Important facts:
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With the launch of the product, the financial giant would be one step away from going public.
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The wallet was distributed to a select group of people in the beta phase.
Block, the financial giant founded by Jack Dorsey, appears to be one step away from releasing the Bitkey device, a hardware wallet for storing Bitcoin offline, to the public.
A person disclosed a photo of what looks like a Bitkey hardware wallet, via the X network. This device was first announced in June 2022 and everything indicates that it was distributed in its beta version to a small group of users.
In the picture you can see a small hexagonal device an integrated touch sensor for reading fingerprintsand a black marbled finish. You can read the words “Bitkey Beta” and the sentence “Not for sale”. In the background you will also see a series of boxes similar to the box containing the Bitkey device.
“Block’s new open source Bitcoin hardware wallet. The Bitkey beta appears to be ready to ship,” reads the message from a person named McShane.
Bitkey is a wallet designed for self-custody of Bitcoin and is completely open source. Since 2021, it was announced that the Block development team would be working on this device, which is apparently just one step away from release. In mid-2022, Jack Dorsey revealed some of the features the device would have, as CriptoNoticias reported. In addition, the future version of this security tool will allow Block to go public, a step that could be relevant to the company’s finances.
Hardware wallets are devices that stay offline and are, in principle, safer for storing money than wallets that stay online (apps) or exchange accounts where people essentially have no keys or private keys. It is precisely the lack of one’s own private keys that poses a risk to the security of the funds of people who have fallen victim to hackers or fraudulent businessmen around the world.
As CriptoNoticias reports, North Korean hackers have stolen nearly $180 million so far in 2023. Most of this money was stolen from exchanges or DeFi platforms that protect people’s money.