The developers of the Trezor hardware wallet recalled its advantages against hacking attempts against the backdrop of plans by the US authorities to create a tool to bypass security and gain access to cryptoassets.
1/8 Efforts to oppress citizens and erode individuals’ rights to privacy, as we see here, are a great validator of Trezor’s open-source philosophy. Since the beginning, we have designed Trezor (both in hardware and software) to be as open as possible. https://t.co/Ith6lAbMIY
– Vault (@Trezor) April 29, 2021
On April 29, Vice announced that the IRS’s digital forensics division has tendered to create a one-stop solution to hack hardware wallets that may be of interest to investigations.
Currently, experts are not able to effectively “investigate the movement of currencies”, as well as “confiscate millions and billions of dollars,” the department said in the document.
Security expert Andrew Tierney in a commentary to the publication questioned the possibility of implementing the IRS plans.
“Hardware wallets are getting pretty secure now. It may be possible to find vulnerabilities in some of them, but it will be very difficult to find ready-made exploits. Another problem is the lack of funds in the wallet as such. There are just keys. The owner can move the coins if he finds out that access to the wallet could have been compromised, ”he explained.
Nicholas Weaver, a senior fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, called the initiative “kink.” According to him, it is enough to put the owner of the wallet before a choice: either a password or a prison term.
Hardware wallet maker Trezor has stated that it follows the philosophy of open source software development. According to the developers, this excludes the possibility of cooperation with the authorities to add a secret hardware or software backdoor.
“Thousands of experts follow our every step, checking every change in the code. This acts as a perfect fail-safe mechanism. Nobody will use the compromised version, ”he explained.
Trezor stated that there is no 100% guarantee against hacking. They provided for the BIP39 standard, with which the user can restore the wallet.
6/8 Even if a three-letter agency gets their hands on your device and extracts the passphrase-encrypted secret from it, they still cannot seize your coins unless you give them the corresponding passphrase.
– Vault (@Trezor) April 29, 2021
Experts emphasized that there can be many mnemonic phrases that prevent access to coins. Trezor signed the so-called “canary certificate”. In it, they reported that they did not cooperate with anyone regarding software and did not implement backdoors.
Earlier, the IRS sent letters to cryptocurrency holders demanding to pay off large debts to the state.
In March 2021, the service launched Operation Hidden Treasure to find residents hiding their income from cryptocurrency transactions.
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