NGrave Zero is a new hardware wallet developed by NGrave, a blockchain technology company that was founded back in 2018. Their target is to develop and bring the most secure hardware wallet to the masses, and from what i’ve seen so far, we’re gonna get just that. This isn’t the first air-gapped device, but NGrave added many unique features making this suitable even for the most security paranoid people out there.
For starters, this is the first EAL 7 hardware wallet. This means that the device has been built and tested following strictly security guidelines. Secondly and most important for me, is the randomness of the mnemonic seed:
Although all other HD wallets are simply giving you some words which you will have to trust and use as your mnemonic seed, NGrave Zero generates a mnemonic seed and fusions the end result based on your fingerprint and the light around you (yes, there is a light sensor and a fingerprint sensor in the beautiful touch screen). And not only that, but you also get to play with the final mnemonic key result, by rearranging the words as you please.
The mnemonic seed isn’t in the classic words form but instead, you’re getting 64 digits based in the hexadecimal system (0 through 9 and A through F). You’ll be able to convert it to a normal mnemonic seed, but the hex format was ideal for the Graphene, NGraves unique backup option made from stainless steel, able to resist against rain, shock, fire etc. The Graphene consists of two plates (and a pen) and they can only serve their purpose if you have them both, one on top of the other: the one plate is completely empty while the other has the hexadecimal system uniquely mixed for each buyer. Put the hex plate on top of the empty one, and start punching through the holes with your pen leaving marks on the bottom empty plate. You can then put the hexadecimal plate and the empty plate in two different locations. Since the hexadecimal plate is unique for each buyer, and the lower plate have spots based on the unique plate, no one will be able to get your mnemonic by just having one of these. If you ever lose the hexadecimal plate, the company will have a backup of your unique order, so you can reorder one.
The hexadecimal system is mixed and you will have to press the pen to each one of the holes that correspond to your hex mnemonic seed so that you leave marks on the bottom plate.
This is an example of how the lower plate will look with all 64 spots that correspond to your mnemonic seed. You wont be able to understand anything, if you don’t have the upper plate with the position of the hexadecimal digits.
NGrave also partnered with Imec for the R&D part, and Cosic which is a big name in computer security and cryptography, with staff that have worked on the AES protocol which is responsible for almost everything digitally secured.
That’s not all though.
The device is made from metal and in such way that is nearly impossible to open it. Trying to remove the screen will break the device and even if somehow someone manages to remove the body, it will be very clear to tell. The device has protection against successful opening, by automatically erasing your keys from it. It even has a special boot zone for upgrading the firmware, and goes back to the normal partition after a restart.
There’s also the Liquid, the official NGrave Zero mobile wallet, responsible for sending and receiving QR Codes to and from the device, and for broadcasting transactions to the blockchain. NGrave said that you’ll be able to use Zero with other wallets and you wont be locked to theirs.
The build quality should be top notch but i can’t say anything about it without having the device in my hands. As for the coins support, on launch it is going to support the following coins:
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Polkadot, NEO, EOS, Stellar, Tron, BNB, Tezos, Digibyte, DASH, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Gold, Aeternity, Dogecoin, Zcash, Bitcoin Diamond, Groestlcoin, Elrond, and all ERC20 tokens.
NGrave is taking security really seriously by developing and bringing an evolutionary hardware wallet. Anyone who is solely trusting hardware wallets for their investment needs, should definitely take a look at it.
I will return with a full review of the device in about 2 months!
White Paper of Ngrave Products
