G-Knot is a new hardware wallet that uses unique finger vein biometrics to unlock access to users’ crypto assets.
The company aims to outdo competitors like Ledger and Trezor with stronger security and smooth design.
A 10,000-unit presale of the “Founder’s Edition” wallet, at $299 a unit, goes live today. The product ships in January.
If you are a crypto holder seduced by sleek design and anxious about a violent kidnapping in your near future, fret not—you may have just found the top item for your holiday wishlist.
A new company is aiming to disrupt the relatively cornered crypto hardware wallet market with a product it says is far more secure, easier to use, and pleasing on the eyes than its entrenched competition. Enter: the G-Knot.
Produced by a team with ties to an established Korean biometric security firm, the G-Knot—a gleaming, puck-shaped wallet with a touchscreen face, which goes on pre-sale today—is all about its signature finger vein scanner.
An closable compartment in the G-Knot reveals the waller’s signature finger vein scanner. Courtesy: G-Knot
A smooth indent on the puck scans the rhythm of your blood flow, and the vascular architecture of your finger, to establish a unique signature and unlock the wallet in a local process powered by zero-knowledge proofs. A user then need only input a two-factor authentication code to unlock a G-Knot smartphone app containing their various crypto wallets.
G-Knot’s finger vein-scanning technology requires no pesky pin codes, seed phrases, or private keys for sign-in, like other leading wallets. The tech is also much more sophisticated than other biometric security options on the market like fingerprint and iris scans, its creators say.
“What we’re doing is we’re eliminating that single point of failure of a seed phrase,” Wes Kaplan, G-Knot’s CEO, told Decrypt during a recent interview in Manhattan. “What we provide is a modern, friendly user experience that makes your finger the key to unlock your digital assets.”
A reporter scans his unique finger vein on the G-Knot. Photo: Sander Lutz/Decrypt
Before you ask: The G-Knot requires live blood flow to unlock, so the product’s launch shouldn’t unleash a wave of finger amputations across Western Europe. Every finger in the world also has its own, distinct finger vein signature—which stays the same for life—so no threats from long-lost identical twins, either.
What’s more, the company is currently developing multi-sig functionality for the G-Knot, meaning the wallet will soon be able to offer an additional layer of security: one that only unlocks if multiple users, from different points on the globe, sign into their own G-Knots simultaneously.
The patented finger vein scanner powering the G-Knot is already on the market. It is currently being used for security at, among other places, the Geneva headquarters of the International Telecommunications Union, the UN’s specialized agency for digital technology.
But the technology has never before been applied to crypto. Kaplan thinks the tie-in is natural—and that demand for the G-Knot will be high—given the recent spateofhigh-profilekidnappings that have plagued crypto users across the world.
Perusing different crypto wallets on the G-Knot’s touch screen. The product is Bluetooth-powered and USB-C chargeable. Photo: Sander Lutz/Decrypt
Even so, the CEO said he hopes the product will redefine how users engage with hardware wallets, by relieving safety fears and making cold crypto storage as simple as any other smartphone app.
“Security should be an afterthought,” Kaplan said. “You should be able to enjoy the user experience rather than worrying if you’re going to lose this code.”
Today, G-Knot will open a presale for its “Founder’s Edition” aluminum-shelled wallet, which will retail for $299. The company is starting with a batch of 10,000 units, which are expected to ship in early January.
That price point puts the G-Knot slightly above Ledger’s new $179, style-focused Nano Gen5 hardware wallet, and even Trezor’s $249 “quantum-ready” Safe 7 model.
But the company is betting that a promise of less stress—when it comes to both security, and hardware hassle—is going to resonate particularly strongly with crypto users this year.
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