In a recent post, vocal Dogecoin community member Mishaboar urges the DOGE community to rethink wallet security.
Mishaboar began his message to the community by saying, "Dear Dogecoin, one more time," emphasizing his repeated security warnings since the start of August following the Coldcard exploit.
Dear Dogecoin,
— Mishaboar (@mishaboar) August 8, 2026
one more time.
A good hardware wallet is designed to keep your seed/keys inside a dedicated chip, isolated from the internet.
A software wallet runs on your always connected computer or phone. Your keys are stored on that same complex, exposed machine. pic.twitter.com/TErRZcfv6b
Deemed the third-largest crypto hack of 2026, $111 million has been confirmed stolen in the Coldcard exploit, accounting for 1,719 BTC stolen from victims, according to the latest Galaxy Research report. The losses might reach up to $130 million, Galaxy Research noted, with some coins yet to be confirmed.
A firmware bug from March 2021 weakened seed randomness on some Coldcard wallets, cutting key strength from 128 bits to as little as 40, a level brute-forceable without physical access, with attackers draining wallets since July 30, 2026.
In this context, Mishaboar has consistently provided tips on how to improve wallet security to safeguard users' assets and funds.
Hardware v. software wallets
In his recent X post, Mishaboar highlighted differences between hardware and software wallets. According to him, a good hardware wallet is designed to keep seeds/keys inside a dedicated chip, isolated from the internet. A software wallet, on the other hand, runs on an internet-connected computer or phone; keys are stored on this same complex, exposed machine.
Mishaboar highlighted the risks associated with smartphone wallets. Even though modern phones have dedicated secure hardware and the phone manufacturer might provide excellent security primitives, it is difficult to ascertain whether the wallet developer made good use of these or not; how keys are actually protected depends on the wallet's implementation.
Mishaboar believes that a software wallet is a separate implementation with risks that are impossible for ordinary users to assess: faulty seed generation, backdoors, information leaks, malicious updates, insecure backups, or obscure derivation paths.
While smartphone wallets can be useful as hot wallets for limited funds, payments, trading, or interacting with smart contracts, they should not be used for long-term savings.