Home›Crypto›Market Structure›Bitcoin HWI shifts toward retirement, limits new hardw…

Bitcoin HWI shifts toward retirement, limits new hardware device support

The HWI maintainer said the interface will stop accepting new devices and features after MuSig2 work, pushing downstream wallet and packaging teams to adapt to changing hardware and OS protocols.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Market Structure

Bitcoin’s Hardware Wallet Interface, or HWI, a widely used bridge between wallet software and hardware signing devices, is moving toward retirement, with the maintainer describing the project as having been largely in maintenance mode for years, according to CryptoSlate.

On Aug. 18, the HWI maintainer said HWI will no longer accept new devices or features beyond work needed for MuSig2, and once that work is complete, expects to produce what will likely be the project’s last release, followed by minimal maintenance while looking for a drop in replacement.

CryptoSlate reports that while the Rust project BHWI is positioned as a successor candidate to preserve HWI style command output, the transition is not complete, and HWI is not archived with no retirement date set.

The changes directly affect wallet software teams that package HWI, invoke its command line, or depend on it to absorb updates in device support, operating systems, and vendor protocols, and the notice does not indicate users’ bitcoin is at risk or that supported hardware wallets will stop working.

Latest closeBitcoin $78,923.50 ▲1.4%

More like this

Sources