US Startup Introduced New Crypto Hardware Wallet For Cell Phones

VaultTel is a U.S.-based startup which has introduced a tiny cryptocurrency hardware wallet designed to fit in the SIM card tray of a mobile phone. The company revealed the news on Wednesday, March 6.

According to the press release, the wallet solution combines an app and hardware chip dubbed as the VaultTel Intellichip card to store cryptocurrency private keys on mobile phones by using biometric authentication and “military grade” encryption standard (Advanced Encryption Standard 512) in order to keep the funds safe. The firm added:
“More than that, no spy screen recorder or Trojan can record what is happening on your hardware wallet, as it’s a not using your laptop or system resources.”
The card can be used with a dongle accessory on iPhones or can be placed in the SIM card slot of dual-SIM Android mobile phones, confirmed by the startup VaultTel.

The crypto storage solution will be sold in the United States and will “immediately expand” to European countries via VaultTel’s United Kingdom subsidiary. Using ‘geolock’ feature of the waller, the users can lock the VaultTel Card to a single geographical location and a particular device. The official website of the firm indicates that the cryptocurrency hardware wallet is available for pre-order with two options which are as follows:
an Android package at a cost of £75 ($98)
iOS package at £100 ($131)

The startup has implemented the latest bitcoin standards in the product including Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 39 for mnemonic seeds and BIP44, which enables for HD (hierarchical deterministic) wallets. The wallets can be backed up on other VaultTel cards by the users.

The South Korean tech giant, Samsung’s upcoming flagship device, the Galaxy S10 is also featuring a hardware enclave within the phone which aims to protect wallets on the device from hacking. On the other hand, the phone launched by Sirin Labs’ also features a built-in hardware wallet. In January 2019, Ledger, the cryptocurrency hardware wallet firm launched its new Bluetooth-based wallet dubbed as Ledger Nano X which has the capacity to store 100 different crypto assets. The company released Ledger Live which is a mobile app for Android and iOS that allows Nano X wallets owners to use their wallet without the need for a cable via their mobile device and a Bluetooth connection, later that month.