Passport's alpha firmware is now open source! Read our blog post about the importance of open hardware and the great open source work we've built on to bring Passport to market.

Summary thread below. https://foundationdevices.com/2020/12/leading-an-open-hardware-renaissance/

In April we set off to build a new type of hardware company. Instead of building closed source, proprietary hardware, we’d open source all of our work. We’d fight back against today’s norm of security via opaqueness and instead embrace security via transparency.

Instead of releasing open source hardware catering only to developers and hardcore security enthusiasts, we’d design beautiful devices with bold, unique industrial designs and intuitive UIs. We’d aim to build the best products and bring them to the largest number of people.

Only 8 months after launching Foundation Devices, we have finished prototyping Passport and are beginning mass production. In several weeks we will be shipping our first devices to customers across the world.

We’ve released Passport’s circuit designs as open source via CERN OHL S v2, and Passport’s alpha firmware via GPLv3 (and compatible licenses). These viral, copyleft licenses ensure that others can use our work for any purpose – as long as they open source their work as well.

View the firmware here:
https://foundationdevices.com/passport-firmware

View the circuit designs here: https://foundationdevices.com/passport-electronics

Passport is built upon and inspired by numerous open source elements. For our hardware, we researched the architecture of popular devices like @COLDCARDwallet, @ShiftCryptoHQ Bitbox02, and @Trezor – all of whom post their electrical schematics on Github.

We also implemented an open source true random number generator from the @bunniestudios Betrusted project (called an Avalanche Noise Source).

For our firmware, we relied on the open source @micropython project and used @COLDCARDwallet's open source firmware as a template. We started a new MP project, did low-level bringup work for our hardware, created a new UI, and ported + modified pieces of Coldcard’s code.

We also implemented @Trezor's open source crypto library, ported @BlockchainComns' open source UR Library to Python, and integrated two open source QR libraries.

It would not have been possible to design Passport in less than a year without building on great open source work.

Currently only Passport and @Trezor meet the definition of Open Source Hardware. Foundation Devices believes it is our responsibility to encourage other hardware producers to fully open source their work.

We applaud @Trezor for their full embrace of open source hardware, but we suggest they license their hardware designs under CERN OHL v2.

We implore @Ledger to change their approach and open source their hardware designs and proprietary firmware.

We suggest that @ShiftCryptoHQ Bitbox02 and @COLDCARDwallet release their circuit design files, rather than just their schematics, so that the hardware can be fully open source.

Our beliefs about the importance of open source were inspired by both @COLDCARDwallet and @Trezor. When Coldcard launched in 2018, they used Trezor’s open source crypto library – and welcomed others to use their open source, GPLv3 code!
https://twitter.com/nvk/status/1023978745848246273

We are grateful for @COLDCARDwallet's open source firmware, of which we’ve used numerous components to more quickly bring Passport to market. However, we are disappointed that they’ve recently chosen to relicense their firmware as closed source. https://github.com/Coldcard/firmware/blob/master/COPYING-CC

The Commons Clause license condition is closed source and incompatible with GPL. The Free Software Foundation @fsf urges rejection of software under this license condition, and the license condition is widely criticized and on the decline.
https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/License:Commons-Clause

In summary, we believe open hardware improves cooperation and security and accelerates industry progress. We’re excited to bring open hardware products to the world and hope to see others do the same!

Learn more about Passport Bitcoin hardware wallet and preorder today. https://foundationdevices.com