It wasn’t long ago that a wave of contagion was spreading so violently through the cryptocurrency industry that it felt like nowhere was safe. As Terra, a former top 10 coin, entered a death spiral, many companies were caught up in the carnage. Prominent among them were so-called cryptocurrency lenders, some of which advertised themselves as banks but were actually closer to aggressive hedge funds. BlockFi had big problems. Voyager Digital has filed for bankruptcy, with its share price plummeting 99.8% so far this year. Celsius was perhaps the most famous, closing withdrawals one night, before declaring bankruptcy against claims that the founders had withdrawn first. It all comes back to one piece of advice: if you don’t want to take on a risk you can’t quantify, chasing income through these platforms is not the way to go. If there’s one thing that’s true in cryptography, it’s that cold storage is the safest place to be. Or, as the repeated (yet true) saying goes, “it’s not your keys, it’s not your coins”.
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CoolWallet
I tried CoolWallet Pro, the latest hardware wallet I wrote a review about. The first thing that struck me was the old-school style. It looks like some kind of late 90s credit card. It won’t necessarily win a beauty contest, but it’s portable, lightweight, and easy to stash somewhere safe. Compared to a lot of bulkier wallets with screens these days, I kind of like it. The card comes with a physical button, although it’s quite subtle and you’d barely notice it if you weren’t looking – it’s almost flat against the card. This is the only button on the card, and once you pair it with your phone via Bluetooth (a very simple process I must say), all instructions and directives are carried out in the app. Is easy. The card also has a small screen, about 2 cm wide and 1 cm high, with which it provides basic numbers to the user. It’s not the highest tech in the world; it feels like typing words on a calculator screen for my friends in an elementary school math class, but hey – it gets the job done.
Settings
And so, I pair and follow the instructions in the app. And the first, of course, is the seed phrase configuration. And as it tends to be, it’s a bit of a painful process. I get 12 numbers of 5 digits each, which I record one by one on a piece of paper, clicking the card button to move on to the next one each time. This is a bit of a daunting process, though it’s more of a lamentation of the initial sentence process in general than anything to do with this wallet. I feel like it is inevitable that cryptocurrencies will grow and we will look back on this seed phrase and see it as something laughable, but it is now our best security option. Also, it takes about two minutes with CoolWallet, so I was even more excited. Overall, the setup process is very easy. Sure, the screen is a little fidgety and can be hard to read, but that’s okay. The only real complaint I have regarding the hardware is the charger. It’s a micro-USB, something I thought was doomed to the past at this point, worthy of being tossed into a drawer with DVDs, cassettes and wired headphones. It comes with a cable, which is nice and makes it easy to connect via USB to an outlet. But personally, I don’t like having to keep an extra cable just for this device – all my other devices (laptop, phone, speaker, headphones) are USB-C, just like the hardware wallets I currently use . So for me that would be a dealbreaker. Although I know you guys at Apple like to keep their own cables for everything, so maybe I’m exaggerating.
Connectivity and features
Now that I’ve set it up, CoolWallet is awesome. The app has a great interface and is intuitive and smooth. The features are great. It’s easy to send and receive cryptocurrencies, what do you know – is that all that matters?
There are also staking options that some customers will no doubt like. The range of wallets is good; It has everything you would really like to have. ERC-20, BEP-20 and many others. Bluetooth is easy to work with. Once set up, it’s as easy to use as any hardware wallet. But connectivity to other platforms is a step above. I can connect to OpenSea if I want and send NFTs as much as I want. I can fire my ETH on Lido too. Metamask is another option, as is connecting to Binance DEX. And there’s so much more. It seems like the range of features, options and connectivity routes here is as good as it gets. It’s impressive – a selection of which you can see in my screenshot below:
The issue of price is always important. It retails at $149, which is roughly in line with most wallets on the market. Sounds reasonable. I think you’re paying for features and connectivity here and not for the hardware, given that there’s no screen and it feels a bit “old fashioned”. But are these concerns really relevant to a hardware wallet you will be keeping?
Conclusion
Everyone has a different opinion on what they want in a wallet. Security is obviously paramount, which most wallets have taken care of – and this one is no exception. The next thing is to provide the range of wallets you want and the features you want. This is where CoolWallet excels as the features will not be outdone. So people also want something that is easy to use. And it’s as easy as it gets once you’re set up. But for me, portability and discretion are huge factors. It looks like a credit card, which means I can put it in my wallet or hide it somewhere safe easily. It’s so easy to store. Some other wallets I’ve used are bulkier, have screens, or feel more tech and advanced. While the last point might seem like a plus, I like that CoolWallet feels so innocuous, looking like an expired credit card or a weird loyalty card for a supermarket or something. If I keep him at home and my house gets robbed, he won’t get robbed unless the thief knows cryptography, so to speak. Finally, I think it’s up there with the best wallets I’ve used. It’s a shame the micro USB charger, but I’m an Android kid and I like having a cable for everything. Overall, if you’re looking to get into cold storage, this is a strong option – the CoolWallet Pro is a great hardware wallet with industry-leading features.