ZachXBT’s Hardware Wallet Criticism Ignites Debate Over Crypto Self-Custody

ZachXBT has sparked debate after claiming on his Telegram channel that {hardware} wallets are “full rubbish” for critical crypto use.

According to him, individuals who usually deal with large quantities are higher off utilizing a spare iPhone as a sign-in system.

ZachXBT Details the Daily Struggles of Hardware Wallet Users

The crypto investigator’s Telegram message was blunt:

“Hot take: All {hardware} wallets are full rubbish and I don’t advise utilizing them for essential duties like signing transactions or storing funds,” he wrote.

He went additional, arguing {that a} separate iPhone used solely as a pockets may present a greater expertise than any {hardware} in the marketplace proper now, whereas he particularly criticized Ledger.

“Ledger is the worst and Ledger Live has common updates for UI/apps for no good cause that break easy actions,” claimed ZachXBT.

Back on X, he listed a number of issues that {hardware} pockets customers may face when making a typical time-sensitive high-value transaction. The points included useless batteries, compulsory upgrades of the system and software program, UI modifications, and web site bugs that forestall signing multisig transactions.

Soon after, safety researchers, pockets builders, and common crypto customers started responding to ZachXBT’s submit. Axel Bitblaze agreed with the on-chain detective’s criticism of {hardware} wallets however questioned whether or not a cellphone was actually a greater alternative for them, since they would nonetheless depart the consumer with “one system and one seed as the one level of failure.”

Instead, he beneficial a 2-of-3 Safe multisig setup with separate signer gadgets. He additionally suggested crypto holders to retailer their seed phrases offline and to do a take a look at earlier than transferring massive quantities, whereas conserving spending wallets separate from long-term holdings.

Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm additionally chipped in, agreeing with the concept behind ZachXBT’s proposal however arguing that cellular wallets lack one essential function: BIP39 passphrase help.

The developer, who’s going through a prolonged jail time period after being convicted of working an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise in 2025, identified that the additional passphrase layer is the primary benefit of {hardware} wallets and known as on software program pockets makers so as to add help for it, which, in his view, would make them extra helpful for self-custody.

The debate additionally attracted responses from {hardware} pockets firms, with one of many largest, Trezor, saying that as a result of a cellphone runs a full working system, it has many potential assault factors. Meanwhile, a {hardware} pockets is designed as a devoted system that retains non-public keys away from normal computing environments.

Keystone Wallet took a extra balanced place. The group acknowledged that ZachXBT was “not flawed” in regards to the potential of an remoted cellphone however contended that the majority customers are higher served by purpose-built models, for the reason that safety of a cellphone relies upon closely on strict consumer self-discipline.

Ledger’s Stance

As of this writing, Ledger had not responded on to ZachXBT’s claims. However, it did publish a well-timed submit on its X account, the place it stated that its core safety mannequin is predicated on conserving non-public keys away from internet-connected gadgets.

“A personal key that by no means touches the web can’t be phished, deepfaked, or prompt-injected out of existence,” it wrote. “That’s the entire wager on {hardware}.”

Still, such gadgets will not be fully proof against human errors. For instance, an incident earlier this 12 months noticed a sufferer lose $282 million in BTC and LTC from their offline system by way of a social engineering rip-off.

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