One of the first things you learn when you start to move through the narrow world of cryptocurrencies is that, unless you have your precious coins in a hardware wallet (cold wallet or cold wallet), you actually have nothing, Rather, the one who actually has them is the wallet application or web service that you are using. Or anyone who can handle them.
As soon as I learned that, I also realized that it was stupid to spend more than my funds in critpos in such a wallet, since they are not cheap. Taking a look at the Ledger or the Trezor, the best known, in the best of cases the price did not fall below 60 dollars. So I decided to wait.
So as time went by, doing some research, I discovered an alternative that was worth it: the SafePal S1, a hardware wallet that surpassed the well-known Ledger in features and cost three times less. So I threw the blanket over my head, and back on April 15, I made the order. It should be noted that due to the low price, about $ 39.99, and the fame it is acquiring, the demand has skyrocketed and when you buy it, what you are doing is a pre-order, and it will be sent to you from the date that specified on its website, safepal.io, which may be 30 days after the date of purchase. It is also important to know that if you buy two units, the shipping costs are free. Right now I just looked and its price has gone up to $ 49.99:
Another detail to keep in mind is that behind this wallet is the ubiquitous Binance, something that will surely have influenced the tight price at which it is being sold. Somewhere I have read that they intend to raise their price once they have sold enough units. That said, and taking into account that I have only been holding the S1 for 4 days, I will comment on my impressions as far as I have come, leaving aside the issue of the initial configuration, since on that subject there are hundreds of videos in Spanish in Youtube.
One of the things that motivated me to buy this device was the number of improvements it had over other brands on the market, such as the unlimited number of coins it supports, a color screen, the rear camera, the size and aesthetically in general. quite liked. One of the most important characteristics is that it is the only wallet of this type that DOES NOT HAVE ANY TYPE OF CONNECTION to the network or to other devices: neither Wifi, nor Bluetooth, nor NFC or anything at all, which makes it the safest From the market.
After receiving it, the first thing to do is configure it, for which we must install the SafePal app on the mobile, from which we will proceed to create a hardware wallet, and the pairing procedure between the physical device and the app will begin . During this part of the process, we can check the way the wallet communicates with the rest of the devices: using QR codes, and for this it is the small camera on the back. A camera, by the way, with an impressive sensitivity, since it reads the codes almost before they have been fully focused. You should know that if you don't have a SafePal S1, you can still use the app by creating a software wallet instead of a hardware one.
With the application and the device already interconnected, we can start adding the coins or tokens we want and start sending from any other wallet or exchange. Actually, for those who do not understand very well how these hardware wallets really work, I will explain it with a very easy example: do you remember those computer programs that needed a physical key (pendrive) connected to the computer in order to function? These pendrives were also known as backpacks, and they were a system devised to prevent piracy of these programs, usually very expensive. Well, a hardware wallet is the same, it is the necessary key to sign the transactions that are required from the app. Normally we will not have to use it to send coins to our wallet, but if we are going to need it MANDATORY to allow the exit of coins or tokens from it, thanks to which, if someone finds our mobile, they will not be able to send anything if they do not have the physical wallet. And in case it also had it (imagine that the suitcase where both devices go), it would have to have the codes of both the phone, the app, and the pin code that is required in the SafePal.
The app has a couple of quite interesting functions that I haven't had time to investigate at the moment, so I'll save it for future posts. One of them is the possibility of accessing Dapps (decentralized applications) such as pancakeswap or any other from the BSC, and you can also do cryptocurrency purchase and sale operations directly from your Binance account, but as I said, I have not still entered those options.
After all this, you will not deny me that for a price three times lower than the latest Ledger model and taking into account the characteristics of the SafePal S1 compared to other similar devices, it is not worth it. So, if I were you, I would think about getting one before it continues to rise in price and reaches the final sale price that will be $ 59.99.
I will continue to share my progress with the SafePal S1.
