Current State of ERC20 Tokens Among Hardware Wallets

Introduction
ERC20 tokens are the Ethereum-denoted currencies of exchange for many popular ICOs and other ventures. They are secure and take value inherent from the value of Ether. ERC20 tokens are popular among enthusiasts, contributors and traders - and have huge volume on many exchanges.

According to Etherscan today, there are 42 separate tokens with a market capitalization over $10m USD, out of 9907 total ERC20 token contracts tracked. This represents not only a huge opportunity for businesses looking for an easy way to tokenize their efforts and crowdsale, and not only another opportunity for contributors - but also a huge shift in the market, as many more organizations are embracing the ICO platform using these tokens instead of forking a coin and developing it into an offering. The accelerating rate of companies having successful ICOs is proof of this enough.

It would be appropriate - for our safety - for ERC20 tokens to be stored and manipulated on our hardware wallets. As we’ll analyze, the current state of affairs among hardware wallets ‘aren’t quite there yet,’ and that leaves us unable to fully secure our potentially huge bankrolls of ERC20 tokens the same way we can Bitcoin, Ether, or many other coin-based currencies.
Trezor
By far the most widely accepted hardware wallet is the Trezor, and as such you’d have expected the development team to be on top of consumer’s demands and integrate easy manipulation of ERC20 tokens. However, the truth is far from the demand - and Trezor has yet to code this capability.

There are many guides on how to use MyEtherWallet or other solutions to access your Trezor wallet and send your ERC20 tokens, however this process does open you to the opportunity for keyloggers, MITM, etc. attackers to steal access to your Ethereum address!

They even have claimed in a blog article in May that they have ‘full support for ERC20 tokens,’ but later explains ‘...to receive ERC20 tokens, use your Ethereum address generated by TREZOR. To send your tokens, unlock your Ethereum wallet on MyEtherWallet and fill in the transaction details, as well as the token type.’ Some would call this a conflict of opinion...

The Trezor will continue to be a widely used and accepted device worldwide, but it seems they’re missing a key element that would help them differentiate their services from the other hardware wallets and come out as innovatively ahead of the competition. Maybe the competition can help with this issue?
Ledger

Like the Trezor, Ledger is able to receive and store ERC20 tokens. They’ve also posted guides on how to unlock the wallet using the internet's favorite Ether wallet, and manipulate or send those tokens.

On their Trello, they’ve marked ERC20 tokens support as ‘Done’ in Oct 2016 - however this appears to be for receiving and storing tokens, not supporting any interaction with them. Even though they’ve had a fair amount of interest in this feature, they’ve been asking people to use MyEtherWallet - which isn’t, as we’ve discussed, the most secure option.

Ledger is preferred by many - but it would seem that they’re missing the mark when it comes to tracking the consumer’s needs and reacting to the market. We need to keep thinking and come up with a solution to the hardware wallet ERC20 token issue!
KeepKey

KeepKey has been saying that ERC20 tokens are a ‘priority’ on their roadmap since April 2017, however there’s been no more news or development - other than further promises - since.

You can store an ERC20 token on your KeepKey’s Ethereum address, and like the other two there are ways to use MyEtherWallet to access the address by way of a mnemonic passphrase - however this process has someone entering in their passphrase on their regular computer or mobile device, thereby exposing them to the dangers of attacks that they’d bought a hardware wallet to avoid.

Yet another hardware wallet fails to deliver on the ERC20 token issue. KeepKey does many things well, and even better than the first two - but ERC20 tokens is not among this list. Who will save the world’s ERC20 tokens?

Less Popular Hardware Wallets

A brief search on your favorite search engine will find many results for ‘hardware wallet alternative,’ however ‘hardware wallet alternative to send ERC20 tokens’ doesn’t return anything promising - other than people discussing the limitations of the above three hardware wallets.

There needs to be a proactive solution that preempts the growing need for true ERC20 token support, that will allow purchasers to feel secure knowing that the firmware updates that will come to the device will also be preemptive and actually react to market perspectives. Are there any upcoming hardware wallets that would give people this confidence?

You’re here reading this article, so you may have guessed the next section...
The Answer - Vault0x
Vault0x is the upcoming the hardware wallet that aims to overachieve, outperform and altogether be the ‘cooler,’ while still secure, option. As such, we’ve listened to the needs of the consumer and we’re anticipating a few key - cool and secure - features that will excite you.

Vault0x will support storing, manipulating and sending ERC20 tokens out-of-the-box. This solves a present need in the hardware wallet industry, and will be a well-received option for Ethereum enthusiasts everywhere - and we’re looking forward to filling that desire!

If you’d like to read more about Vault0x and the other features and capabilities it represents, see the rest of our blog here. Our white paper will include many useful and interesting things aside from just ERC20 tokens - we’ll be sure to deliver on many needs of the market that are presently under-filled.

Finally, a solution - the hardware wallet that’s designed from the get-go to deliver on the pieces of functionality that have been seeing massive development with blockchain technologies of late!
Conclusion
When you’re considering your next - or first - hardware wallet purchase, it’s important to consider the capabilities that hardware wallet incorporates. If you’re looking for something that looks better, behaves smarter, and supports new and interesting features - look no farther than Vault0x.

We’re excited to bring you a premium product: well-thought, well-designed, well-programmed, to ensure your ongoing safety and security while also providing an attractive and top-notch quality option. Thank you for your ongoing interest, and we hope you will enjoy your eventual purchase!