In a recent CoinDesk exclusive, Nodl co-founder Michel Luczak announced a partnership with Samourai, aiming to bring increased privacy and security to users who operate with Samourai’s mobile wallet. This new hardware device will serve as a sync feed for the mobile wallet, thus eliminating the need to store data on Samourai’s servers.
Hardware Wallet With Bitcoin Lightning Node and Coin Mixing
One of the main critiques towards Samourai and its mobile wallet application is the fact that data is stored remotely, on the project’s private servers. As such, its centralized nature leaves it vulnerable to attacks and poses the question of whether people’s data is secured and accessible only by each individual that stores it.
To levy these concerns, Nodl’s new hardware wallet will serve the function of a “full, self-validating, bitcoin and lightning node”. How exactly would the process work you might ask? At this point in time, it remains to be seen as no information was presented. I can, however, add that Samourai users will also have access to a coin mixing feature called Whirlpool. It will collect transactions across from multiple wallets and issue them after mixing, thus obfuscating the exact source.
On top of that, you will have the option to upgrade your Nodl device to interface with Samourai’s Dojo software and also use all previously mentioned functions on your desktop wallet as well.
Who are Samourai and Nodl?
The Samourai wallet has been a staple choice for the past few years when looking for a Bitcoin wallet. While it prides itself with plenty of security features, some of which include VPN access and TOR, most users still use the mobile hot wallet version. As a general rule of thumb, I wouldn’t recommend keeping large amounts stored on a mobile wallet. Having said that, I’m happy to see the devs have reached out to Nodl in an aim to provide an improved consumer experience and higher levels of security.
Nodl, on the other hand, is a pretty fresh project, established by two enthusiasts with different origin stories. One of them is an infrastructure and hardware engineer while the other is a financial market professional. I can see how both of them would have joined forces and come up with a device that would help users achieve financial independence. While still in the early stages, close to releasing their first product, Nodl promises to deliver an all-in-one BTC solution: Full Bitcoin node, Lightning network access point and at the same time – offline storage of your keys.