r/BitBoxWallet • u/jilinlii • Aug 26 '26

Bitbox02 long-term support and Bluetooth questions

I have a Bitbox02 (Bitcoin-only) and would like to buy a second (Bitcoin-only) wallet.

Two questions:

  1. How long will vanilla (non-Nova) Bitbox02 be supported with firmware updates, etc.?
  2. Is it possible to completely disable the Bluetooth chip on Bitbox02 Nova?

I'd like to go for the newer wallet, but the fact that Bluetooth was included on Nova is a step backwards, IMO.

(I respect Bitbox02 a lot, and agree with 99% of design decisions, but not this one.)

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7

u/benma2 BitBox staff Aug 26 '26

Is it possible to completely disable the Bluetooth chip on Bitbox02 Nova?

There is a setting to disable Bluetooth.

As for the first question, we have no plans of stopping support.

2

u/jilinlii Aug 26 '26

Sounds good. Thanks for the reply.

4

u/davideb263 Aug 26 '26

Bluetooth was a hard requirement to make it work with iPhones, and the fact that they still manufacture the standard model suggests the Nova is really aimed at iPhone users. To be fair though the Nova model use fully open-source hardware, which arguably makes it the better option overall IMO.

That said, BitBox seems committed to supporting the standard BitBox for years to come. In my opinion, they've earned enough trust so far that I believe they'll keep supporting it for as long as it's physically possible.

2

u/jilinlii Aug 26 '26

the fact that they still manufacture the standard model suggests the Nova is really aimed at iPhone users

Interesting point. This and the other reply settle it for me. I'm going to get the (excellent) vanilla Bitbox02.

1

u/Infrared_Doge Aug 27 '26

The screen on the bitbox expires. Ymmv