Storing cryptocurrency in a safe and secure way has proven to be quite difficult for a lot of people. Far too often, people leave money on an exchange or an online wallet. Even desktop and mobile clients may not be ideal for storing sensitive information. The aPocket claims to be a convenient hardware wallet solution. While the product certainly works, it is also something anyone can build.
More Secure Cryptocurrency Wallet Solutions
On the surface, the aPocket hardware wallet solution for cryptocurrencies looks rather sleek. It is a flat and lightweight device capable of properly storing one’s cryptocurrency balance. That is critically important, because if one loses access to said balance, there is hardly a way to recover it unless proper backups were made. Unfortunately, a lot of people fail to make proper backups of their private key or recovery seed.
Additionally, the number of different cryptocurrency hardware wallets is still somewhat limited. As of now, there are the Ledger, Trezor, and KeepKey solutions, as well as a few others. Getting your hands on any of these wallets can be rather challenging, as they are always in high demand. Additionally, there are shipping delays to deal with, and none of these wallets may support the cryptocurrency you are interested in the most.
Whether or not the aPocket will be the solution people are looking for remains to be determined. This device uses the Raspberry Pi Zero, which is the cheapest version of any Raspberry Pi in existence today (it can be purchased for less than US$10 from most retailers). One will need an SD card to store some basic information such as transactions and the blockchain.
As one would expect, the aPocket comes with proprietary software and features. According to its website, the aBank and aOS are the main bread and butter of this project under the hood. Nevertheless, most people would be just as well off running any of the free Raspberry Pi OSes and installing their own currency’s client on top of it. Even the ROKOS would work just fine in this regard, as it has a built-in wallet and staking solutions for a wide range of cryptocurrencies.
The aPocket also features a built-in T-Mobile SIM card connection to ensure the user is connected to the network at all times. That is how it should work, anyway, but the network is only enabled once per week automatically. This allows for software updates as well as synchronization with the network itself. The aPocket team claims this is a private and secure solution, although it remains to be seen if that is the case. After all, SIM cards have to be registered in somebody’s name.
So far, it seems the aPocket is compatible with over 700 digital assets, which is not too shabby. It isn’t the highest number of assets one would expect, but it is a good start regardless. For the price of US$99.99, people will get access to a convenient way to store virtually any cryptocurrency in the world. It is unclear how much storage this device has under the hood, but it seems fair to assume it will be a rather limited amount.
