{
  "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "attribution": "ChainChoice (https://chainchoice.io)",
  "url": "https://chainchoice.io/data/methodology/2026.10.3.json",
  "version": "2026.10.3",
  "status": "archived",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-01",
  "title": "Hardware wallets add proof the device is genuine and key creation you can check",
  "supersededBy": "2026.10.4",
  "previous": "2026.10.2",
  "changelog": {
    "url": "https://chainchoice.io/methodology/changelog/archive#v-2026.10.3",
    "entry": {
      "version": "2026.10.3",
      "publishedAt": "2026-10-01",
      "title": "Hardware wallets add proof the device is genuine and key creation you can check",
      "summary": "Hardware wallets move from four published ladders to six. Two criteria join, each graded on the model the row prices: proof the device is genuine and unmodified before you load funds (12), and key creation and signing a buyer can check against bad firmware (12). The four v2 criteria keep their ladders and their order, rescaled to 27, 27, 11 and 11. BitBox02 Nova, SecuX, Satochip, Keycard and the Keycard Shell are ranked for the first time, and TAPSIGNER is refused.",
      "rationale": "Two risks the four v2 ladders could not see are a counterfeit or tampered unit in the box, and firmware that quietly weakens or leaks the key it makes. Neither is visible to a buyer, and makers differ sharply in what they let you check: some answer a fresh challenge with a key unique to the unit, some only print a seal; some let the computer check the seed it helped make or let you roll dice for it, most use only the device's own randomness. The owner approved both ladders, the weights and four readings on 2026-10-01: a BitBox02 final word chosen on the device counts as owner entropy as Jade's does; a per-unit key the maker records in its own registry counts as a certificate it issued; a BIP-39 passphrase is not owner entropy; and a phrase an app generates and loads onto the device is a phrase made elsewhere.",
      "affectedCategories": [
        "hardware_wallet"
      ],
      "changes": [
        {
          "type": "added",
          "description": "Two hardware_wallet criteria with published 0-10 ladders. Proof the device is genuine and unmodified (12): a documented pre-use check of any kind 2, a check that a counterfeit or modified unit is documented to fail, on the device or in the buyer's software, 5, a fresh challenge answered with a key unique to the unit under a certificate the maker issued 7, the bootloader measured inside that signed answer 8, the firmware too 10; a check counts only while no published, unfixed bypass of that check exists on the priced model. Key creation and signing you can check (12): host or owner randomness mixed in, even uncheckably, 4; one end a buyer can check, either a committed-then-revealed host contribution or owner entropy entered on the device under a published recomputation method, or anti-exfiltration on by default for signing, 7; both ends 10."
        },
        {
          "type": "changed",
          "description": "Weights: secure element you can look up 27 (was 35), firmware anyone can rebuild and match 27 (35), proof the device is genuine 12 (new), key creation and signing you can check 12 (new), signing and recovering without the maker 11 (15), years without a device-level fund loss 11 (15). The two criteria a buyer cannot check alone still carry 54 of 100 points."
        },
        {
          "type": "changed",
          "description": "All 114 criterion scores across 19 rows carry a quote and source in research-pending/rereads/2026-10-01-hardware_wallet.json, extended the same day (receipts and a refute-by-default model run per row); the refuter cut Blockstream Jade's genuine check from 5 to 0, because Blockstream's Genuine Check is sold only with the Jade Plus and Core and no pre-use check is documented for the Classic. The signed build records now number 45, adding the two that match the BitBox02 Nova's firmware and six for the Keycard Shell's."
        },
        {
          "type": "added",
          "description": "BitBox02 Nova (€175) is ranked as its own row, because its cells differ from the original BitBox02's on two criteria: an EAL6+ secure chip you can look up (10 against 5) and a 2025 first shipment (5 against 10). SecuX is ranked on its cheapest model, the W10 ($49), and Satochip on its €25 card. Keycard is ranked on its €29 card, and the Keycard Shell (€129) as its own row because its cells differ from the card's on three criteria: rebuildable firmware (7 against 5), independence from the maker (10 against 8, since applet 4.0 cards, which Sparrow cannot use, are already shipping) and a 2025 first shipment (5 against 10). TAPSIGNER is refused: Coinkite names no chip a certification body lists and publishes no source for its signing applet. SecuX's NeoGold, Neo-X and Nifty, which would each earn a row of their own, are refused on the same standard."
        },
        {
          "type": "changed",
          "description": "Published hardware_wallet order: BitBox02 Nova enters at #1 (81), one point ahead of Trezor (80). Both score 10 on the secure element, rebuildable firmware and independence from the maker, and 7 on the genuine check; the Nova's key creation and signing you can check (10 against 7) outweighs Trezor's longer record (7 against 5), so the lead is one re-read from changing, and the published robustness flag says so. BitBox02 moves from #2 to #3 and Keystone holds #4. OneKey falls from #3 to #6 and Ledger from #6 to #11: neither lets a buyer check how the key was made. Blockstream Jade moves from #5 to #7 and COLDCARD from #7 to #10, and Foundation Passport holds #8; KeepKey, Cypherock, GridPlus, SafePal, CoolWallet and Tangem each move down as the new rows enter. The Keycard Shell enters at #5, level on 69 with OneKey and Jade, the Keycard at #9, Satochip at #14 and SecuX at #17. No other category moves."
        },
        {
          "type": "changed",
          "description": "Corrected 2026-10-14: Foundation Passport's vendor-independence criterion stays 6, but its published score moved: Foundation Passport #8 65 → #8 68. Every published hardware_wallet row this version moved, rank and score before and after: BitBox02 Nova enters at #1 (81); Trezor #1 81 → #2 80; BitBox02 #2 73 → #3 76; Keycard Shell enters at #5 (69); OneKey #3 73 → #6 69; Blockstream Jade #5 70 → #7 69; Foundation Passport #8 65 → #8 68; Keycard enters at #9 (67); Coldcard #7 65 → #10 66; Ledger #6 65 → #11 63; KeepKey #9 62 → #12 62; Cypherock X1 #10 61 → #13 60; Satochip enters at #14 (57); GridPlus Lattice1 #11 52 → #15 52; SafePal S1 #12 48 → #16 48; SecuX enters at #17 (46); CoolWallet #13 45 → #18 44; Tangem #14 41 → #19 42. Keystone keeps #4 at 70."
        }
      ],
      "approvedBy": "mathias-siemonsmeier"
    }
  },
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      "src": "git:0b98c472f2d09f9ecd3e77f87611770f5c51b161",
      "at": "2026-10-02T02:13:48+02:00",
      "note": "The category specs as committed at the last commit before the next version was recorded."
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      "yield_vaults": {
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    },
    "formula": {
      "step1_weightedTotal": "weightedTotal = round((SUM over dimensions of (breakdown[d] / baseWeight[d]) * weight[d]) / (SUM of weight[d]) * 86, 6 decimal places), where every breakdown[d] is a multiple of 0.1",
      "step2_absoluteScore": "absolute = min(99, max(40, round(weightedTotal <= 20 ? 40 + weightedTotal * ((60 + (20 / 86) * 38 - 40) / 20) : 60 + (weightedTotal / 86) * 38)))",
      "step3_poolRelative": "score = round(min(min(99, max(41, leaderScore - (leaderWeighted - weightedTotal) * 2.6)), scoreOfRowAbove))",
      "tieBreakChain": [
        "availabilitySource, for a reader who states a country only: in perp_dex, perp_house_vaults, options_vaults, prediction_markets, a row whose availability in that country rests on a region tag its record gives no source for (no availability note quoting the provider's terms, and no dated country entry) sorts below every row whose availability is sourced. No row carries it in the orders published in this file, which state no country.",
        "weightedTotal as step 1 states it, higher first. Only rows whose weighted totals are exactly equal reach the keys below.",
        "unroundedWeightedTotal, higher first: step 1 over the dimension points before they are kept to a tenth of a point, published per product. Since methodology v2 a shared weighted total from different unrounded points is ordered by those points, so only rows equal on both reach the keys below.",
        "criteriaAverage, higher first: the row's unrounded weighted average of its published criterion scores (0 to 10) under the weights in use. Applied only when both rows are scored on their category's criteria and the averages differ; otherwise the keys below decide. Since methodology 2026.09.12.",
        "tiebreakDelta, higher first: the sum of three factors. (1) Price: when the category has one comparable pricing basis that may decide rank (priced for at least two of its catalog rows, not an entry-plan figure derived from a price ladder, and quoted in a single currency), a priced row earns 0 to 2 points in proportion to where its price sits between the highest and the lowest in the pool, or 1 point when every published price on that basis is equal; a row with no price on that basis, and every row of a category without such a basis, earns 0. (2) Strength: 1 point when at least three of the row's catalog fitStrength values are 9 or above; those values are its published criterion scores, plus further strength keys on some rows. (3) Dimension: 1 point when the row scores at least 85% of the maximum on the highest-weighted dimension of the weights in use (the first in weights order when two are equal). A row outside the alternate product catalog (every payment_gateway row) carries 0. It orders rows and is never added to a score.",
        "objectiveFit points, higher first.",
        "product name, alphabetical."
      ],
      "tieBreakNote": "The published per-category tieBreakRules are not yet applied by the engine; where two rows share a weighted total and an unrounded weighted total, the chain above decides. Since methodology 2026.09.12 the first key after the totals is the two rows' unrounded weighted criterion averages, so a tie between rows scored on the published criteria is ordered by those criteria; the generic factors decide only where the averages are equal or a row has no criterion scores. tieBreakDecisions counts only pairs equal on both totals, and againstCriteria lists any of them still ordered against the criteria.",
      "note": "boundBy names which limit decided the number when one did: floor, ceiling, row-above, or none. Rows marked floor sit at 41 and the multiplication alone gives a lower figure.",
      "baseWeights": {
        "availability": 20,
        "objectiveFit": 30,
        "frictionFit": 10,
        "trustBonus": 8,
        "quantitative": 18
      },
      "unweightedDimensions": [
        "profileFit"
      ],
      "unweightedNote": "These dimensions are computed and published in every breakdown but carry no weight in the total. profileFit left the composite in methodology 2026.09.2: it was constant inside all 114 categories, so its 20 points moved every product in a pool identically and ordered nothing. Sum the breakdown against baseWeights and the unweighted terms are simply absent from the arithmetic — that is the intended reading, not an omission.",
      "weightVersusInfluence": "A base weight is how much a dimension COULD move a score, not how much it did. Each category publishes dimensionSpread: the range that dimension actually covered across its pool. A spread of 0 means the dimension was constant there and decided nothing, however large its weight.",
      "objectiveBasis": "Each product names where its objectiveFit points came from. \"criteria\": the block is the weighted sum of the published criterion cells, min(30, 0.75 × Σ weight × cell/10 × 32) kept to a tenth of a point, and a pairwise ledger can itemise it per criterion. \"whole\": the category scores the block from structural facts or capability flags rather than per-criterion cells, so it enters a ledger as one term. \"sunset\": the product no longer operates (sunsetAt gives the date) and the block is zeroed regardless of its cells.",
      "totalBaseWeight": 86,
      "dimensionResolution": 0.1,
      "weightedTotalDecimals": 6,
      "resolutionNote": "Since methodology v2 every breakdown value is kept to dimensionResolution (a tenth of a point) before it is weighted, and each product also publishes unroundedWeightedTotal: step 1 over its points before that rounding. Two products that share a weightedTotal are ordered by unroundedWeightedTotal before any key of tieBreakChain after it.",
      "spreadPerWeightedPoint": 2.6,
      "scoreFloor": 41,
      "scoreCeiling": 99,
      "leaderRobustnessNote": "leaderSurvivesOnePointChange: whether this category keeps its #1 when any single criterion score moves by one point on the 0-10 scale — the smallest difference two competent raters can hold. False in 34 of 118 categories. A false does not mean the ranking is wrong; it means the evidence separates the top two by less than the width of a judgement call, and the file says so rather than letting the displayed gap imply otherwise. null means the sweep could not run — too few criteria or too small a pool — and is deliberately not reported as robust."
    },
    "recipe": "sha256 is the SHA-256 of the category spec (the file's \"spec\" field) written as compact JSON: every object's keys sorted, no spaces or line breaks, non-ASCII characters as UTF-8 (not escaped), no trailing newline. That is the serialisation of the rankings digest."
  },
  "rankings": {
    "ledger": "https://chainchoice.io/data/rankings-ledger.jsonl",
    "produced": [
      {
        "seq": 4117,
        "rankingsDigest": "a52a80b6616a1c26c3e3709a1a9e204195effbb82ef04a859cfee37174adfdb7",
        "ob": "2026-10-01",
        "src": "git:92b88d022229b3b8e1d701087a56d18465877738",
        "engine": "2026.10.3"
      }
    ],
    "whenIntroduced": "a52a80b6616a1c26c3e3709a1a9e204195effbb82ef04a859cfee37174adfdb7",
    "whenSuperseded": "a52a80b6616a1c26c3e3709a1a9e204195effbb82ef04a859cfee37174adfdb7",
    "newest": null,
    "note": "produced lists the ledger's digest entries whose rankings.json was generated while this version was the newest changelog entry (seq is the entry's place in the ledger). whenIntroduced and whenSuperseded are the digests of the rankings.json committed with the first and the last commit of this version."
  },
  "gaps": [],
  "notes": [
    "The category specs changed in 1 commit(s) after this version was recorded and before it was superseded, without a new changelog version. This archive holds the last of those states, the one the next version changed."
  ]
}