Coldcard's NVK Was Obsessed With Attacking Us

About this episode

The creator of SeedSigner — a former cop turned stay-at-home dad turned open-source Bitcoin developer — joins Michael Jordan to break down the ColdCard entropy bug, what it revealed about hardware wallet trust, and why NVK waged a years-long campaign against the SeedSigner project. "Seed" explains how SeedSigner's intentional statelessness and air-gapped design minimizes the trust required from non-technical users, what actually happened with the OpenSats funding rejections, why DIY cold storage is more accessible than the Bitcoin community gives it credit for, and his strong take on why cloud-connected multi-sig solutions like BitKey are the wrong lesson to learn from the ColdCard incident. —------------------------ 🔑 Learn how to take 100% self-custody of your Bitcoin: https://www.thebitcoinway.com/services/bitcoin-self-custody-training?utm_source=tbw&utm_medium=fountain&utm_campaign=podcast&utm_content=desc 📖 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.thebitcoinway.com/resources/newsletter?utm_source=tbw&utm_medium=fountain&utm_campaign=podcast&utm_content=desc 📞 Schedule a FREE call: https://www.thebitcoinway.com/contact?utm_source=tbw&utm_medium=fountain&utm_campaign=podcast&utm_content=desc —------------------------ ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 01:26 The Cold Card entropy bug, explained 07:35 "The most notable feature of SeedSigner is how unambitious it is" 09:02 Dice rolls, BIP39 lottery and camera entropy 12:35 Why air-gapped QR signing shrinks the attack surface 13:38 From digital forensics cop to Bitcoiner 17:01 SeedSigner's origins: Specter DIY and a Raspberry Pi 25:57 A volunteer project, not a company 32:36 The NVK feud and the SeedQR criticism 38:32 Raspberry Pi firmware and supply chain trade-offs 44:03 Four OpenSats applications, four rejections 50:00 Single SeedSigner multisig vs multi-vendor multisig 1:01:03 Why "trust harder" is the wrong lesson from Cold Card —------------------------ Follow Seed on X: https://x.com/sesi_the_man Follow Michael Jordan on X: https://x.com/theothermjordan —------------------------ 🎧 LISTEN TO OUR OTHER EPISODES: Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/thebitcoinway Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bitcoin-way-podcast/id1736983610 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2XXxtNdPsoGXIALpIOwByz Fountain: https://fountain.fm/show/XiUs8SaIGhj52qzET4P6 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2334006.rss ABOUT OUR SHOW: On The Bitcoin Way Podcast, Michael Jordan talks to guests with a wide range of expertise and skillsets related to Bitcoin, including investing, macroeconomic and financial trends, mining, education, and more. CONNECT WITH US: X: https://twitter.com/thebitcoinway_ N: npub1lrj3lsskez59qu68v5fpnur7ythe7s5e4qcelclha6t6r9q5pqgsl2m LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thebitcoinway/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/thebitcoinway_ TT: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebitcoinway Newsletter: https://www.thebitcoinway.com/resources/newsletter DISCLAIMER: This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial or legal decisions consult a professional.