Who are ELLIPAL?
ELLIPAL is a Hong Kong-based company founded in 2018 and are known for their high-quality air-gapped hardware wallets and crypto accessories. ELLIPAL released their first wallet, simply named ELLIPAL, in 2018. They then released its successor, a much-needed upgrade to the original, named the ELLIPAL Titan a year later.
While standard wallets like Trezor and Ledger need to be physically connected to a computer or mobile via cord or Bluetooth, ELLIPAL is one of the first companies to become industry leaders in completely air-gapped cold storage solutions for secure crypto storage.
ELLIPAL were the first movers in the space to create an air-gapped cold wallet that uses QR code communication technology to ensure that the wallet remains completely offline, even during transactions, while other wallets needed to be connected via USB cables or Bluetooth. Here is a great article from ELLIPAL where they explain the concepts and benefits of an air-gapped wallet.
What is an Air-Gapped Cold Wallet?
Equipped with a large, coloured touch screen, ELLIPAL Titan users are able to view their coins and NFTs, exchange and stake assets, send transactions while checking market rates and crypto news directly on the synchronized mobile app. The Titan also makes accessing DApps like Uniswap, Compound, and Pancake Swap an absolute breeze as it can all be done through the mobile app.
The cold storage wallet devices made by ELLIPAL look and operate more akin to a smartphone than traditional hardware wallets, which may be a positive or negative depending on your point of view.
Because the corresponding app is on your smartphone, the navigation and app UX/UI is intuitive and familiar to any of us who regularly use smartphones, which is probably just about everyone. Another benefit is the wallet itself feels similar to using a smartphone so there are no real learning hurdles, unlike traditional hardware crypto wallets, which can feel quite alien as they are dissimilar to the tech and apps many of us frequently use.
Another benefit to the Titan is that it is designed in a way that it can be used on the go thanks to the fact that it can be charged, and because the device has a QR code scanner, it can be used conveniently for crypto use and purchases at point-of-sale merchants, something you can’t do with the Trezor or Ledger. The downside is that, as the Titan is the size of a smartphone, it’s quite large and cumbersome vs the Ledger and Trezor which are small, sleek devices.
What is “Air-Gapped,” and Why Does it Matter?
Much of ELLIPAL’s security lies in the fact that it is air-gapped and does not come into contact with internet, Bluetooth, mobile networks, or any other network connections. While many wallets will rely on Bluetooth or USB connections to connect the wallet to a device with internet to allow the user to interact with their crypto, ELLIPAL relies only on QR code technology.
The ELLIPAL Titan is equipped with a camera allowing users to scan QR codes, using the wallet to confirm and sign transactions initiated on the mobile app. Using QR code technology ensures that the device never needs to come into contact with any connections that could be exploited by hackers.
ELLIPAL Titan Review: Features
The ELLIPAL Titan rings in with a price tag of $169.00 and comes equipped with the world’s first fully metal case for a crypto wallet, ensuring it is robust enough to survive drops and bumps. The Titan is also tamper-proof so nobody can break into the wallet without destroying the inner components, helping to protect the user’s crypto against physical attacks.
The ELLIPAL team were kind enough to send me the Titan for this review and the ELLIPAL Mnemonic Metal which is great!
I am a huge fan of using fire and waterproof metal solutions for protecting our recovery phrases, because let’s face it, a piece of paper is WAY too fragile to be trusting our future access to crypto with. We endorse crypto seed protection so much here at CB headquarters, that we also offer a Coin Bureau branded metal seed wallet in our merch store which works quite differently to the one sold by ELLIPAL if you are looking for an alternative, but either way, I cannot recommend metal seed phrase products enough.
Here are the Titan’s core features:
Display: ELLIPAL has a 3.97-inch colour touchscreen, high sensitivity, and excellent graphics.
Buttons: This wallet has one side button that is used to power up the device.
Material: It is built with an aluminum alloy, which is dust and water-resistant.
Size: The size of this wallet is 118 x 66 x 9.7 mm.
Camera: It comes with a built-in camera of 5mpx.
Battery: ELLIPAL has a 1400 mAh battery that has a standby time of 259 hours. You can charge the battery using a USB cable.
The ELLIPAL Titan package comes with a USB charging cable and charging stand, a guide, a warranty card, a card for writing down the backup seed phrase, and a micro-SD card for updating the firmware on the device.
As with any hardware wallet, make sure you are purchasing through the actual ELLIPAL website itself or Amazon as they are a verified seller for ELLIPAL, and never buy second-hand hardware wallets as many users have been separated maliciously from their crypto after realizing the original owner still held the private keys to the wallet.
Using the ELLIPAL Titan
While users will be able to view their crypto account on their mobile app, the hardware wallet will need to be present for crypto transactions or making changes to the account. Receiving transactions to the wallet can be made by scanning the QR code on the Titan, or simply pasting the receiving address copied from the app into the sending platform, as is the same for any crypto wallet.
To send transactions from the ELLIPAL Titan, transactions are initiated within the mobile app, and once the transaction details are entered, a QR code will be generated on the mobile device which will need to be scanned by the camera on the wallet to sign and confirm the transaction.
This sends all the information needed to the hardware wallet which then generates a second QR code which is scanned by the mobile app which completes the transaction verification. It is at this point the user will need to enter the password before the transaction is sent if they chose to set up this second layer of security.
After sending and receiving transactions and taking the Titan for a test drive, I found the process straightforward, intuitive, and the wallet’s core functions are very user-friendly.
ELLIPAL Titan Review: Pros
The ELLIPAL Titan is easy to use, beginner-friendly, and users love the large touchscreen, which many feel is an improvement over the tiny touch screen of the Trezor Model T or the two tiny buttons on the Ledger. The fact that the wallet is air-gapped gives it an additional layer of security and being able to stake multiple assets and access DApps directly within the app is very convenient.
The Titan did feel very high quality, which was evident the moment I held it in my hand. The metal casing made me confident that this device could easily withstand bumps, drops, and probably even a drop-kick out of my third-floor apartment window.
The Titan instantly felt much higher in quality over my Trezor, strictly speaking in terms of materials and design. As much as I love my Trezor, every time I pull it out of its hiding spot I feel like I am handling something as fragile as an egg and the cheap plastic feels like it might break if I sneezed on it or looked at it the wrong way.
One of my favourite things about the Titan is that thanks to the mobile app, the wallet can be used to access over a hundred DApps and the world of Web3. The Titan offers the convenience of a software wallet, as all this can be accessed directly from one mobile interface, but with the security of a hardware wallet. This is, in my opinion, a massive benefit over the Trezor or Ledger as they cannot provide nearly this level of convenience as they need to be plugged in and on a PC to access DApps, often through cumbersome and complex third-party applications.
Bottom Line
The ELLIPAL Titan is a fantastic wallet if you are looking for something mobile and secure that can be used on the go without the need to be tethered to a PC.
The Titan passes all the security requirements, giving users confidence in the safety of their funds. The Titan is a good consideration for users who want to be able to interact with their funds on the app and wallet itself, making it easy to explore and use different DApps, unlike the Trezor where everything needs to be accessed via third-party API on a computer interface.
