Kaspersky Lab Hardware Wallet - First Impressions

I first read about this wallet on a steemit article by @ipromote. It got my immediate attention in light of the recent loop hole found in the Ledger nano hardware wallet. Kaspersky is a brand already associated with security, could they possibly make something better than the Ledger or TREZOR I asked myself so off I went to their website and here is my first impression.

Kaspersky labs has created two products. The Ballet - a hardware wallet without the screen feedback, and the Securator a hardware wallet with a screen. The Price for these units is listed as $25 for the Ballet and $99 for the Securator. compared to the TREZOR and the Ledger the price point seem about the same as ledger starts from 75euros and TREZOR starts from $99. They also get kudos for actually implementing Monero (XMR) on their hardware wallet. There has been attempts previously by other projects to have this implemented but it always seems to just drag on and never go live, so on this account they get my vote.

As someone who does not particularly like subscriptions (rather pay now and own it) the BlockVault subscription raised a red flag for me. What is a BlockVault and why do I need a reoccurring payment to use a hardware wallet?
I started to read and found it was an optional service to backup your wallet

BlockVault™ (premium option)
Store a copy of your cryptowallet in a secure offline vault as an emergency backup option.

Core features

• Secure Element with NFC support
  Tamper-resistant microcontroller that securely hosts the wallet application and private keys, supporting DES, 3DES, AES (up to 256 bit), RSA (up to 4096), and ISO 7816 standards, with dedicated storage for encrypted data (up to 1MB).

• Two-factor authentication
  Authenticate yourself securely with your device.

• BlockVault™ (premium option)
  Store a copy of your cryptowallet in a secure offline vault as an emergency backup option.

• Currently supported currencies
  Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash, Ripple, ERC20.
  Ready to support: Bitcoin Gold, Monero, Dogecoin

Source

I am still wondering is there anyone out there who thinks having a company backup your cryptocurrency private keys is a good idea?

This does not sit well with me for several reasons:

• It goes against the mantra "he who has the keys own the coins"so keep your keys
• Why use a decentralized currency to get away from central manipulation and then hand over your keys to another controller and another single point of failure
• We have seen recent hacks- NiceHash et al. Your coin are safer with you. Your holdings on its own you may not be worthwhile for hackers to target you, but a collection point of many wallets has been shown to be a sweet target for hackers.
• Can you really trust anyone who ask's you to part with your private keys for a fee to keep them safe.

I like to hear from you all. Is there something I am missing here. My thoughts are if you really can not figure out how to manager your hardware wallet private keys then use a multi currency wallet like Exodus or better still just learn how. The Kaspersky hardware wallets both read great on paper especially since the backup service is optional. I would be getting one to checkout for myself as I am curious to know if there is some link from the wallet to allow the BlockVault backup when activated and when it is not can this be exploited.

SmartCash Dreams

I am looking forward to #smartcash being implemented on a hardware wallet. If an when it happens would it be TREZOR T or Ledger Getting a hardware wallet to recieve the #smartrewards would be no problem as even the paper wallet get smart rewards. What I see as challenging would be getting the #smartnodes to run of a hardware wallet. I know this is possible as some masternodes host services already do so for #DASH.
Ever wondered why all the fuss about smartcash? stop wondering, visit us. You will be glad you did

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