Coldcard is the world's most trusted and secure Bitcoin Signing Device. It provides the best physical security for your funds. Your seed words are stored in two specialized chips, designed solely to securely store secrets. All of the Coldcard code is viewable, editable, and verifiable. You can compile it yourself. It is one of the only signing devices with the option to avoid ever being connected to a computer, for its full life cycle: from seed generation, to transaction signing. It uses PSBT (BIP174) natively.
Dual Secure Element for Key Storage:
We find it quite scary that some signing devices trust the main microprocessor with their most valuable secrets. Instead, Coldcard uses two Secure Elements, from different vendors, to protect your Bitcoin. Specifically, the Coldcard (Mk4) uses Microchip's ATECC608A and Maxim's DS28C36B, to store the critical master secret: the 24-word seed phrase for your BIP39 wallet. These little chips are very powerful. Communication is controlled by complex challenges and SHA-256 responses which prevent replay and eavesdropping. The dual secure element enforces cryptographically, that the attacker must know the PIN to access the secrets. An attacker cannot brute-force combinations or replay a previous login sequence. This remains true even if they removed the chip from the board or fully-replaced the firmware in the main microprocessor. In fact, even with the secure element removed from the system, and all the secrets of the main micro fully-known (and all the secrets held in the second Secure Element, DS28C36B), the attacker would still only get 13 tries before the ATECC608B bricks itself. (Don’t worry, this counter is reset every time you login correctly.) Even if there was some critical security bug in the dual secure element that completely exposed the secrets it holds, your bitcoin would still be safe, because we encrypt the contents of the dual secure element with a one-time pad known only to the main micro. More details are available in this white paper and the complete source code is available.
Genuine vs. Caution Lights:
To resist Evil Maids, and other sneaky people with physical access to your Coldcard, we sign our firmware with a factory key. During boot-up, the firmware's signature, and nearly every byte of flash memory, will be verified and the appropriate Green/Red light set. Changing that light's status is actually controlled by dedicated circuitry connected directly to a Secure Element, so a rogue bit of software cannot override it. The circuit for the lights is exposed on the top surface of the product, so any physical tampering by those maids will be visible as well.
Anti-phishing Words:
The PIN code on Coldcard is divided into two parts, such as 1234-5678. You first enter 1234 and then you will be shown two words on-screen. Those words are unique for all PIN prefixes, and for each Coldcard ever made. (The secrets used to enforce that come from inside the secure element, and are unknown to the rest of the world.) Your job is to memorize those two words, keep them secret, and every time you use the Coldcard, check them before entering the final 5678 part of your PIN. This protects you against a trojan-horse Coldcard that might look like yours but it cannot know those two words.
Physical Security:
Both secure elements and critical parts of the main micro are covered by epoxy at the factory. Our clear case is part of our security model too, so you can look and see if a "hardware implant" has been inserted inside your device. Because of the in-depth use of the secure elements, there is no "factory reset" for the Coldcard. If you forget your Coldcard PIN, there is nothing we can do except remind you to recycle your e-waste responsibly! We've even put a label, "SHOOT THESE", for more effective device destruction... When the time comes.
Air Gap Operation:
Coldcard never needs to touch a computer. It can work entirely from a USB power pack or AC power adapter. This includes everything you need to do in the whole life of the product:
Initial PIN choosing and setup.Pick your 24-seed words using our TRNG, import existing secrets, or use your dice rolls. Export skeleton wallet files, for setup of Electrum or other desktop/mobile wallets. Export lists of payment (deposit) address, using the Address Explorer. Backup of seed and settings, which saves an encrypted 7z file.