Trezor exec pushes back on ZachXBT claim that hardware wallets are 'complete garbage'

Trezor Chief Commercial Officer Danny Sanders pushed back on blockchain investigator ZachXBT's recent criticisms of crypto hardware wallets.

"All hardware wallets are complete garbage, and I do not advise using them for important tasks like signing transactions or storing funds," ZachXBT wrote in a post on Telegram earlier this week, recommending that users instead dedicate a separate iPhone that's only used to store funds and sign transactions.

In an interview Friday with The Block's Gareth Jenkinson on The Starting Block, Sanders acknowledged frustrations around the criticism, especially when software or firmware updates disrupt urgent or high-value transactions.

"I actually get it, and I agree that we have clunky solutions out there," Sanders said. "It’s really hard to build on the edge of security and usability."

However, Sanders argued that ZachXBT was generalizing from a use case that really only involves sophisticated users managing large sums.

"People who have to manage a lot of value in high-stakes environments need different setups, and just a single hardware wallet is not the best solution for that," Sanders said. "But it doesn’t mean you can just say everything is garbage."

A stripped-down iPhone could be a useful part of an advanced setup, Sanders said. However, its operating system and connectivity features create more "attack factors" than with a hardware wallet.

"You have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and iMessage and cellular," Sanders said. "Even generating your keys on a wallet on your iPhone is more risky than with a hardware wallet."

Hardware wallets also come with a separate screen that users can verify transaction details before signing, he added. For average crypto holders, Sanders called them the "strongest form of self-custody" that is currently available.

Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm also weighed in, though he was more on the side of ZachXBT, arguing that the main obstacle is the lack of mobile wallets that support BIP39 passphrases. It's a feature that allows users to add an extra word or phrase to their seed phrase. Storm said this can protect funds if someone were to find the physical written backup.

"ZachXBT’s got the right idea," Storm wrote. "There’s just nothing on mobile to actually do it with."

Storm called on mobile wallet developers to add BIP39 passphrase support and air-gapped transaction signing, allowing a user to sign transactions without connecting to a network.