BitBox 07.2020 Lidernen update
By: Shift Crypto
Tags: Hardware, Security, Electrum, Wallet, Bitcoin

BitBoxApp 4.20.0 with BitBox02 firmware 9.0.0

Download our latest update from shiftcrypto.ch/download to get all new features and improvements.

Lidernen, what?

As a Swiss company, we live the traditional values of self-reliance and independence. We love the outdoors, especially hiking in the beautiful Alps. So we’re going to give each of our updates the name of a mountain hut of the Swiss Alpine Club we personally like.

We start off with the Lidernenhütte, located in the heart of Switzerland at 1727 meters a.s.l. in the little-known Riemenstaldner valley. It is easy to reach and great for climbing, hiking and ski mountaineering.

So, this is the Lidernen update. Let’s dive into the features.

Unified accounts

Minimalism is one of our core values. In our quest to make Bitcoin easy to use, the technicalities of different Bitcoin script types and address formats always bugged us. Having to deal with terms like legacy, wrapped or backwards-compatible Segwit, or native bech32 Segwit is not fun. And why should you have to learn all of that?

With unified accounts, you no longer need to care about all these technicalities.

Receive Bitcoin in a unified account

This update combines all supported Bitcoin address and script types into one:

Your Bitcoin account now automatically includes all supported script types. So you’ll no longer need to care about all the underlying technicalities. Simply use it.

You no longer need to use a separate “legacy” account just because some services don’t yet support newer address formats. The BitBoxApp gives you an all-in-one solution.

You’ll always use the most efficient address format (currently bech32), with the option to use an older format if the sender does not support it yet.

The unified accounts feature makes using and securing Bitcoin simpler. Hopefully it also allows people who are not familiar with all the engineery talk to feel more at home.

If you have already created separate Bitcoin accounts for different purposes and don’t want to mix your coins now, you can continue using separate accounts (see “Settings > Expert settings”).

Enable “separate accounts” if needed

Next on our roadmap, we plan to support multiple accounts. Once this feature is available, we will deprecate the “separate accounts by address type” option and you can just use multiple accounts to keep your coins separate. Also note that as an advanced user, our coin control feature still gives you very granular control over what coins you select when spending.

Electrum 4.0 integration

The Electrum wallet is a powerful Bitcoin power-user wallet for Windows, Mac and Linux. After almost a year, the project released a monster update that includes our own contribution to add full BitBox02 support.

BitBox02 secures your keys when using the Electrum power-user wallet

When using standard single-signature wallets, Electrum offers you many advanced features. For users familiar with Electrum, it’s straight-forward to create a wallet using the BitBox02, and for everybody else we will publish a detailed tutorial in the coming days. As always, the BitBox02 keeps your private keys safe as they will never leave the hardware wallet.

Our Electrum support also includes multi-signature wallets. The BitBox02 has first-rate multisig support, as it solves many issues that still exist when using other hardware wallets (see our technical article The pitfalls of multisig when using hardware wallets):

Verify the extended public keys (xpub) of the BitBox02 directly on the device, and show all other xpubs as well. Store the checksum of the multisig setup, including the relevant information of all co-signers, directly on the BitBox02 in a named multisig account. The BitBox02 can automatically verify all important parameters, making sending and receiving funds easy and secure.

We plan to publish a three-part Electrum tutorial for the BitBox02. Sign up to our BitBox news to get notified.

More improvements

French and Hebrew translation

A nod to our French-speaking and Hebrew-speaking friends:

BitBoxApp est maintenant disponible en français. Et voilà!

!זמינה כעת בעברית. תהנו BitBoxAppאפליקציית ה

Australian dollar & paybtc.com.au

And as a hat tip to our Aussie friends, you can now set the Australian dollar (AUD) as fiat currency in the BitBoxApp. We have also listed the awesome paybtc service in our Buy & Sell section.

macOS notarization

Since macOS Catalina was released, Apple requires developers to notarize their apps, in addition to signing them. This process gives users more confidence that the app has been checked by Apple for malicious components. If an app is not notarized, users are greeted with a scary warning when installing it. Of course, we don’t want your first contact with our BitBox02 to feel unsafe, so notarization was of high importance to us. That required further macOS-specific hardening of the executable binaries and explicit whitelisting of resources usage (e.g. the webcam and the usb port). And now: no scary warnings any more!

How can I stay up-to-date?

Download our latest update from shiftcrypto.ch/download to get all new features and improvements.

We encourage you to sign up to the BitBox news to stay up to date with our latest news, including release notes and bug fixes. As always, please do not hesitate to contact us at support@shiftcrypto.ch if you have any questions.

Thank you for your continued support.

Shift Team