This week: a refined prototype case — smaller, rounder, better in the hand — and the very old idea behind it. A hardware wallet is really just a treasure chest.
The case is the part of a hardware wallet people actually handle. Everything else — the microcontroller, the firmware, the signing code — is invisible to the person holding it, so the enclosure ends up carrying the whole impression of whether the device is something to look after.
The inspiration: a treasure chest
For centuries, people kept what mattered most in a locked chest — something solid you could hold, that opened only for the person with the key. Bitcoin is treasure with no physical form; a hardware wallet gives it one. That's the feeling we want PHYLAX to have: a small, sturdy strongbox for your keys, that answers to you and no one else.
The updated case
Back in Update 03 we held the first case and admitted it was too big. Since then we've shrunk it and rounded it off. The new prototype is more compact, the corners are softened, and it settles into your palm instead of filling it. It feels less like lab equipment and more like an object you'd actually want to carry — closer to that treasure-chest weight and warmth.
Still guarding one thing
Like a good chest, it does one job and does it well: keep your Bitcoin keys safe, and open only for you. No radios, no altcoins, no black-box chips — just a lock, a screen, two buttons, and twenty-four words that are yours alone.
Why the enclosure is part of the security model
A hardware wallet only protects Bitcoin that is on it, and it only stays protected if the owner keeps storing it properly for years. That makes the case quietly load-bearing: something that feels solid and finished gets put away in a safe, and something that feels like a prototype gets left in a drawer with the cables. The treasure-chest idea is a design brief rather than a metaphor — the object should look like it holds something, because the behaviour we need from the owner is the behaviour people already have around things that obviously matter.
We'll keep refining the shell until it's something you'd be proud to set on a shelf. If you'd like to hold it, we'll have the prototype at Bitcoin Thailand Conference 2026.