Product Review: Crypto Key Stack

The Crypto Monk
The Crypto Monk April 13, 2019
Updated 2019/08/04 at 6:23 PM
3 Min Read

Product Review: Crypto Key Stack

The Crypto Monk

After reviewing the Cryptotag and the Cryptosteel devices. I was offered by Crypto Key Stack to try their product.

The company was co-founded by Chris Gonyo and NFL veteran Israel Idonije. They wanted to work on an affordable solution to permanently store private keys on physical supports.

Their solution is simple: a few plates of high-quality stainless steel and an electric engraver.

Material

The plates are made of black anodized stainless steel and are supposed to offer fire protection up to 2200°F. It should be enough to resist to most of house fires. As stated previously in the article about Cryptotag, in some rare cases, house fire temperatures can briefly reach 2700°F.

But fortunately, some tests, realized by Jameson Lopp, demonstrated that a a 2500°F butane torch couldn’t destroy the Crypto Key Stack.

First impressions

The kit is delivered in an eco-friendly packaging and once you open it, everything is carefully stored.

The box includes:

  • an electric engraver
  • 5 black anodized stainless steel plates
  • a manual card
  • 2 sealing stickers
  • a bag for the engraver
  • some screws (to lock up the plates)

How it works

The engraving process is very easy and entertaining. It is like using a pen vibrating a little. You need to be careful and write capital letters (or numbers) for a better result.

Assuming that you write the first 4 letters of your recovery seed words, completing both faces of a plate will take around 25 min.

Once you are done, you can use the screws to assemble the plates together and store your device in a safe place.

Conclusions

In my opinion, this solution offers the best value for money. For $45, you can get a “Builders stack” and store a 24 words recovery seed. The kit presented in this review was the “Explorers stack” available for $70. Not only this solution is one of the cheapest on the market but it is also extremely resistant to a wide range of mechanical and chemical stresses (fire, crush, acid…).

If you have not thought about a physical back up system, this one might interest you.

Disclaimer : this article is not a partnership. I wanted to test and review a backup device and the team decided to customize it for me. More reviews of products will come in the future.

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