Cardware BTC Only Review (2025): Must Try Budget Bitcoin Device

Key Takeaway

Pros

• Simplistic design
• 100% offline
• Enjoyable setup
• Solid web app
• Great price

Cons

• Bulky size
• Minimal reviews
• Shipping costs (fixed?)
• Lacks extra features
• No audit

What‘s Inside The Box?

Cardware BTC Only: Simple And Transparent

Sometimes simplicity is beautiful.

The see-through front and back of the Cardware allows for complete transparency, exemplified by quoting the famous quote on their website ‘Don’t trust, verify’.

The device appears to be made of a normal plastic material from start to finish. This makes it super lightweight in the hand.

The screen itself is positioned similar to a calculator, but there’s no details about the type of screen being used here.

Below the screen are navigation buttons: the left are used for up and down, while the right ones confirm or reject user actions.

Pressing them is extremely smooth.

On the back is a camera, which allows for seed generation and QR scanning.

There’s also a USB C port towards the bottom which must be plugged in to give the device its power. Cardware is completely air gapped, meaning the cold wallet operates without internet, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi.

Lastly, the wallet brand gives a one year warranty on the device, which is quite standard for crypto wallets.

Fun, Creative Setup On Cardware BTC Only

Do note this cold wallet is available on both iOS and Android.

When setting up Cardware, there’s a lot of versatility when generating a seed phrase.

The first option uses the attached camera.

While moving your camera around, it will hash each frame of a video stream and then calculate the result of the many frame hashes, one pixel at a time.

Explaining this concept like you’re 5, it’s just taking environmental video data to generate random numbers.

The second option uses the included die to make D20 rolls.

Time for a crit!

As a DND player, this is the most fun option for me.

But we need to roll 64 times. This is because private keys are generated using random numbers.

Although super tedious, we’d suggest trying if you have time for the craic.

The last option uses standard D6 dice. As exhilarating as it sounds, we’d need to roll this die 100 times.

Next, the generated 24 word seed phrase will be displayed on the device.

Write all words down on the paper sheet, or even better etch them into the included steel card.

Then as is customary, re-enter and confirm all 24 words back on the device.

Create a secure PIN code to protect the cold wallet from brute force physical attacks.

Pair the device, scan the QR code and download the mobile app.

And now we’re ready to roll into the app!

Cardware Web App: Covers All The Basics

First off the app is web based, so no need to download yet another app. The UI is visually appealing to the eye and the UX layout makes perfect sense.

What’s nice is that we’re not overburdened by options. Just send or receive Bitcoin. 

Insert Boomer joke here.

Receiving is just like any app. Copy the address or scan the QR.

No downloading and works right away.

To send, input the BTC address, select your fee and press ‘scan’ to scan the QR codes with Cardware.

Then scan the QR broadcast with a mobile device.

The only feature I’d like to see added is the ability to see transaction history in app instead of through a third party explorer.

Multisig support is available as well to give further security options.

Lastly, it’s important to note that users can generate unlimited addresses through Hierarchical Deterministic or (HD) Wallets.

This means you can create unlimited bitcoin addresses from the same seed phrase.

Cardware Security: Solid, But Time Will Tell

As a new product, no flaws or hacks have been recorded with Cardware to this day.

The wallet brand uses a Infineon Optiga Trust M Secure Element EAL 6+ chip, the top industry standard level for crypto security.

This chip deals with cryptographic operations and protection against physical and logical attacks.

There’s also a microchip which handles basic functions and prevents unauthorized access or modification of the device’s firmware and sensitive data.

Remember when we generated our key from video or dice rolls?

The randomness of these events helps the private keys gain the highest possible degree of cryptographic strength through gathering unpredictable, genuine data.

Remember that this device is 100% air gapped, meaning its entirely offline, eliminating exposure to remote attacks exploiting network connections.

There’s no data transfer via the USB-C port, only allowing power to be supplied to the wallet. This includes signing offline with QR codes, preventing external data connectivity.

Based on available data online, no available audit for the Cardware device can be found up to this point.

But all aspects of Cardware are open sourced on their Github here.

Cardware BTC Only Reputation & Reviews

Cardware was founded in 2024 in South Africa and is considered Africa’s first hardware wallet company.

The company’s first hardware wallet is the Bitcoin-only version, having since launched an EVM, Sonic and Solana versions.

In terms of reviews, the wallet brand is yet to establish any comments on trustpilot.com.

As for the Cardware BTC Only device specifically, it’s hard to find any ratings at all being a brand new device.

Quite the illusive wallet!

Here is what users are saying about the Cardware BTC:

All of these comments were curated from Twitter. Cardware had a shipping dilemma where shipping costs were unaffordable.

This has been fixed and global shipping is now live.

To get a true idea of Cardware’s reputation, consult their socials, metrics and read what other users are saying.

Contacting support is a bit difficult. Either go through their Discord server or by contacting contact@cardwarewallet.com.

It would be great for Cardware to add a simple chatbot to their website in the future.

Cardware Vs. Bitcoin-only Cold Wallets

How does the Cardware ($77) differ from other popular Bitcoin-only hardware wallets we’ve tested?

Trezor

• Trezor Safe 3 ($79): USB-C only, 2 buttons, similar build quality and features

Bitbox

• Bitbox02 ($149): USB C attachment on outside, touch buttons, similar build quality and features

Here’s Cardware compared to non Bitcoin-only devices:

Ledger

• Ledger S ($59): USB only, 2 buttons, no QR codes, not offline
• Ledger X ($149): battery powered, bluetooth or USB-C connection, no QR codes, not offline
• Ledger Flex ($249): bluetooth or USB C, larger screen, additonal features, better build quality, not offline
• Ledger Stax ($399): essentially same as Flex, but with a curved screen and label binding, better build quality, not offline

Tangem

• Tangem card ($50): NFC, less security, more portable
• Tangem ring ($160): NFC, less security, more portable

OneKey

• OneKey Classic 1S ($99): 4 buttons, bluetooth or USB C, similar build quality, not offline

Coolwallet

• Coolwallet Go ($69): NFC, less security, more portable, not offline
• Coolwallet Pro ($149): battery, small screen, clunky, slow, more portable, not offline

Cypherock

• Cypherock X1 ($149): USB-C only, joystick, 4 card backups, worse app

Secux

• Secux Neo X ($179): bulky, similar build quality, not offline

Final Thoughts: Go-to Budget Bitcoin Wallet

All in all, this simple Bitcoin wallet was impressive.

The user experience was spot on, the app is barebones as a Bitcoin wallet should be and it was surprisingly fun to set the wallet up, which is usually the most boring process.

So should you buy a Cardware wallet?

Yes, depending on your needs.

Personally, I’ll continue using it for part of my Bitcoin storage diversification.

This doesn’t happen often that I use a new wallet to store some crypto. Most new devices sent over collect dust.

Its hard to beat it at this price range, and if all you want to do is secure some BTC, its a no-brainer.

And as previously mentioned, shipping should be at a standard affordable rate now.

If you want to grab one, check my link below.

Thanks for reading and catch ya in the next review!