Hardware wallets are an unnecessary expense ($300 +) pushed by marketing, when free options provide similar or better protection:

• Paper wallets, air-gapped computers, or open-source software like Electrum can achieve true offline signing without hardware costs or trust issues.

• The seed phrase is the real key to your Bitcoin—if stored securely offline, a hardware device adds little value beyond convenience, yet introduces physical risks like loss, damage, or theft.

• In criminal contexts (e.g., cartels or illicit funds), recovery seeds can be shared to invisibly transfer assets post-seizure, bypassing blockchain traces and making hardware wallets a tool for evasion rather than pure security.

No matter how secure the device, human factors make them vulnerable:

• Phishing, fake updates, or scam letters (e.g., “urgent replacement” mails) trick users into revealing seeds or connecting to malicious apps.

• If a device fails or locks up (reported in some cases), users are stuck relying on the seed anyway, rendering the hardware redundant.

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