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TJ Wallet W1 Hardware Wallet

🔍 Last analysed 3rd May 2022 . Leaks Keys

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The Analysis 

Product Description

The TJ Wallet W1 Hardware Wallet bundle can be directly plugged in to a phone’s charging port. It is paired with an Android app which can be downloaded via their downloads page. Further claims include:

  • Support for 40+ Coins included BTC, ETH, FILECOIN and 2000+ Tokens
  • Multisignature authentication
  • Access to DApps (Decentralized Applications)
  • Open source auditability

Included in the bundle are the following:

  • Screwdriver
  • USB to Micro USB
  • USB to USB-C
  • TJ Wallet W1
  • Mnemonic word card
  • Mnemonics Secret Box
  • Certificate and some instructions

Analysis

According to the TJ Wallet W1 Hardware Wallet “Getting Started” guide, the mnemonic phrase is displayed through the mobile app. The user then has to physically encode this on the provided mnemonics secret box.

In its FAQ section, it describes a fundamental process:

A cold wallet is just a tool for storing cryptocurrency and wallet addresses. This is designed for security reasons. You must use the software wallet to check balances and transactions. Once you have the W1 cold wallet and TJ Wallet App properly connected, you can manage your assets directly on the App.

They claim to be open source, but we could not find a link to their repository.
The device needs the user’s phone to handle the private keys (backup words).

(dg)

Verdict Explained

This product requires sharing private key material!

As part of our Methodology, we ask:

Leaks Keys!

Does the device hide your keys from other devices?

If the answer is "no", we mark it as "Leaks Keys".

Some people claim their paper wallet is a hardware wallet. Others use RFID chips with the private keys on them. A very crucial drawback of those systems is that in order to send a transaction, the private key has to be brought onto a different system that doesn’t necessarily share all the desired aspects of a hardware wallet.

Paper wallets need to be printed, exposing the keys to the PC and the printer even before sending funds to it.

Simple RFID based devices can’t sign transactions - they share the keys with whoever asked to use them for whatever they please.

There are even products that are perfectly capable of working in an air-gapped fashion but they still expose the keys to connected devices.

This verdict is reserved for key leakage under normal operation and does not apply to devices where a hack is known to be possible with special hardware.

The product cannot be independently verified. If the provider puts your funds at risk on purpose or by accident, you will probably not know about the issue before people start losing money. If the provider is more criminally inclined he might have collected all the backups of all the wallets, ready to be emptied at the press of a button. The product might have a formidable track record but out of distress or change in management turns out to be evil from some point on, with nobody outside ever knowing before it is too late.