Ngrave Announces ‘Military-Grade’ Hardware Crypto Wallet

Digital asset security firm Ngrave announced sales for its flagship product, the fully offline hardware wallet Ngrave Zero, will launch next month.

The devices will be made available for purchase on Indiegogo from May 26 and are slated for shipping in October.

Ngrave claims the first EAL7-certified crypto wallet

Ngrave’s co-founder and chief executive Ruben Merre told Cointelegraph that its product introduces “a number of innovations compared to existing solutions,” stating:

“The Ngrave Zero is 100% offline, and features extreme tamper-proofing. It’s the only blockchain wallet with EAL7 security certification, which is the highest security certification in the world.” 

The Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) is an international standard for security grading that was introduced in 1999. EAL7 is the second-highest level of fifteen gradings, only trailing behind EAL7+.

“It never needs to connect to another device or over 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, or any other network connection; not even for key generation, syncing accounts or transactions.”

Zero will use wall charging and QR codes to remove the need for any connections to the device — allowing it to remain ‘air-gapped’ at all times. Merre stated that the wallet also “features multi-layered, military-grade anti-tampering.” The unit is operated using a four-inch touchscreen.

The company has partnered with R&D firm Imec for nanoelectronics and chip manufacturing, and Cosic — a firm known for hacking Tesla vehicles on multiple occasions — for its expertise in apple industrial cryptography.

The firm has received funding from the European Commission, the Flemish government, and the Web3 Foundation, in addition to private investors.

Zero was developed over 20 months

Merre states that Zero’s development was motivated by the experiences of Ngrave’s co-founding team with poor crypto security, including Ngrave’ CTO Xavier Hendrickx’s loss of 44,000 Ether (ETH) in the 2017 Parity hack:

“Ngrave’s three co-founders asked ourselves if there was an existing solution that we would really and completely entrust keeping our crypto for us. We couldn’t find any solution in the market, so we decided to build it ourselves.”

Ngrave began developing Zero in April 2018. The team built a functional prototype on a raspberry pi and pitched their vision to Imec. “That was the beginning of our collaboration with many world-class teams to build the Ngrave ZERO from scratch,” stated Merr, “It took us a bit over 20 months to fully develop it.” 

Ngrave seeks to replace paper wallets

Ngrave will also launch Graphene, which the company describes as “the first recoverable backup in the industry.”

Graphene comprises “a cryptographic puzzle consisting of two durable stainless steel plates and fully resistant to shocks, rain, fire, and other damage,” and is intended to replace “antiquated” paper wallets.

Merre asserts that Zero “notices when it is under attack and will, in that event, wipe all keys.” 

Ngrave will also roll out a mobile app that syncs the accounts from a user’s devices for management, communicating with the hardware wallets using QR codes to maintain the air-gap.

Sales to launch on Indiegogo

When asked why the firm has chosen to launch via Indiegogo, Merre emphasized the platform’s “huge user base” and “considerable traffic.” Merre added:

“[Indiegogo] helps us in identifying demand that we might otherwise overlook. For example, if the Philippines are a region that is very interested in what we have to offer, we will likely notice this on the platform.”