Trezor rebuked ZachXBT: hardware wallets are not for everyone, but remain the gold standard for the majority.
Trezor's Chief Commercial Officer, Danny Sanders, gave a detailed response to criticism from on-chain detective ZachXBT, who recently advised users to abandon hardware wallets altogether in favor of a dedicated iPhone for managing digital assets. Sanders did not deny the shortcomings of his own devices, acknowledging that they can be inconvenient and unsuitable for all use cases.
An Honest Look at Limitations
Sanders emphasized that a smartphone can indeed become part of an "advanced storage scheme," but its operating system and built-in features, such as a constant internet connection and app vulnerabilities, make the device potentially dangerous. According to him, even a dedicated iPhone cannot guarantee the same level of isolation from attacks as a specialized hardware wallet.
Who Needs Hardware Wallets
The Trezor top manager insists that for average cryptocurrency holders—that is, the vast majority of market participants—hardware wallets remain the strongest and most accessible form of self-custody. They provide hardware isolation of private keys, which is impossible to achieve on a regular smartphone, even if it is used exclusively for cryptocurrencies.
My analytical assessment: Sanders' argument is logical and pragmatic. ZachXBT is right that some users may find hardware wallets inconvenient, but his radical advice to switch to an iPhone is more of a niche solution for those willing to sacrifice security for convenience. For 90% of investors who do not want to delve into complex multi-signature schemes, Trezor or Ledger remain the only reasonable compromise between security and usability.