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This release comes with two exciting technical features and other improvements:
Silent Payments
We’re excited to announce that the BitBox02 is now the first hardware wallet to support sending to silent payment addresses! A silent payment address is a form of bitcoin address that can be used an arbitrary amount of times, without having to manually regenerate addresses, while still providing the same privacy benefits.
From now on, users can simply enter a silent payment address when preparing a new transaction in the BitBoxApp and verify the details on their BitBox02.
While this is a very familiar and straightforward process for the user, there is a lot going on under the hood to ensure that the transaction is created securely. Due to the nature of how silent payments work, the hardware wallet plays a much more involved role in creating the transaction.
This introduces new risks, which we mitigate by enabling the BitBoxApp to independently verify a silent payment was created correctly by the BitBox02. Similar to the anti-klepto protocol, this ensures the hardware wallet cannot misbehave, making sending to a silent payment address just as secure as any other transaction. For more technical details, check out our article on the topic.
With this update, we hope to accelerate the adoption of silent payments and contribute to a future where Bitcoin transactions are more private by default. Without broad sending support, there would be little incentive to support receiving silent payments, which still remains a challenge due to the high computational burden of scanning for incoming payments. If you want to test it out, Cake wallet has support for receiving silent payments.
MiniTapscript
What do we call Miniscript on Taproot? That’s right, MiniTapscript! The firmware of the BitBox02 is taking another step forward by combining the benefits of Taproot transactions with the advanced capabilities enabled by Miniscript.
Miniscript is a language for Bitcoin scripting, simplifying the creation and verifiability of more complex spending conditions. Together with advanced software such as Liana wallet, it equips users with all the tools to fine-tune their wallet setup, e.g. by combining different keys and time locks with each other for inheritance planning.
Together with Tapscript, the Taproot scripting language, MiniTapscript brings further benefits to the table: Thanks to how Taproot transactions work, it’s not necessary to reveal the entire script in the transaction anymore, but instead only the “path” that is actually used to spend the coins. Using the default key (also known as keypath spending), the transaction will look like any other Taproot transaction. For complex wallet setups created with MiniTapscript, this helps to reduce transaction size and thus fees and improve user privacy. You might have heard of these benefits when talking about Taproot transactions in general.
MiniTapscript is now available in firmware version 9.21.0 and can be used together with wallets such as Liana, once they enable the BitBox02 to make use of MiniTapscript in a software update, which is due to release in just a few weeks.
If you want to learn more about Miniscript and why it can be such a powerful tool for the future of self custody, check out our in-depth article series on Miniscript.
Miscellaneous improvements
This release also comes with a few more improvements and bug fixes:
- The BitBox02 now supports Cardano vote delegations.
- Added support for regtest to the BitBox02 firmware.
- Fixed an issue on macOS where longer interactions with the device could get interrupted.
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Don’t own a BitBox yet?
Keeping your crypto secure doesn't have to be hard. The BitBox02 hardware wallet stores the private keys for your cryptocurrencies offline. So you can manage your coins safely.
The BitBox02 also comes in a Bitcoin-only version, featuring a radically focused firmware: less code means less attack surface, which further improves your security when only storing Bitcoin.
Shift Crypto is a privately-held company based in Zurich, Switzerland. Our team of Bitcoin contributors, crypto experts, and security engineers builds products that enable customers to enjoy a stress-free journey from novice to mastery level of cryptocurrency management. The BitBox02, our second generation hardware wallet, lets users store, protect, and transact Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with ease - along with its software companion, the BitBoxApp.
Image credit: Samuel Ferrara