Austrian State Printing House Launches Hardware Crypto Wallet

The Austrian State Printing House (OeSD) Group through its subsidiary, YOUNIQX Identity AG has launched a hardware crypto wallet.

According to a press release today, the wallet dubbed “Chainlock” is a highly secure and forgery-proof cold storage solution that is designed to mitigate cryptocurrency theft.

Chainlock is said to enable secure offline storage of digital currencies such as bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Additionally, users will only know their cryptographic key when necessary. 

“So-called hot wallets are a great security risk: the private key used for such cryptocurrency accounts is stored at exchanges or connected to the internet in another way,” the report reads.

The development reportedly aims at addressing the issues associated with hot wallets. It was met with enthusiasm at the relevant trading platforms and will feature support STOs pursuing a retail strategy.

The 100% offline wallet will rule out unauthorized access to the private key via the internet, NFC, WiFi, CryptoLocker, private-key scammers; hence, nobody but the owner can use the private key. 

Also, the generation procedure, for which a patent application was filed, ensures the wallet is in a high-security zone. Nobody can view the key pair – not even YOUNIQX staff. The private key’s owner will as well benefit from coins created due to forks.

The development is a step further by the Austrian printing House (OeSD) Group, to be defined as a high-security company with a focus on secure identities. Being a full-service provider of ID and e-government solutions, OeSD offers highly secured Austrian passport and personalization solutions for identity documents.

In March, leading hardware crypto wallet producer, Ledger, received a First Level Security Certificate (CPSN) for its Ledger Nano S product from the National Cybersecurity Agency of France (ANSSI).

The approval came after the ANSSI had conducted a series of tests on the Ledger Nano S, alongside 260 products. These tests were directed towards breaking the products’ security protocols.