Ellipal Wallet - My First Impression

I recently received my Ellipal wallet not long after my last post. This an informal review and a compilation of my first impressions of the wallet and its functionality.

I had been waiting for The Ellipal team to implement SmartCash onto it. I am glad to say that the wait is finally over. At the time of this writing to my understanding it is strictly a cold wallet to store SmartCash with none of the fancy things you can do with your regular wallet like starting masternode, seeing your SmartRewards, or voting on proposals

The ordering process was easy and straightforward initially, but the option to pay with crypto was not immediately obvious, and I had to ask for assistance when it came to finding where to pay. On the Ellipal website you had to almost conclude your transaction, getting as far as 'continue to shipping and payment method' before you saw the option to use CoinPayments (a cryptocurrency payment interface). I found it a bit confusing seeing that the PayPal option was two pages prior to that of the CoinPayments one, with no hint that other options were available. At the time of purchase, I did appreciate that there was the option to have your wallet customised with an image of your choice for free. This was a nice addition which I took advantage of.

The wallets shipped from Hong Kong and incurred import taxes at the point of delivery over here in Canada, about $19CAD.
The packaging was neat and compact, similar to the standards that one might expect of Apple. Setting up the device was easy and simple as well.

The device fits into my hand easily, similar in size to an iPhone 4.

The Device

ELLIPAL operates offline, eliminating the potential for network attacks. User can store their private key in the cold wallet by importing or creating it. The private key will never touch the internet. - ellipal.com

The Ellipal wallet works with the Ellipal app available on GooglePlay and The AppStore. The Hardware wallet holds your private keys and is never connected to the internet. How does Ellipal achieve this?

During the initial set up, the device sends a QR Code to the phone in order to be linked to the device. This link provides an offline connection to the wallet app which is only available on demand. The wallet app serves as a view into the device (you cannot see your coin balance on the Ellipal wallet just a list of coins you have added. You can only see your coin balances on the app.)

Specifications of the wallet which is about the size of an older generation IPhone, was lightweight and an adequate size.

The Security of the Wallet

The only connection to the device is via the Ellipal App, and data is sent by QR Code via bluetooth. Personally, I found the scanning process a bit tedious, as there was more than one QR Code to scan especially when sending or receiving coins. I found this to be a problem because while holding the device with one hand and your cell phone in the other to scan the QR Codes, the device does not automatically flip to the next QRcode to be scanned, and it is not obvious to the first time user that he has 5 QR Codes to scan and should touch the device to get the next QRCode. I would like to see this process automated. The Ellipal wallet has no connection to the internet and so it's firmware is updated through an SD card which has to be loaded with the firmware and then onto the device. Ellipal has made this so that the file downloaded also has a text file which contains the checksum to verify the firmware before it is accepted by the device as an update. The question is, how easy can this process be tampered with? The answer to this question is a major factor in assessing the security level of this device.

Conclusions

I feel confident to use this device to store my cryptocurrency. For my everyday use, I still must say that I prefer my #Trezor. The difficulty in scanning several QR Codes in quick succession and having to repeatedly touch the screen to get the next one is the main reason. If this is sorted out, then #Ellipal Wallet would be a serious contender with the #Trezor Hardware wallet. The Team at Ellipal is currently onboarding several projects, and in doing it very quickly they are easy to reach and their customer service extremely responsive. Shortly after my package arrived, Ellipal came out with ELLIPAL Mnemonic Metal - Ultimate Cryptocurrency Backup to store your seed generated from the Ellipal wallet. I contacted customer service and received a discount on it, which covered the shipping costs seeing as I had just paid shipping to purchase the hardware wallet.

ELLIPAL Mnemonic Metal - Ultimate Cryptocurrency Backup

Ellipal wallet is one to watch. It will be no surprise to see them dominate the hardware wallet market in years to come with their strategy that makes it easier for coins to be listed on their devices.