Nintendo Gameboy turned into Bitcoin wallet

In a unique fusion of ’90s nostalgia and state-of-the-art cryptocurrency storage, the startup key causes a sensation with his latest venture.

A small team of developers is breathing new life into the original Nintendo Game Boy handhelds by turning them into a cryptocurrency wallet called the Game Wallet.

But Game Wallet isn’t just a modern hardware wallet with a Game Boy console skin. In fact, the Game Wallet is far from a hack – it’s a new Game Boy game cartridge that actually uses gamification to generate users’ key phrases through random quests and interactions with non-player characters (NPCs).

Once set up, Game Wallet can store any cryptocurrency that uses BIP-32 passphrases, meaning it can store currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Their software will also be open source and available for anyone to create their own implementation if they wish.

Joseph Schiarizzi, founder of Keyp, told Decrypt that the wallet’s gaming experience will be “Pokémon-like”.

“Our main focus at Keyp is to make Web3 accessible and secure for everyone, with tools like social logins and additional layers of wallet security”Schiarizzi said. “The Game Wallet is a fun project [e] an extension of it”.

Gameboy for storing bitcoins

While Game Wallet has been in development since January, Keyp’s nine-person team believes the recent controversy surrounding Ledger’s new “recovery” service means a truly offline storage solution is needed.

Game Wallet bills itself as an offline storage option that never promises firmware updates.

“With all the controversy surrounding Ledger’s recent hardware upgrade, we saw the need for truly offline cold storage that minimizes trust”wrote Sascha Mombartz, co-founder of Keyp, on a Game Wallet product page.

“What started as a nice idea, now looks like a very important product”Mombartz added. “Relying on the supply chain for new security devices can be daunting because we don’t know who tampered with a device, but I know exactly where the Game Boy has been on my shelf for the last 20 years.”

According to the project’s official website, the Game Wallet is a GameBoy cartridge that allows players to generate mnemonics for cryptocurrency wallets using an offline device.

Game Wallet

The device is considered more secure as it cannot connect to the internet and is protected against digital phishing attacks. Game Wallet is an open source project and users have the option to upgrade their own cartridge.

Game Wallet translates an open source implementation of the sha256 hashing algorithm into GBAssembly, the programming language for GameBoy games. There will be no firmware updates, but new games may be released to provide additional improvements and features.

Game Wallet still doesn’t have an official release date, but Schiarizzi told Decrypt the company plans to open pre-orders soon and is aiming for a mid-year launch unless there are supply chain and/or technician issues.

This isn’t the first time cryptocurrency enthusiasts have “encrypted” the Game Boy. Two years ago, a pseudonymous information security researcher turned the handheld console into a Bitcoin mining device – albeit a very slow one.

Source: Live Coins

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