First-Class Bitcoin Self-Sovereignty Using SeedSigner

2 years ago

Why Bitcoin Matters In Palestine

Fadi Elsalameen:

At the Bitcoin 2022 Conference, I participated successful the “Bitcoin Is Freedom” treatment sheet highlighting corruption successful my portion of the satellite arsenic the biggest force of economical state and prosperity. I laid retired my reasons for wherefore Bitcoin is our champion accidental for a amended aboriginal for Palestinians.

Palestinians are denied fiscal freedom. Wire transfers are blocked if you are a professional of the corrupt authorities oregon if you don’t wage a bribe to the Palestinian Monetary Authority. I recovered my passport, my slope connection and different idiosyncratic details connected the beforehand leafage of a paper owned by the violent enactment Hezbollah. The smear nonfiction was a “hit job” by Mahmoud Abbas (president of the Palestinian National Authority), his quality agencies and the Bank of Palestine itself successful retaliation for my anti-corruption enactment against the Palestinian Authority.

Palestine exists nether a repressive economical argumentation decided wholly by Israel. Palestine doesn’t person a cardinal slope and has nary power implicit monetary policy. According to outdated agreements similar the Paris Accords, Palestinians indispensable usage the Israeli shekel arsenic their currency. It is nary astonishment that 72% of planetary assistance to the Palestinians ends up successful the Israeli economy. The panel’s moderator, Alex Gladstein, main strategy serviceman of the Human Rights Foundation, noted, “Just ideate the intelligence effect of having to usage your occupier’s currency. There’s thing profoundly distressing astir that.”

Bitcoin provides an flight from this corruption and fiscal repression. Gladstein highlighted the benefits of adopting bitcoin successful his publication “Check Your Financial Privilege.” He points retired that 70% of Palestinians are connected to the net and could execute fiscal independency by adopting bitcoin arsenic their preferred mean of exchange.

As Gladstein writes successful “Can Bitcoin Be Palestine’s Currency Of Freedom?”:

“In Gaza, Uqab told me, determination is nary Venmo, nary PayPal and nary casual mode to transact with the extracurricular world. The fiscal infrastructure is collapsing conscionable arsenic severely arsenic the carnal and societal infrastructure. But today, helium tin bash with Bitcoin what was intolerable before: nonstop and person wealth to and from household abroad, quickly, directly, with hardly immoderate fees.”

Bitcoin provides economical state and anticipation to not lone Palestine; Gladstein has written extensively connected Bitcoin successful Afghanistan arsenic good arsenic connected Bitcoin arsenic a solution for African nations suffering nether French monetary colonialism.

In bid for Bitcoin to bring astir a brighter aboriginal for these places that truthful desperately request it, Palestinians, Afghans, Africans — radical passim the satellite — volition request affordable entree to the tools indispensable to securely instrumentality power of their ain wealth done bitcoin.

This is wherefore I’m truthful excited to present you to my friends moving connected the SeedSigner open-source project: “SeedSigner” (the pseudonymous creator of the project) and Keith Mukai (lead developer).

Bitcoin Self-Custody Options, Struggles

The value of being capable to “be your ain bank” done Bitcoin is hard for america to truly admit present successful the U.S. But arsenic Elsalameen lays retired above, this economical self-sovereignty is simply a desperately needed solution for truthful galore repressed oregon neglected parts of the world. But bitcoin self-custody tin beryllium analyzable and bewildering, with a wide array of options and often risky trade-offs. We volition rapidly research the superior bitcoin self-custody options disposable and explicate wherefore the SeedSigner task is peculiarly good suited to code people’s needs successful Palestine and passim the world.

“Hot” Wallets May Cause Burns

The simplest enactment for beginners is to make a caller “hot” wallet connected a smartphone utilizing an open-source app similar BlueWallet. You tin determination your funds disconnected of a custodial speech into this caller wallet that lone you control. More applicable to Palestine, household from overseas could nonstop bitcoin straight to your wallet with nary authorities intermediaries, nary gatekeepers demanding kickbacks. Bitcoin is wholly permissionless. You could besides usage your wallet to usage bitcoin arsenic a mean of speech to bargain oregon merchantability products oregon services, again with nary limitations oregon restrictions.

How an open-source Bitcoin signing instrumentality tin alteration lives. SeedSigner provides an alternate for radical to usage bitcoin successful economically oppressed countries.

But this benignant of wallet is considered “hot” due to the fact that the “secret” that controls your bitcoin — your wallet’s unsocial backstage cardinal — is stored successful the wallet bundle itself which is connected a instrumentality that’s connected to the internet. This unluckily puts your backstage cardinal astatine changeless hazard of being extracted by hackers, should they find an exploit.

Your backstage cardinal secures your bitcoin; if anyone other gets it, they tin bargain each of your funds. Similarly, if idiosyncratic gets entree to your telephone and opens the wallet software, the backstage cardinal and each your bitcoin are determination for the taking.

Hot wallets are casual and convenient, but should lone beryllium utilized for “walking around” money; if you wouldn’t consciousness comfy with, say, $2,000 currency successful your pocket, you shouldn’t store that overmuch connected a blistery wallet, either.

Enter: Hardware Wallets

For greater security, it would beryllium perfect to support it casual to person bitcoin astatine immoderate time, but person much extortion astir the quality to walk your bitcoin. A “watch-only” wallet contains lone capable accusation to person funds (“receive-only” would’ve been a amended name!), but it doesn’t person the backstage cardinal and truthful it cannot walk your bitcoin.

Instead, successful specified setups your backstage cardinal is safely stored elsewhere, wrong a abstracted custom-engineered instrumentality referred to arsenic a hardware wallet (a regrettably confusing name; “keystore” oregon “secrets vault” would’ve been better). This instrumentality is specifically designed to withstand attempts to extract the backstage cardinal from wrong it.

Some hardware wallets plug into internet-connected devices, which, yes, re-introduces immoderate moderate, but not unreasonable risk. Others support a implicit “air gap” wherever they are ne'er physically connected to immoderate different instrumentality successful bid to supply other assurances that your backstage cardinal cannot beryllium transmitted. Regardless of the plan philosophy, utilizing a hardware wallet to abstracted your backstage cardinal from a “hot” wallet is fittingly called “cold storage.”

As agelong arsenic you support your hardware wallet secure, nary 1 other tin determination your bitcoin.

There’s a full manufacture of manufacturers producing assorted hardware wallets for the retail market, specified arsenic Coldcard, Trezor, BitBox02, Keystone, Passport, etc.

So Hardware Wallets For All?

But there’s a “but” here. The astir fashionable hardware wallets scope from $60 to $140 with immoderate options adjacent reaching $300. For bitcoin savers successful places similar the U.S., a hardware wallet is simply a humble outlay to unafraid your stack erstwhile it has grown beyond that “walking around” level of value.

Unfortunately successful places similar Palestine, buying and taking transportation of a hardware wallet from a retail vendor tin beryllium hard (remember those intrusive gatekeepers), excessively costly (over-regulation, bribes) oregon tin adjacent beryllium outright unsafe successful galore places successful the satellite that are hostile to bitcoin and fiscal self-sovereignty.

Even if these costs and complications tin beryllium overcome, hardware wallets are meant to support a azygous backstage key. Person X whitethorn beryllium capable to get a hardware wallet and acceptable up their ain acold storage, but Persons Y and Z are inactive near looking for their ain solution. It is technically imaginable to stock a hardware wallet with others but, successful practice, it’s highly cumbersome and creates further information and much superior operational risks.

Ultimate Self-Sovereignty: Multisig

The astir precocious signifier of bitcoin self-custody is simply a wallet that is secured by a postulation of backstage keys alternatively of conscionable one. Such wallets necessitate aggregate cryptographic signatures to authorize a spending transaction, frankincense the communal shorthand name: “multisig.” A emblematic multisig is simply a “2-of-3” wherever 3 backstage keys are utilized to make the multisig wallet but immoderate 2 of them tin walk the funds. This allows for amended redundancy (you tin suffer 1 backstage key, but inactive retrieve your funds) and amended information (thieves request to bargain much secrets to succeed).

Multisig is considered the best, safest way to store your bitcoin.

And, of course, each cardinal that participates successful your multisig should ideally beryllium “cold” (secured and kept abstracted from immoderate internet-connected device) successful its ain hardware wallet.

Multisig For Me But Not For Thee

Realistically, this renders existent multisig acold retention astir intolerable for the immense bulk of radical successful the world; it’s rather hard and costly for Palestinians to get a azygous hardware wallet, fto unsocial 3 of them. Now, sure, different schemes beryllium wherever a azygous hardware wallet mightiness beryllium paired with a fewer “hot” keys (some of the backstage keys are somewhat astatine hazard connected an internet-connected device) to signifier a “not-quite-cold” oregon “luke-warm” multisig wallet. You could adjacent bash a 100% “hot” multisig statement with nary hardware wallet astatine all. There are besides third-party collaborative custody services wherever you spot them with 1 of the backstage keys (though these services are presently constricted to mostly conscionable U.S. customers). All of these compromise schemes evidently see immoderate unfortunate information trade-offs.

So bitcoin savers successful Palestine and elsewhere are mostly relegated to being second-class bitcoin users due to the fact that they conscionable aren’t capable to instrumentality vantage of the champion self-custody approaches available.

We tin bash better.

SeedSigner Fixes This

SeedSigner is simply a wholly open-source Bitcoin hardware wallet task that is built astir an incredibly counter-intuitive approach: it doesn’t retrieve your backstage key. When it’s turned off, its representation is wholly wiped. Nothing is written to immoderate benignant of persistent storage. When it’s turned backmost on, it’s a cleanable slate, arsenic if it had ne'er been utilized before.

As you’ll see, this “stateless” twist makes each the difference.

Quickly: The Nuts & Bolts

The SeedSigner task launched arsenic a DIY (do-it-yourself) impervious of conception successful aboriginal 2021. It tin beryllium built from commonly disposable off-the-shelf components, centered astir the ultra low-cost Raspberry Pi Zero 1.3. This hardware has nary wireless information connectivity — nary WiFi, nary Bluetooth — and is powered via an outer artillery oregon USB partition plug. Once the components are assembled, the idiosyncratic conscionable has to download the free, open-source software and constitute it to the device’s SD card. A increasing assortment of open-source 3D-printable enclosure designs are freely disposable to download, though a lawsuit isn’t adjacent necessary.

One SeedSigner, Infinite Keys

Let’s instrumentality to SeedSigner’s halfway concept: What bully is simply a hardware wallet that doesn’t retrieve your backstage cardinal (aka “seed”)?

You’ll person to re-enter your effect each clip you request to usage it. This sounds terrible, of course! Entering your 12- oregon 24-word mnemonic backup operation into a tiny instrumentality that doesn’t person a keyboard is nary fun.

However, we’ve created a unsocial mode to instantly load your seed: person it into a QR codification that the onboard camera tin read. For assorted information reasons, the lone harmless mode to make this “SeedQR” is to transcribe it by hand! Yes, this sounds insane astatine archetypal but the guided idiosyncratic interface built into SeedSigner makes it casual capable that Mukai’s young nieces could bash it connected their own.

After you scan your SeedQR into SeedSigner, the instrumentality present has your backstage cardinal successful memory. At this constituent it tin enactment conscionable similar immoderate different hardware wallet. It tin motion transactions with your backstage key, initialize your wallet software, enactment successful multisig setups, etc.

But SeedSigner tin besides beryllium utilized to securely make caller backstage keys. You tin marque two, three, adjacent 100 caller seeds. And of people you tin marque a SeedQR for each caller cardinal for instant loading.

Can you spot it now?! Your SeedSigner tin work successful immoderate backstage key, usage it to motion a transaction, blank itself and past work successful a wholly antithetic effect and motion a wholly antithetic transaction. This is simply a extremist departure from emblematic hardware wallets which are built to enactment with conscionable 1 seed.

So SeedSigner isn’t conscionable different hardware wallet; it’s similar having an infinite fig of accepted hardware wallets!

This means that adjacent bitcoin savers of humble means could instantly person entree to the first-class information of existent multisig acold storage. Palestinians don’t request to flooded the outgo and trouble of acquiring aggregate hardware wallets. They tin conscionable make the caller seeds they request and afloat negociate their multisig — oregon adjacent aggregate multisigs! — with 1 SeedSigner.

Real-World Trust Plus Trustless Bitcoin

The implications of SeedSigner’s stateless attack are mind-boggling. It’s truthful antithetic that we don’t adjacent similar to telephone SeedSigner a hardware wallet. Instead we similar “signing device,” akin to however a pen is simply a signing instrumentality for a insubstantial contract. No 1 cares however galore antithetic contracts the pen is utilized to motion — oregon however galore antithetic radical motion with it.

This leads america to the adjacent realization: a azygous SeedSigner could adjacent beryllium shared wrong adjacent trusted idiosyncratic networks: family, friends, neighbors … “Can I get your pen?” Sure.

Now the analogy isn’t perfect; sharing a Bitcoin signing instrumentality does present sizeable threats. If idiosyncratic were to tamper with the instrumentality oregon load malicious code, each idiosyncratic of that SeedSigner would beryllium astatine risk. So if a SeedSigner is going to beryllium shared astatine all, it should lone beryllium wrong your astir trusted circles.

But you tin spot however this could beryllium a monolithic Bitcoin force-multiplier for areas similar Palestine!

Ubiquitous Smart Phones, Meet Air-Gapped Signer

A SeedSigner is astir wholly isolated from the extracurricular world; it has nary onboard WiFi oregon Bluetooth capabilities and it should ne'er beryllium wired straight to a computer. SeedSigner tin lone pass via its integrated show and onboard camera. This isolation is called an “air gap” and offers important information (anti-hacker) assurances compared to overmuch riskier internet-connected devices.

SeedSigner reads specialized QR codes from a wide assortment of Bitcoin wallet bundle utilizing its onboard camera. The last signed transactions are conveyed backmost to the wallet bundle by displaying corresponding QR codes connected the SeedSigner display.

This highly constricted signifier of information speech keeps your backstage cardinal “cold” — safely isolated successful the air-gapped SeedSigner — portion inactive being capable to negociate your bitcoin funds utilizing your internet-connected wallet software.

This innovative means of connection has a immense further advantage: it makes SeedSigner compatible "out of the box" with immoderate smartphone that has a camera. No USB adapters oregon different accessories required. And according to the World Bank, 83-90% of Palestinians person a mobile phone, astir of which volition beryllium of the “smartphone” assortment astatine this point.

A “hot” wallet connected your telephone is not a unafraid mode to store your wealth. But a SeedSigner positive a smartphone provides a powerful, mobile-friendly mode to bash Bitcoin acold retention the close mode successful immoderate country of the satellite that is seeing smartphone adoption.

See, SeedSigner Fixes This!

SeedSigner's unsocial attack arsenic a stateless, air-gapped signing instrumentality is simply a peculiarly compelling instrumentality for bitcoin savers passim the world. Retail hardware wallets connection a antithetic acceptable of information assurances but they are locked to 1 device, 1 backstage key. That simply cannot standard to enactment each the struggling communities astir the satellite wherever Bitcoin is needed the most.

One SeedSigner tin works innumerous seeds of self-sovereignty crossed an full ellipse of real-world trust. People everyplace tin beryllium enabled to yet power their ain wealth — escaped of fiscal repression, corruption, gatekeepers — and beryllium their ain bank.

This is bully for humanity, and bully for Bitcoin!

Call To Action

As always, sizeable challenges remain. The Raspberry Pi Zero 1.3 that is the bosom of the SeedSigner DIY physique is present rather hard for individuals to find and is wholly intolerable to root astatine scale. We’re going to person to grow enactment to alternate hardware options, including a beardown anticipation that we’ll request to plan and manufacture our ain customized hardware. Our tiny open-source bundle task can’t bash that connected our own.

Fadi Elsalameen:

As I said astatine the Bitcoin 2022 Conference, “If you are a dreamer without illusions, Bitcoin is your solution.”

Let’s marque this solution happen. If you’re inspired by what Bitcoin and SeedSigner could mean for Palestine and beyond, scope retired to america to assistance america recognize this vision. We are inactive figuring retired however to champion determination forward, but we cognize that we volition request radical with a wide assortment of accomplishment sets, manufacture contacts, concern capital, translators and truthful overmuch more.

Find america connected Twitter:

@Elsalameen

@SeedSigner

@KeithMukai

Learn much at: seedsigner.com

This is simply a impermanent station by Fadi Elsalameen, SeedSigner and Keith Mukai. Opinions expressed are wholly their ain and bash not needfully bespeak those of BTC Inc. oregon Bitcoin Magazine.

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