BTCPay, an open-source, self-hosted payment processor for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, announced today the launch of BTCPay Vault. The vault is a desktop application that allows communication between a user’s hardware wallet and BTCPay using its full Bitcoin node.
The hardware wallet integration is composed of two parts:
- BTCPayServer.Hwi: An easy to use library wrapping the command line interface of the hwi project.
- BTCPayServer.Vault: A simple local web server providing access to the hardware wallet physically connected to your computer via HWI.
Operating as a separate app, BTCPay Vault is locally hosted on a user’s own PC, which BTCPay Server connects to and asks for permission. Once permission is granted, BTCPay is able to integrate with any supported (see below) hardware wallet connected to the user’s PC.
Users can import their wallet and spend incoming funds with a simple confirmation on their device, with keys never leaving their hardware device, and with all funds being validated against the user’s own Bitcoin full node and no data leakage.
Getting started with BTCPay Vault
Setting up BTCPay Vault is easy. A user only needs to have already set up BTCPay Server and then proceed to download BTCPay Vault. Once a user receives funds to their wallet and decides to then spend, transactions can be signed with their hardware wallet, all inside BTCPay Server.
At this moment, the hardware wallet integration (HWI) supports the following devices:
- ColdCard
- Digital BitBox
- KeepKey
- Ledger Nano S
- Ledger Nano X
- Trezor Model T
- Trezor One
“When you launch a BTCPay Server, the stack, among other things, contains a full Bitcoin node. To receive funds through BTCPay, you have to configure your store with an extended public key (xpub..), which is then used to generate addresses. However, to spend the received funds from your wallet, you need access to your private keys, which we do not store on BTCPay. That required users to use an external wallet, and due to severe limitations of almost every wallet on the market (gap limit, trusted third-parties, no xpub export support, etc.), a majority of users often opted to use wallet solutions such as Electrum and leak their sensitive financial information to a third party server. That’s why BTCPay created an internal wallet system many months ago that allows you to spend your funds through direct integrations with the Ledger Nano S, ColdCard. This also allowed you to import your public key without requiring technical knowledge. Enters the BTCPay Vault, a cross-platform desktop application that makes hardware wallet experience not only smoother and faster, but also extends compatibility to many other devices.”
– The BTCPay Team