There was this picture around at X from Scott Marmoll.
I answered this:
Thanks for the audit.
However, there are two points about Specter DIY that are particularly misleading.
1. "No verifiable user entropy input"
The opposite is actually the case. With Specter DIY, you can select every individual word of the seed phrase after it has been generated and inspect the bits that define that word. You can then use coin flips or dice rolls to modify those bits. For example, heads changes the bit, while tails leaves it unchanged.
Since both the corresponding word and the checksum word update in real time, users can verify the result against the official BIP39 word list. This allows them to independently confirm that the hardware wallet is processing their manually generated entropy correctly.
With all of the other hardware wallets on your list, users cannot directly inspect how their external randomness is incorporated into the final seed phrase.
2. "No secure element"
The basic Specter DIY configuration without a secure element handles seed storage in a similar way to SeedSigner: it simply does not store the seed phrase permanently. Therefore, there is no stored seed on the device for an attacker to extract after gaining physical access.
Specter DIY also provides an option to store the seed directly on the device without a secure element. However, this is officially not recommended and is intended only for advanced users who understand the associated physical security risks.
Users who want secure persistent storage can use the Specter Shield extension boards, which add secure element support. The seed phrase can then be stored exclusively on the secure element and protected by a PIN. It can also be encrypted using a device encryption key, enabling a dual-chip security architecture.
Regarding "thin maintenance"
Limited maintenance was a valid criticism of Specter after the project was acquired by Swan Bitcoin, as Swan invested very little effort in its continued development.
However, approximately one year ago, we regained the copyrights, social media accounts, website, and other project assets.
Specter is now actively maintained again. We have a highly active developer group and have held weekly developer calls for the past nine months. These calls are also livestreamed on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn2qRQUAAg0zFWTWeuZVo05tUnOGAmWkmWe are currently working behind the scenes on a major UI and UX redesign, support for newer MicroPython libraries, and compatibility with a new development board. There is therefore a significant amount of active development taking place.
But of course it is important that we are not affected by something similar to Coldcard. For entropy, we would still have some good touch entropy if the TRNG were to fail for some reason. Adding explicit continuous TRNG health tests and fail‑closed behavior in case of a silent hardware RNG failure is a good point. Since yesterday we have been discussing this in our dev group and someone has already offered to build a PR.
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And he agreed to all of my points.
