Prague-based SatoshiLabs, makers of bitcoin hardware wallet TREZOR, have welcomed ethical hacker and cryptography expert Dr Jochen Hoenicke aka johoe, to the TREZOR R&D team. Dr Hoenicke will be working on cryptography functions for the new version of the SatoshiLabs’ bitcoin hardware wallet, TREZOR 2.

Hoenicke gained a great deal of notoriety in 2014, when he assisted with the retrieval of 255 BTC

in customer funds from Blockchain.info wallets that were created via a security loophole. In 2015, he revealed a security flaw in the TREZOR wallet – called a side-channel attack – which allowed an attacker to retrieve the private key from the wallet using a cheap oscilloscope.

Jochen Hoenicke has a Ph.D in computer science from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, where he also lead the Software Engineering Faculty. Since 2002, Hoenicke has co-authored 35 research papers

on computational models and software programming.

Co-founder and CEO of SatoshiLabs, Alena Vranova, said in the press release that the TREZOR R&D team is very important to the future of the company, “We have some of the most excellent brains in the Bitcoin world. All SatoshiLabs’ developers have a superb understanding of Bitcoin and a great excitement for what we do.” she added.

Pavol Rusnak, who engineered the TREZOR wallet with Marek Palatinus of bitcoin mining pool Slush Pool, said that Hoenicke’s “profound expertise in cryptography” will be of great help in developing new security features for the TREZOR 2:

“His involvement will propel us faster to achieving our goal: to bring top security to the hands of Bitcoin and digital assets owners worldwide.”

 

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