Trezor First Impressions

Trezor is a big step forward in Bitcoin adoption – Let’s take a look!

Trezor is a hardware wallet for storing Bitcoin.  What makes it important is it’s extremely easy to use. Normally with things like this “easy to use” usually means “extremely unsafe”.  The Trezor is both easy to use and exceedingly secure.

Dangers of storing your Bitcoin online

Many people have been burned by not storing their Bitcoin locally on a secure medium. This is usually due to the convenience factor.  Unfortunately this puts you at the Mercy of whatever service you choose. Some services seem to be relatively unlikely to lose your Bitcoin. Others in the past have had many red flags, yet users continued to use them due to how popular they were.

One of the most popular examples of losing Bitcoin would probably be MtGox. Many people would say they didn’t see it coming.  MtGox was developed by Mark Karpeles. The name MtGox is a catchy shorthand for Magic the Gathering Online Exchange. That’s right, MtGox originally started out as a Trading card website. MtGox was to be to Magic as Ebay was to Pez. At some point they decided to adapt and use it for Bitcoin. Many people bought and sold Bitcoin on MtGox, and kept all their Bitcoin on the exchange. Eventually a few events occurred which lead to many users being out many Bitcoins.  If we are to take any lesson from the MtGox crash, it would be that unless you have physical possession of your Bitcoin, it can be taken from you at any moment.

Storing your Bitcoin on your local computer is a step up, but with the growing number of compromised computers, you could be the victim of malware and never even know it. That is, until the Malware decides to strip you of all your Bitcoin.

How to Buy

I got my Trezor from https://www.buytrezor.com. It was a very easy process, all you need is to fill out your shipping info then send the Bitcoin to the address listed. A few days later the Trezor will arrive in a nice bubble wrap envelope. Trezor is one of the few companies that clearly truly believes in Bitcoin in that they only accept Bitcoin as a payment method. Though the BTC price changes to match the $119USD price (for posterity sake I paid 0.2736BTC).  Many people are probably turned off by the price. I know this because I’ve already had a few friends  pass on purchasing a Trezor. I had really wanted a very secure yet easy to use solution and Trezor has definitely met both of these requirements.

Usability

I’ve read some stories saying the Trezor still isn’t quite easy enough to use for someone who has never used Bitcoin before. This might end up being true. Though I will say if you are even moderately technical, then the Trezor would be a perfect solution for you.

The initial setup is relatively easy and pain free. The hardest part for me is I have terrible handwriting. I don’t have any pens in my office and have always taken notes on my phone. As such I can barely write my own name. This makes writing down the 24 word seed rather difficult. My solution was to have a friend write it down.  It can’t be emphasized enough, do not write this down on your computer. Almost all security benefits the Trezor provides are thrown out the window if you store your seed on anything connected to the internet.  I also opted to use an additional passphrase. I chose one that’s relatively simple and easy to remember. This is just one extra layer on top of the already secure device. If it relied heavily on the passphrase I would have chosen a very difficult phrase. If losing/forgetting your passphrase is something you are worried about, then I advise against using this as it’s not necessary for security.

The web interface is very easy to use. The first time you pull it up it will prompt you to install the My Trezor plugin. Once it’s installed you access the My Trezor page and can send and sign transactions.   Every time you request funds Trezor will generate a new address which will help keep your funds slightly more anonymous.  You can also create multiple  “accounts”. Accounts all reside on your Trezor, but they are a way to further divide your Bitcoin into different buckets. You can have one for your long term savings, and one for frequent transactions, which could resemble a checking account.

When you initiate a transaction the web interface will show you all the transaction details and ask you to input your pin. The Trezor will show numbers randomly arranged around the display. And the web interface will show question marks.  The PIN will never be arranged the same, which is a nice added security feature.

After you enter the PIN and confirm, it will display the transaction details on the Trezor. This is a very important step, as it takes into account the assumption that the PC you are on is compromised.  The Trezor assumes that there is malware on your computer which will attempt to trick you into sending your Bitcoin to a compromised address. By displaying the address on the Trezor, this can act as a fail safe to a compromised computer and allow you to cancel the transaction.

Currently no Android or iOS support

As of this writing there is no official Trezor mobile apps. This is probably the biggest downside as it would be nice to initiate and sign transactions directly from my phone using a USB OTG cable.  This would take the Trezor to the next level in usability.  I should say that Currently this is a non issue for me as I don’t visit any merchants that accept Bitcoin.  I imagine most people are in the same boat, so the current lack of Mobile support probably won’t come into consideration when making your Trezor purchase decision.

 Final Thoughts

The Trezor is the next big step for Bitcoin. While it’s not quite what we need for mass adoption just yet, it’s a fantastic view of what is to come for Bitcoin.  The hardest part is the initial setup, and for now I can’t see a way around that, since it’s imperative that the seed not be stored on a PC.  Should Bitcoin take off, as it stands the Trezor might prove too clunky for a daily driver when it comes to spending your Bitcoin frequently.