# Coldcard hardware wallet

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Coldcard hardware wallet and 20 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a cold bitcoin wallet with documented dice-based seed generation, but a 2026 RNG flaw caused large bitcoin thefts and critics distrust its security.

## Why people recommend it

- Documented dice-based seed generation (1 comments): "Coldcard's own documentation had a section on generating secure seeds with dice and why that's more secure." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49181406))
- Recommended as a cold wallet (1 comments): "Cold wallet was definitely recommended late 2025" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49147274))
- Advised to diversify entropy sources (1 comments): "You'd probably want to use diversity for this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078617))

## What people warn about

- Weak 32-bit RNG fallback (4 comments): "the Coldcard hardware wallet had an issue where it'd fallback to a 32-bit only RNG that could be cracked" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50046048)) "the RNG in the coldcard mk2 was badly/maliciously implemented and is completely insecure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077561)) "accidentally switched their RNG from the hardware RNG to a predictable PRNG" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50298123))
- Users lost bitcoin to the bug (3 comments): "bug in the RNG logic during seed generation, so you can lose funds easily without any action from the user" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148182)) "lost 10 years worth of bitcoin he'd saved and mined from this Coldcard issue" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49123515)) "Coldcard Bitcoin seed generators were compromised a little over a month ago" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49612928))
- Poor engineering and repeated flaws (4 comments): "there was no actual assessment of whether the team or the product was made with the care needed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148853)) "This isn't the first time they've had a similar vulnerability that allowed for stealing coins" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49177957)) "Clearly seems like a corporate culture issue. A very low bar seems standard practice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49146854))
- Open-source status drew criticism (3 comments): "the btc community members who chose to go with one of the few hardware wallets that wasn't open source were not doing due their diligence" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49146984)) "the bug in RNG was actually introduced inadvertently in an effort by Coinkite to move the firmware away from an open source license" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148631)) "it was open source in a way that from the discussion here may have made vulnerabilities easier to spot for an attacker" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49147023))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Ledger hardware wallet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ledger-hardware-wallet.md): 11 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Coldcard+hardware+wallet+Coinkite&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://coldcard.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Coldcard hardware wallet", https://hackerapproved.com/p/coldcard-hardware-wallet/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).