxy is designed to work with purses from your browser. At the moment, only supported in Chrome.

Use KeepKey possible with the help of the apps found in the Chrome browser and a compatible light wallets Electrum and Multibit, based on BIP32 (hierarchical deterministic wallets, HD wallets). Of course, using the secret phrase, you can generate keys on any other device - this may become relevant in case of loss or theft of a wallet. In this case, restore your wallet you can use any software that supports BIP 44.

The first switch

Now is the time to start working with Keepkey. By incorporating the wallet into the USB port of the computer or laptop, we'll see what appeared on the screen glowing logo KeepKey, which after some time slowly begins to move horizontally from left to right. The screen occupies almost the entire length of the device.

Proceed to the installation of extensions in Chrome. Immediately after installing KeepKey Wallet by clicking the application icon in the upper right corner of the browser window, it is proposed to install KeepKey Proxy. As they both needed to work without third-party wallets, it would be possible to combine the installation in one package.

Installing the application in the list of standard apps Chrome, we will see KeepKey Proxy. It remains only to click on it to finally liven up the wallet.

When first connected I was immediately prompted to update the firmware (firmware) of the purse. For this, you must disable the wallet, and holding the button, connect again. You are then prompted to run the update that takes place within minutes.

By the way, with the supplied USB cable in update mode, the device is not identifiable in Windows - perhaps because of its length. With a shorter cable from the phone all without incident.

Initialize wallet

After a successful firmware (to version 2.1), it became possible to proceed to the initialization of the purse. Just need to warn you that during initialization, you cannot switch to other apps, clicking in the "wrong" areas of the screen etc. - otherwise you have to start all over again. In General, the initialization process can be an interesting quest, if this is your first "iron" wallet. But it also is reminiscent of the connection of the Tresor. For reference it is advisable to watch this video with Russian subtitles.

First, you will have to enter a label for the purse (it is necessary only for convenience of recognition), and also to come up with a pin of 5 digits and twice to enter it in the web interface, and the location of numeric keys is displayed on the screen of the purse, and every time to enhance security. After entering the pin, the wallet displays 12 English words - this is a code phrase familiar to all users of light HD and mobile wallets. These 12 words without breaking the sequence, it is necessary to write on the enclosed card, or other media. It is assumed that storing them in a digital format, you will not. A piece of paper in the digital age may be the most reliable repository of hackers won't get to it.

Important! After recording secret phrase don't forget to hold the button of the purse until, until you start the process of creating an account and private keys. If, for example, switch from the browser to the messenger or another application window will disappear and the whole process must be repeated. The application reads data from the wallet for each action, and while the purse is not initialized - it did not saved.

Send and receive bitcoins

After initialization, you will see a simple menu application that allows you to send and receive bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies), and change settings. In the settings you can change the label and pin and also completely remove all data from the purse - this is useful if you want to sell or donate it. To add a new crypto account (including alithinou) you can by clicking on the link Add Account at the bottom of the first screen.

To obtain bitcoins to wallet is very simple - click "Receive Bitcoin" and you will get the address in a text string and a QR code. Right arrow you can scroll through several addresses. At the same time, on the screen of the wallet also displayed the selected address - if the attacker has a Chrome extension and submenu address to the wallet they can't.

Send bitcoins from your wallet just as well - you must click "Send Bitcoin", enter the address of the recipient and send amount. Unfortunately, to put the size of the fee manually the application does not - taken dynamic recommended by the Commission.

After sending transactions to your chosen address, it will soon appear in the transaction list in the web interface. Details of the transaction are displayed through the service blockcypher.com.

Insights

Purse KeepKey is reminiscent of the best wallet, especially noticeable in the initialization process. Therefore, the owners of Tresoro will be very simple to master Keepkey. This is not surprising, since both wallets are based on the same standards - BIP32 and BIP44. Firmware for KeepKey is freely available, and anyone can check and even modify it. Devices price also at the moment the same, which means that buyers can make a choice on quality and not on price.

That certainly should put in plus Keepkey is a stylish design and large screen, which can display much more information, so you have less flipping with the button on the purse. The purse is quite simple to use, and can work with an unlimited number of crypto-currency accounts in multiple currencies.

Among the shortcomings is the lack of cross-browser and complex initialization process that beginner user can take a long time. "Incognizance" wallet with bundled USB cable when the firmware can be a problem in a specific instance, but developers should pay attention to it.

Source