Availability and Accessibility of hardware wallets
Security is vital and possibly the most crucial issue when determining how to store your funds, and no doubt cold storage solutions such as AirGap Vault and hardware wallets have been helpful in this area. Accessibility and availability are also another set of factors worth considering while seeking to keep your funds safe. In this blog article, we’ll compare hardware wallets to cold storage software solutions like AirGap Vault in terms of availability and accessibility.
Availability
For this specific context, availability will be defined as whether or not you can easily obtain an item. Since hardware wallets are available as physical devices, there will likely be a shortage of these devices if demand increases. In contrast to hardware wallets, software solutions do not suffer from the effect of a decrease or increase in demand. No matter how popular our product becomes, you’ll always be able to access it without having to worry about it running out of stock.
Here is a post on Reddit in which a user has asked the following question:
“why are so many of the bitcoin hardware wallets out of stock”
Another significant challenge for hardware wallets, as it pertains to their availability, is that the devices are unavailable and cannot be purchased in countries where cryptocurrencies are prohibited, but as long as one has access to the internet, they can always download our solution from any location around the world irrespective of the constraint from government authorities or governmental regulation.
In the case of ordering a hardware wallet, the process is typically like this: first, locate an internet merchant that sells them, fill out personal information such as name, address, email, and phone number. Afterward, the information is submitted, and payment made, then wait for a couple of days for the device to arrive. Although installing our software cold storage solution may merely include going online to download the application and have it ready in a few minutes, that’s what easy availability is all about while still offering the best possible security for your funds.
Accessibility
Some people get involved in cryptocurrency because of the possibility of making quick profits by taking advantage of any sudden market opportunities that present themselves, this is called day trading. To a day trader being able to access his or her asset and exchange it for another coin seamlessly is very important and this may not be convenient while using a hardware wallet. The typical process for exchanging a coin stored in a hardware wallet will involve connecting the device to a PC, then transferring the coin to a third-party exchange before executing the swap.
AirGap considered this and integrated a third-party exchange with a built-in feature that enables users to convert their assets without going through the trouble of transferring their coins outside the wallet.
(Note this functionality is limited to the assets that are listed by the third-party exchanges we integrated)
Another issue when it comes to accessibility in a hardware wallet is the limited screen size and the input via buttons that are used. This sometimes limits user experience.
Conclusion
For us, security is the number one issue, and hence we have developed an air-gapped wallet with the maximum amount of security, but we also cared about accessibility and availability when making it. So this means we have a great start when it comes to competing with hardware wallets, as we offer both a secure and convenient option.
Do you have any questions regarding AirGap?
Reach out to us via Discord or visit the AirGap help center.
Download AirGap
AirGap Wallet
📱 iOS — App Store
📱 Android — Google Play (GitHub APK)
💻 macOS
💻 Windows
💻 Linux
AirGap Vault
📱 iOS — App Store
📱 Android — Google Play (GitHub APK)
