🧊 Coldcard review: security, features and score
64/100SCORE · CTrustedHardware, keys on device
Grade C, fair
Large Bitcoin holdings where you want fully air gapped signing.
The facts
- DEVELOPER
- Coinkite
- LAUNCHED
- 2018
- TYPE
- Hardware, Bitcoin only
- CUSTODY MODEL
- Hardware, keys on device
- KEY MODEL
- 24 word seed generated on device with dice roll entropy option, duress PINs, brick me PIN
- CHAINS
- Bitcoin only
- PLATFORMS
- Air gapped via microSD, or USB. Works with Sparrow, Electrum, Nunchuk.
- OPEN SOURCE
- Full
- AUDITS
- Open source, secure elements, extensively reviewed
- HARDWARE SUPPORT
- Is the hardware
- SWAP COST
- None. It does nothing but sign Bitcoin transactions.
What it can do
How the score breaks down
Each dimension is explained on the methodology page.
Where it is strong and where it is not
✓ Strengths
- Genuinely air gapped: it never needs to touch a computer
- Duress PIN opens a decoy wallet, brick me PIN destroys the device
- You can add your own dice roll entropy to the seed
- Open source with dual secure elements
✗ Weaknesses
- Bitcoin only
- Steep learning curve
- No app, no swap, no anything else
Incident history
No security breach or significant incident on record.
Air gapped signing via microSD is the reason to own this. Plugging it into a computer defeats most of its advantage.
Reputation and reviews
A reputation score out of 100, kept separate from the feature score above. It reflects what users actually report over time rather than a star rating scraped on one day.
REPUTATION
90/100
The highest security regard of any device here among Bitcoin specialists. Deliberately hostile to casual users, and that is the point.
Check current reviews yourself
Star ratings change constantly, so we link to the sources rather than printing a number that is out of date the day after it is written.
If something goes wrong
COMMON FIXES
Transaction stuck pendingYour transaction has sat as Pending for minutes or hours and nothing is moving.Transaction failed but the gas was still takenThe transaction reverted, you got nothing, and the fee left your wallet anyway.Token is not showing in my walletThe block explorer shows the tokens arrived, but the wallet shows nothing.I sent tokens to the wrong networkYou withdrew to your address but picked the wrong chain, and the balance is not where you expected.
RISK WARNING
Crypto assets are highly volatile and largely unregulated. You can lose everything you put in.
Nothing on this page is financial, investment or tax advice, and nothing here is a recommendation
to buy or sell any asset. Do your own research and never commit money you cannot afford to lose.