u/haochizzle

the keycard shell understood the assignment.

because it's not about the looks, the cool factor, or some other shallow thing other hardware wallets might advertise.

it's about the mission.

and there's no other hardware wallet as true-to-ethos (sic cypherpunk) and self-sovereign as the Keycard Shell.

it combines the best of:

• NFC chip card form factor for tapping on-the-go while securing your private keys
• QR code based signing (when card is inserted into the Shell) for FULLY AIRGAPPED security
• using an S-tier battery design choice (it uses nokia BL-4C batteries aka brick phone batteries that can be swapped out in seconds and purchased freely on the open market)
• being radically open source (it's so open, you can literally manufacture your own 😂)

honestly, it's not much to look at. it's a cross between a retro game boy and a 90s calculator. 

but the see-through body is akin to a beautiful metaphor for the Keycard Shell — the premise of its security model is that it sits out in the open with nothing to hide.

my full review video: https://youtu.be/HgXoI4jad-g

what's r/ethereum's thoughts? can you get behind this clunker aesthetically for its mission-driven design?

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if we're meeting for the first time — hi 👋 i built this channel to spread the good word on good work in crypto. a sub and a comment on my channel would go a long way!

anyone ever think about how fragile their access to their traditional bank accounts really is?

zy0n has been debanked multiple times. not for some nefarious reason, mind you. but at least on one of the occasions, on the wrong side of a little thing called the SVB bank run. the bank decided, and the money was rate-limited.

finance is often used as a weapon. visibility makes you a target.

that's why he builds in privacy. "I'm selfish. I'm doing it for myself." and in the process, he made it available for everyone.

now, zy0n is a core contributor to railgun — ethereum's privacy layer. he's done everything from building the railgun CLI, to implementing railgun's compliance tooling called private proofs of innocence (PPOI), to tinkering with the cookbook SDK that allows any dApp to integrate railgun's privacy features.

and railgun WORKS.

last year during the zklend hack, the hacker tried to feed $9.5m into the railgun anonymity pool, the PPOI system zy0n helped bring to life was watching. for one hour, the team waited, and when the funds showed up blocked, that was the proof. the shield held.

perhaps nothing was more validating than when the ethereum foundation decided to bake railgun in at the protocol level via its kohaku privacy SDK. it is a signpost from ethereum that privacy is no longer an option. zy0n: "without privacy, institutions are just not going to adopt ethereum and blockchain writ large."

the numbers tell-all: when zy0n first started contributing, there was perhaps $20m in the shared "happy" pool. today, it approaches $100m. it just crossed $5b in volume. work is advancing on all fronts, including the aforementioned kohaku as well as soon™ ledger hardware wallet support for the zero-knowledge cryptography railgun extensively uses.

we are at the inflection point for ethereum privacy.

and i couldnt be more proud to share this piece that ive created with someone i can now call a dear friend. here's the full 48 minute interview: https://youtu.be/zVsqSJX_slY

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if we're meeting for the first time, hi 👋. i find crypto youtube to be a giant cesspool. as a result, i started building my own channel to spread the good word on good work in crypto — something with substance and humanity. dropping a like, sub, and comment goes a long way to supporting me, so please consider doing so!