Philosophy of seeds and sovereignty

NVK is CoFounder of Coinkite, the makers of Coldcard. Coldcards are designed to help users securely use bitcoin offline. We discuss the variety of features that Coldcards provide users and the tradeoffs present when choosing how to best secure bitcoin.

Disclosure: Ten31 is the exclusive investor in Coinkite.

my easy coldcard guide: https://werunbtc.com/coldcard

NVK on Nostr: https://primal.net/nvk
NVK on X: https://x.com/nvk
Coinkite:  https://coinkite.com/

Ten31: https://www.ten31.xyz/
Cove Wallet: https://covebitcoinwallet.com/
Sparrow Wallet: https://sparrowwallet.com/
Bull Wallet: https://wallet.bullbitcoin.com/
White Noise: https://www.whitenoise.chat/
Bitkey: https://bitkey.world/

EPISODE: 183
BLOCK: 923180
PRICE:  967 sats per dollar

(00:03:36) Whats New at Coinkite and the Growing User Base

(00:05:24) Designing for Global Users and Changing Threat Models

(00:06:36) Power vs. Simplicity

(00:08:44) Onboarding Stories

(00:09:56) Mobile vs Desktop Habits and Emerging Wallets

(00:14:28) QR Workflows, NFC Push-tx, and SD Card Signing

(00:15:32) Travel and Borders

(00:17:04) Key Teleport: Device to Device Encrypted Sharing

(00:22:38) Spending Policies

(00:25:02) Trick PINs, Duress Flows, and Safe Inspired Defenses

(00:29:02) Border Stories and Why Brick Me PIN Exists

(00:31:05) SeedXOR vs Passphrase vs Multisig

(00:34:07) Family Planning and Inheritance Strategies

(00:40:00) Physical Security Model: Dual SE + MCU

(00:43:37) Comparisons to Trezor Designs and Components

(00:49:44) Seeds as Sovereignty and Unilateral Exit

(00:53:21) Debate: iCloud Backups, Ease vs Sovereignty

(01:00:08) Bitkey Debate: Goals, Risks, and Break Glass Exit

(01:08:54) Edge Cases, Loss Scenarios, and Marketing Ethics

(01:20:05) Coinkite Roadmap

(01:22:23) Future Products

(01:28:01) Touchscreens, Supply Chain Risk, and PWAs

(01:30:31) Cove, White Noise MLS, and AI Bots

(01:32:26) Nostr Adoption, Socials, and Moderation

(01:41:36) Wrap Up, Gratitude, and Ways to Support