Those who have been into cryptocurrency for while would have already done some research on cold storage. They are devices or solutions that are used to keep private keys offline, away from hackers and prevent coins from being stolen. Hardware wallets, paper wallets, air-gapped cold wallets are examples of cold storage. For those who have already done research, it is difficult not to miss two of the most popular cold storage right now which are the Trezor One and Ledger X hardware wallets. However, there is a new wallet in the market that is worth mentioning and could easily take the attention away from Trezor and Ledger. We are talking about the ELLIPAL Titan Cold Wallet which boasts a beautiful 4 inches touchscreen and a solid metal body. Furthermore, the guys at ELLIPAL call it “the cold wallet, not just a hardware wallet.” which is an interesting quote. We will go through why they came up with this quote.
Before we explain any further, let’s do a small review of the ELLIPAL Titan. The device is around 4″x2″ big and is reasonably thin. It looks like a small smartphone which gives a comfortable feeling in the hand. The casing is a fully sealed one piece of metal which is IP65 rated meaning it is both dustproof and waterproof. There are no USB ports on the device, only a magnet surface for contact charging. The hardware is very strong overall with the company claiming that it cannot be cracked open by hackers without causing any damage. A reviewer even goes as far as to drive his car over it and showing the ELLIPAL Titan coming out with almost no damage. It’s probably the strongest out there in the market right now.
As for usage wise, the ELLIPAL Titan works together with the ELLIPAL mobile wallet App which you can download on your phone. Accounts can be created very easily on the ELLIPAL Titan and paired to the App. The App takes care of managing your assets and creating transactions etc. while the device holds the private keys and signs the transactions. Pretty much like the Ledger X and the Ledger live App. The ELLIPAL App has many useful features such as hot wallet function, built-in exchange, Binance DEX, finance products, market charts, etc. which is good if you are also looking to use this wallet for trading. The most impressive part of all is that the ELLIPAL Titan device and the App only use QR codes to communicate with each other. This is a big security plus and we’ll explain why.
QR code is a form of data transmission process that does not need connection. Data can be transmitted from one device to another by just using a camera to scan the code visually. It’s safe, easy and users know exactly what information is being scanned. This is important for cold storage devices because they have to remain connection free at all times.
Ledger and Trezor have shown vulnerabilities before as they can be connected to a hacker’s PC or controlled remotely through its USB port. Moreover, wallets like Ledger X have started using Bluetooth connection which can be intercepted but as Ledger has strong encryption, nobody is yet to find a vulnerability. Such issues are not a worry for a QR code-based hardware wallet like ELLIPAL Titan because such vulnerabilities cannot occur in the first place. The ELLIPAL Titan also does not contain any components that can be connected to the internet so any tweaks and hacks wouldn’t work. If a breach occurs, an anti-tamper system is already in place to keep your private keys secure by delete all the data stored. It’s a well thought out security system by ELLIPAL.
Going back to the quote “The cold wallet, not just a hardware wallet”. Cold wallet describes a wallet that cannot be connected to any other device, hence being 100% air-gapped. Not every hardware wallet can be a cold wallet because they still rely on USB or Bluetooth connections to a computer or mobile. Therefore, a cold wallet is more secure in terms of storage than regular hardware wallets. What the ELLIPAL guys mean is that although ELLIPAL Titan functions as a hardware wallet, its security is on the same level as a cold wallet.
So far we find the ELLIPAL Titan to be very easy to use and the security it boasts is very convincing. The support team was also very nice to me and they already have 30 blockchains covered which are an impressive number. With the strong security and the updates that keep on coming, it’s a wallet to keep an eye on for the years to come.
Be sure to do your own study, check out their websites and social media: