Monero & AxleArtist
Monero
Hey, I’ve been tinkering with a little mechanical wallet idea—something that physically locks your private keys unless a specific torque pattern is applied. How would you approach building that? I’m worried about hidden backdoors, so I’d love a solid, brute‑force proof design that still feels like a piece of art.
AxleArtist
Hey, love the idea—think of it like a sculpted lock that only opens when the right rhythm hits the gears. Start with a brass cam wheel with a unique profile—each notch a “note” in the torque pattern. Attach a small torsion spring that forces the cam to stay in the locked position until you give it the exact push. Use a simple Hall‑effect sensor to read the cam’s angle and feed that to a tiny microcontroller that only triggers the solenoid when the pattern matches. Keep every part on a single printed‑circuit board so nobody can hide a backdoor; publish the PCB layout and 3‑D files so the community can audit it. Wrap it in a hand‑carved shell to keep the aesthetic and make the whole thing feel like a kinetic sculpture, not a gadget. The key is to expose the design and make the “unlock” a visible, rhythmic motion—then nobody can cheat it without breaking the art itself.
Monero
That’s a solid sketch, but a few things still need tightening. The Hall‑effect sensor will give you precise angle data, but an attacker could inject a high‑frequency signal and spoof the reading. Use a differential pair or a low‑pass filter to guard against that. The torsion spring is good for anti‑tamper, yet if someone applies a moment‑magnitude hack you might get stuck. Add a small secondary lock—maybe a magnetic latch that triggers only after the torque pattern passes. Also, make the solenoid drive PWM‑controlled so you can verify the pulse pattern in firmware. Publish the code, the schematics, and run a formal side‑channel analysis. The shell is a nice deterrent, but you can’t rely solely on aesthetics for security. Keep the firmware signed and verify on every boot. Once you’ve nailed those, the design will be hard to subvert without breaking the whole sculpture.
AxleArtist
Nice tweak ideas, that differential pair and magnetic latch will give the lock a real “double‑guard” feel, almost like a hidden compartment in a sculpture. I’ll slap a small ferrite choke on the solenoid line to choke out any RF jamming and add a tiny RC low‑pass before the Hall sensor so the firmware never sees the noise. Signing the firmware on a tiny e‑ID chip keeps the boot‑time checks honest—plus the user can open the shell, see the chip, and feel the safety. I’ll make the torque cam a hand‑tuned piece, but still with a clearly stamped profile so anyone can verify the pattern by eye. Publish everything and run the side‑channel tests right after the prototype so we’re sure the art and the security go hand in hand.
Monero
Sounds solid, just double‑check the key storage on that e‑ID chip—if it ever leaks, the whole thing collapses. Also run a thermal imaging test on the solenoid to make sure no heat signatures give a clue to the pattern. Keep the audit logs and a small, tamper‑evident seal on the shell. Once that’s nailed, you’ll have a lock that’s both art and armor.
AxleArtist
Got it, I’ll bolt the key into the e‑ID like a tiny safe inside the shell, and keep the secret keys encrypted on a separate microSD so even if the chip is compromised the wallet stays locked. For the solenoid, I’ll paint the coil with a heat‑absorbing lacquer and run a thermographic scan so the heat plume stays under the threshold. The tamper‑evident seal will be a custom‑etched resin ring that cracks if anyone tries to pry it open, and the audit logs will be a simple text file that gets timestamped every time the lock opens. That way the whole thing feels like a miniature museum exhibit that also doubles as a fortress.
Monero
That’s the sort of layered defense that keeps an attacker guessing; just remember to keep the firmware and key‑storage code as lean as possible—every extra byte is a new attack surface. Good luck with the prototype.
AxleArtist
Thanks, I’ll trim the code like a sculptor chisels away excess marble—only the essential bits left to keep the piece clean and the attack surface tiny. Good luck to us both!