The housings we sent off in Update 12 have come back, and the first one out of the box is orange. After the shape work in Update 09, this is the first version that looks less like a prototype and more like something you would put in a pocket.
A hardware wallet is an object you have to live with. It sits in a drawer for years, comes out a few times, and goes back. Everything on the outside — the size, the finish, the colour, whether it looks like it matters — quietly shapes how its owner actually treats it, and the outside is the only part most people will ever judge.
Why not black
Almost every hardware wallet on the market is black, dark grey or brushed aluminium. That is a reasonable default and we understand the reasoning — it reads as serious. But it also means a small dark rectangle in a drawer full of small dark rectangles, and it means every one of these devices looks like every other one. We wanted to see what the opposite looked like before we settled. Bright orange is easy to find, easy to tell apart, and pleasant to pick up — and the third of those matters more than it sounds, because a device you do not mind handling is a device you are more likely to set up properly.
The screws are meant to be seen
Ten blue anodised hex screws hold the housing together, and they sit on the front where you can see them. That is not decoration. Most consumer hardware is glued, ultrasonically welded or snapped shut, which makes it effectively impossible to open without breaking. This one you can open with a hex key. Our firmware is published, our schematic is published, and it would be inconsistent to then seal the object so nobody can look inside it. Visible fasteners are the physical version of the same argument.
What we still do not know
Plenty. How the finish holds up to a few years in a pocket, whether the colour fades in direct sun — the photo above was taken in it — and how the material scratches. Three housings went out for printing and only one of them is in this picture; we have not decided which we are keeping. Colour is also not free: a coloured part is one more thing that has to come out consistent from batch to batch, and consistency is easier with black.
Why the outside gets this much attention
Because the case is the part that decides whether the device gets stored properly, and storage is where most self-custody actually fails. Not cryptography, not firmware — someone leaves the wallet plugged into a laptop because putting it away is a small nuisance. An object that is easy to identify, comfortable to hold and clearly openable is one that people keep sensibly and repair rather than replace. That is worth spending a few prototype rounds on.
There will be more of these, in the other two materials, and probably in other colours before we choose. If you have a strong opinion about what a Bitcoin hardware wallet should look like, now is the useful time to say so — we will have the prototype at Bitcoin Thailand Conference 2026.