Remember how you used to hide your key beneath a rock in your front yard (maybe you still do it, but don’t tell us)? Soon, you’ll be able to store your cryptocurrency within a bizarrely formed artificial rock.
Jesse Dorogusker, the hardware leader of Block (the business formerly known as Square), tweeted a photo of five rock-like hexagonal gadgets on Wednesday, which are certainly not ordinary rocks. They have USB ports and what appear to be fingerprint readers on the top, but no visible display.
Block CEO Jack Dorsey shared the tweet with the description “Rockey.”
rockey https://t.co/emCaqMybep
— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 6, 2022
As mysterious as these posts are, it’s not difficult to deduce that this “Rockey” contraption is a hardware bitcoin wallet Block that has been developing for some time. Users will be able to “safely own and manage their bitcoin” using a mobile app, as well as a hardware wallet that “adds additional layers of security while moving money and works as a self-serve recovery kit when a customer loses their mobile wallet,” according to the business.
However, the gadgets in Dorogusker’s shot aren’t finished products. According to Lindsey Grossman, head of product, marketing, and partnerships for Block’s wallet, these devices are “some prototypes we’re working with for the hardware component of the wallet, which will also contain a mobile app and a set of self-serve recovery tools.” There’s no information on when these devices will be available for purchase, or how far they’ve progressed from their current state.
Hardware cryptocurrency wallets are a thing, and they come in various shapes and sizes, with Trezor and Ledger being some of the most popular. These wallets usually support a variety of cryptocurrencies and have a display, but Block’s prototypes appear to be much simpler and focused just on Bitcoin.