Coinkite, a Bitcoin-only hardware wallet manufacturer, recently released MK5, a major quality of life and user experience upgrade to the MK4 Coldcard, building on the strong security foundations established by its predecessor. The MK5 comes in many colors and styles. Today, I’ll be reviewing the Orange and Glow in dark editions, as well as the form factor and user experience upgrades, to answer the question: Are device upgrades worth the money?
Based on known and The trend-setting MK4 security platformwhich brought Two slices of safe items From different manufacturers and MCU for the same device. The MK5 instead focuses on quality of life, improving NFC connectivity, reworking the buttons and plastic body of the hardware wallet, as well as adding a much larger screen, among other new features. This is the first hardware upgrade to the Coinkite MK line since the launch of the MK4 in 2022, incorporating some technologies first debuted by Cold Card S In 2023.
What’s new in MK5 Coldcard?
Significant upgrades to the user experience are immediately visible; The screen, for example, is much larger, perhaps 30% larger. they Advertisement blog It describes it as a “1.54-inch display protected by Gorilla Glass,” which feels sturdier than older models.
The next obvious upgrade is the buttons. Unlike the MK4’s buttons, which are indented, requiring your fingers to go into the socket to get a click, the MK5’s buttons are nearly flush with the device’s body, making them much easier to press. The press feels good, it clicks, giving the user strong tactile feedback. Much more comfortable than the somewhat warm, uncomfortable, and unresponsive touchscreen feel of other hardware wallets.
You’ll also quickly notice the redesigned chassis. The screen section no longer pops up above the keyboard; Instead, it’s a single rectangle with convenient curved edges. It looks more modern and sleeker, while maintaining the cypherpunk transparency that shows off the underlying hardware, a signature design principle of Coinkite products.
The MK5 also comes with a button and a half-cover screen protector that slides and clicks in and out. It is completely removable and fits perfectly on the back of the device, revealing the USB power input at the bottom of the device without issue.
NFC payment transactions
Last but not least, Coinkite doubles down on NFC support with the MK5. NFC antenna, which is short for near field communication, is one of the most popular technical techniques in the Bitcoin industry. From NFC payment and payment cards, such as Lightning Bolt cards with cool designs and laser eyes, or Coinkite’s Tapsigners, to… Tap Cashu to submit features Developed by Kali.
NFC is a powerful alternative to other wireless communication technologies like Bluetooth or Wifi, which some hardware wallet providers have adopted, but it comes with some arguable downsides, especially its range. Unlike alternatives, NFC technology is short-range by design; We’re talking about a range in centimetres, while Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are in tens of metres. So the paranoid threat level that someone with a long-range antenna pointed at your home might pick up a transaction in transit or be able to connect to your device remotely goes away.
There is also no multi-hop communication protocol with NFC; The feature is turned on or off in the phones, the app starts scanning, and transmission can occur. There are no PIN codes, and no sifting through lists of Bluetooth devices. A much simpler user experience in theory. It’s also far superior in terms of user experience to transferring pre-signed transactions via SD card back and forth from laptops or phones. While NFC may technically cross the “airgapped” line in the MK4 and MK5, NFC still has the best qualities of all the wireless connectivity options, and is set to off in the default settings. Similar to the option of connecting the MK5 to a computer via USB to transfer data, the NFC antenna can also be disconnected at the hardware level by scratching a specific wire inside the device.
Coinkite’s NFC Push Tx software is open source and much smaller in lines of code than Bluetooth or Wifi. The complete NFC Push Tx code is open source. the Client web application The protocol aspect has no specific license and is meant to be integrated by any web application. while Hardware side The code is public, but restricted by a non-commercial use license.
MK5 colours
In order to fuel a Bitcoiner’s hunger for collectibles, the MK5 comes in a wide range of cases, such as gold-speckled translucent grey, cool orange, and even glow-in-the-dark! I had to play with the orange and blue glow-in-the-dark version, although I wish I had gotten my hands on the gold version.
However, the designs are beautiful and transparent enough to see the hardware, but colorful enough to be stylish. Here’s what it looks like in practice.
Supply chain security
The packaging was also very interesting. The box containing the devices came with an order for the items that were inside tamper-proof security bags. These bags had very strong plastic, which is not something you can tear easily, and requires a knife to cut. The bags are also marked with a unique number, as shown in the images below. Inside the bag there is another plastic strip containing the same number. When the devices were first turned on, they displayed the same number on the screen. This is the flash memory code that is set up for each device at the factory. This makes device firmware more difficult to intercept and tamper with. The next level would be to notify the user of the bag number via email or through logging in on the website, so that they can have a side channel to verify the number as well.
If you see anything on the packaging, we encourage you to take photos and contact Coinkite support.
The battery and device exposed in the picture below is Quinkite cold power adapterwhich I happened to be lying in and thought I’d test it too. The device is supposed to give completely isolated power, there are no cables connected to any computer at all, even malicious Wifi plugged into a power outlet can transmit signals through the power cords (lol).
Things to improve?
Integrating NFC Push Tx with mobile wallets has been a bit inconsistent. I’ve tried Cove, Bull Bitcoin, and Nunchuck. Of the three, the Nunchuk had the best integration, and the Cove wasn’t far behind it. It appears that Bull Bitcoin has disabled the feature or hidden it well. Cove is a young project that will likely improve very quickly in the coming months, while Nunchuck is a very advanced and powerful wallet, which took me a few minutes to discover but ultimately turned out to be the best interface of the three.
Even with the stronger NFC antenna, I had to remove my ridiculously thick phone case in order to get reliable data transfer, but that’s not the end of the world.
Conclusion: Is the MK5 worth the money to upgrade?
As the proud owner of what I now realize was an old MK3, moving up to the MK5 is a significant upgrade, and for the low cost of $167 plus shipping, I’d say it’s a no-brainer. This is a whole generation of security and user experience upgrades that I didn’t realize I needed.
For active users of the MK4, the larger screen and better buttons are certainly a quality-of-life improvement, and the better NFC antenna will likely pay dividends as well by making transaction flows smoother. Again, compared to other hardware wallets on the market, the price is very reasonable.
However, for passive MK4 owners who do a few transactions a year, the juice may not be worth the squeeze. They still receive firmware updates and get all the security benefits, and they likely won’t miss out on a much improved user experience.
Disclaimer: Coinkite provided Bitcoin Magazine with a few free MK5 Coldcards to use for the purpose of testing their product for review.
