Is using an old iPhone safer than a crypto hardware wallet? ZachXBT thinks so
Security in crypto now splits into two problems: isolating private keys and limiting what a valid signature can authorize. Hardware wallets still help with key isolation, especially for cold storage and Bitcoin, but major recent losses came from users approving malicious transactions they thought were normal. High-profile thefts, including Bybit and Radiant Capital, exploited misleading signing screens rather than direct key extraction. A dedicated iPhone can improve device security through sandboxing, biometrics, and a larger display, but it does not fully solve signing risk, and wallet apps can still be malicious. The emerging fix is policy-based signing: ERC-7730 aims to make transactions human-readable, while smart contract wallets can add spending caps, allowlists, delays, separate keys, and cancel windows. The goal is to make a valid signature less than unlimited authority.
