Announcing our Early Access Rewards program

One of the powerful use-cases that Bitcoin unlocked with it’s peer-to-peer nature is the ability to incentivize and reward contributions without any middlemen or hoops to jump through. This movement has come to be known as “value4value,” and has provided an immensely powerful new tool for content creators, Nostr users, and now community members. Today we’re excited to unveil a new program implementing the value4value philosophy into our existing beta testing process — Early Access Rewards.

tl;dr — Be the first to report any reproducible issue for Passport or Envoy beta releases and get a 10k Satoshi bounty in Bitcoin per issue reported!

Early Access Rewards Highlights

The premise of the Early Access Rewards program is quite simple: contribute meaningful bug reports for Envoy or Passport releases while they’re in open beta, and get rewarded for each individual contribution. No middleman, no lengthy ToS, no Foundation login or account necessary.

How to participate:

  1. Test the beta releases for Passport firmware or Envoy app.
  2. Report issues on Github.
  3. All issues (the first time they are reported) are eligible for the 10k Satoshi reward.
  4. Foundation team members will validate the issues for eligibility.
  5. Rewards sent directly to your provided Bitcoin address or Lightning invoice.

Join Early Access Rewards today

Want to earn sats for your important contributions to our open-source projects? Simply join our beta testers Telegram room below and keep an eye out for beta release announcements. Once a release is announced, you can submit any issues you find via Github and earn 10k sats per validated issue.

Once you discover an issue with the beta release, submit it via Github using the following links with the “Bug Report” option. Note that this does require a Github account:

Join the community, help us improve, and get rewarded in Bitcoin for your valuable contributions! 🎉

The future of Early Access Rewards

We’re excited to see how well this program works to incentivize important feedback and contributions from our fantastic community, but we also have plans to expand the program in the future. We’re currently considering creating a hardware Early Access program to get our newest products in the hands of invaluable community members first, and top contributors to this Early Access Rewards program will be first in line.

We have multiple new products in the works, and we can’t wait to watch each of you help us to build and improve as we bring freedom tech to more and more people around the globe. As one of the top contributors to our Early Access Rewards program, you’ll get the chance to test our new products for free as a thank you for your contributions in exchange for feedback and bug reports.

The (not so) fine print

If you have more specific questions on how the program will work, you can read the detailed rules below. Have a question? Don’t hesitate to ask in the Telegram room or email us at hello@foundationdevices.com.

  1. Eligibility for Rewards: a. The first reporter of any reproducible issue for Passport or Envoy beta releases is eligible for a 10k Satoshi bounty, paid in Bitcoin. b. Issues must be reported only once, and once made public, they are no longer eligible for additional 10k Satoshi bounties.
  2. Reporting Process: a. All issues should be reported on Github in the appropriate repository:
  3. Reproducible Issues: a. Issues must be reproducible, meaning that Foundation team members can accurately recreate and validate the issue in the Envoy app or Passport firmware.
  4. Judgement and Reward: a. Foundation reserves the right to make the final judgment on whether issues are eligible for the 10k Satoshi reward. b. Once an issue is verified and confirmed as eligible, the reward will be sent to the reporter’s provided Bitcoin address or Lightning invoice.
  5. Rewards Distribution: a. The rewards will be distributed in Bitcoin (BTC). b. The amount of the reward will be 10,000 Satoshi for each eligible issue. c. All rewards will be paid out at the end of the beta period.
  6. Confidentiality: a. While issues will be made public upon reporting, beta testers should avoid sharing sensitive or personal information in public discussions about the issues.
  7. Compliance: a. All beta testers must comply with the rules and guidelines set by Foundation Devices during the beta testing period. b. Any violation of the rules may result in disqualification from the beta testing program and forfeiture of rewards.
  8. Changes to the Rules: a. Foundation Devices reserves the right to modify the rules or terminate the beta testing program at any time without prior notice.
  9. Disclaimer: a. Beta testers participate in the program at their own risk, and Foundation Devices shall not be liable for any damages or losses incurred during beta testing.

Passport version 2.1.2 is now live!

We’re excited to announce that the latest version of Passport firmware – 2.1.2 – is now live! To download it, simply initiate the update from Envoy to be guided through the process.

WHAT’S CHANGED

In version 2.1.2, we’ve leveraged all of the background work in recent versions to build out some amazing new features for you, including backporting v2.1 firmware to Founder’s Edition, sending to Taproot addresses, a Key Manager Extension for BIP 85 and Nostr key support and export, and BIP 85 SeedQR exports. Features, features everywhere.

For more details on each of the changes, keep reading below!

NEW FEATURES

  • Backported our firmware from Batch 2 to Founder’s Edition, bringing firmware parity for all of our early supporters
    • We’re thrilled that those of you running Founder’s Edition devices will now have the latest and greatest features and improvements that we’ve been developing for Passport
    • This backport also means that we will be able to keep Founder’s Edition firmware up to date with Batch 2 as they now use the same base code
  • Added support for sending to Taproot (“P2TR”) addresses
    • Welcome to the world of Taproot, where you can now send transactions to any Taproot address (those starting with “bc1p”)
  • Added a “Key Manager” extension for enabling advanced functionalities
    • To learn more about our newest extension, dive into our support docs
    • You can use Key Manager to generate and export:
      • BIP 85 child seeds, allowing you to backup only Passport’s seed and be able to recover other wallets directly from Passport’s seed
      • Nostr private keys, allowing you to securely generate, easily backup, and recover your Nostr private keys directly from Passport or Passport’s seed
        • Simply display your Nostr key as a QR code and login directly to your favorite app with a single scan. No more copy-pasting private keys.
        • See how fast this can be in our Twitter post with video
        • Thanks to greenart7c3 you can use this today in Amethyst, a fantastic Android Nostr app!
      • …And possibly more in the future! This is a great place for open source tinkerers to add other keys they want to Passport’s firmware
      • Please note that if you export keys as QR codes, you should be careful what you scan them with! Apps like Google Camera will often open the content of the QR code in your default search engine, exposing that key to Google etc.
    • Any keys you set up will be automatically backed up to microSD in an encrypted format, making recovery a breeze
  • Added support for exporting BIP 85 seeds via SeedQR
    • Exports are possible via SeedQR and Compact SeedQR
    • Importing SeedQR is coming soon!
  • Allow users to display their PIN when entering it by pressing the “UP” key during PIN entry
    • Just in case you want to be sure you have it entered correctly, be sure not to do this in a place where it might be seen!

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Cleaned up our C code, optimizing our firmware and giving more space for amazing new features
  • Make “Erase Now” no longer the default selected option when you enter the erase screen, just to be sure an itchy trigger finger won’t accidentally erase your Passport
  • Ensure Founder’s Edition properly communicates its device information to Envoy
  • Passport will now indicate that it’s 30 seconds away from auto-shutdown by dimming its screen
  • Removed support for 18-word seed phrases as they are very, very rarely used

BUG FIXES

  • Fixes a bug where the backups folder was sometimes not created on the microSD. When this occurred Passport would also fail to create the backup file.
  • Improved error handling and prevention in displaying transaction info
  • Better handling of errors caused by other wallets’ multisig config formats
  • Fixed a display issue with the screen brightness icon
  • Fixed an issue that would prevent signing of PSBTs in sub-directories on microSD

VERIFYING AND INSTALLING PASSPORT FIRMWARE

If you’d like to verify and install the latest version of Passport manually, you can follow our guide on the topic here: Firmware Update support page

Passport version 2.0.7 is now live!

We’re excited to announce that the latest version of Passport firmware – 2.0.7 – is now live! To download it, simply initiate the update from Envoy to be guided through the process.

WHAT’S CHANGED

In version 2.0.7, we’ve reworked memory management when signing transactions from the ground up, drastically improving handling of larger than normal transactions via QR codes. We’ve also added the ability to delete files from microSD directly on Passport, allow you to export multisig configs directly via QR and microSD, and cleaned up a few small bugs.

For more details on each of the changes, keep reading below!

NEW FEATURES

  • Added the ability to delete files off of the microSD card directly from Passport’s file explorer
  • Added a feature to easily export full multisig configs via QR or microSD
    • Passport can now act as an additional secure option for you to store your multisig configuration file(s)
    • Now, if you were to lose a hardware wallet and its backup, you can easily recover your entire multisig wallet in something like Bitcoin Keeper, directly from Passport

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Drastically improved memory management when signing transactions via QR code
    • This improvements means that even those of you with complex multisig setups or dozens of UTXOs can now use QR codes to sign transactions
    • We do still recommend microSD for abnormally large transactions, as it is much faster for passing larger amounts of data by nature
  • Improved how we display sending funds to yourself to make it clearer what is happening
  • Renamed “Keeper” to “Bitcoin Keeper” in wallet export flow

BUG FIXES

  • Corrected a color inversion issue with the camera viewfinder
  • Corrected a minor terminology issue in multisig config text
  • Fixed a bug where Passport could say it was exporting a wallet summary to microSD without a microSD card inserted
  • Added a more detailed and helpful error message when a transaction is too large to sign via QR codes

VERIFYING AND INSTALLING PASSPORT FIRMWARE

If you’d like to verify and install the latest version of Passport manually, you can follow our guide on the topic here: Firmware Update support page

Passport version 2.0.6 is now live!

We’re excited to announce that the latest version of Passport firmware – 2.0.6 – is now live! To download it, simply initiate the update from Envoy to be guided through the process.

With version 2.0.6 of Passport firmware, we’ve added a fix for a pin entry issue that affected users with alphanumeric pins in the now deprecated v2.0.5.

NOTE: Since we have deprecated v2.0.5, we’ve replicated the blog post from that version below.

What’s changed

With version 2.0.6 of Passport firmware, we worked hard to drastically improve QR code scanning and processing, bringing speed and compatibility up to our standards. We’ve also added official support for Keeper Wallet, a new multisig focused wallet, and cleaned up a few bugs.

For more details on each of the changes, keep reading below!

New Features

  • Added support for Keeper Wallet
    • Keeper is a new wallet in alpha focusing on bringing a user-friendly experience to multisig and inheritance. Now you can use it with Passport as one of your keys with a native option under accounts to connect to Keeper.
  • Support looping through menus
    • Get tired of pressing that left key? Prefer to just mash one button? Now you can cycle through pages by just pressing right or left repeatedly.

Improvements

  • Improved camera QR code scanning performance
    • Camera performance has been a major focus in this release as we weren’t happy with speed and handling of certain QR code sizes and resolutions.
    • We’re happy to say that QR code scanning is finally up to our standards, and scanning should be much snappier and less finnicky across practically all wallets.
    • Two of the specific changes are:
      • Changed the camera to use a 4:3 resolution
      • Changed the QR scanning library to a more stable version
  • Improved performance of address verification
  • Show security words immediately after activation of security words
  • Improved supply chain validation scan errors
  • Improved Casa health check error handling

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a visual bug around alphanumeric PIN entry
  • Fix Passport lockup during initialization while pressing keys
    • If you’ve ever had your passport keyboard become unresponsive after booting, it was likely due to this bug
  • Resolved a few key Casa integration bugs
    • Fix an error when trying to export Casa configuration using microSD
    • Fix Casa health check scanning
    • Fix Casa transaction signing issue
  • Fix multiple minor memory leaks
  • Alphabetical order of software wallets displayed was fixed
  • Improve animation on “Verify Address” screen
  • Bring forward a microSD card bug fix from Founder’s Edition code
  • Fix passphrase not being shown when showing seed words
  • Reset extension settings and search address space on Passport erase
  • Fix Passport freezing when using special characters
  • When setting up Passport allow user to go back to update the firmware
    or to change the setup method
  • Fix crash when importing multisig configuration without valid keys
  • Display a warning when backing up Passport with a passphrase applied
  • Use root XFP as the filename for the backup when a passphrase is applied
  • Ensure extension accounts show the passphrase indicator
  • Fix lockup on wrong PIN entry
  • Filter keypad double-presses
  • Extended the shutdown timer while scanning and displaying QRs
  • Revert a regression in account header display
  • Prevent multisig config import failing when a passphrase is present
  • Fix a bug that would crash the file explorer if there were too many files on the microSD card

Verifying and Installing Passport Firmware

If you’d like to verify and install the latest version of Passport manually, you can follow our guide on the topic here: Firmware Update support page

Passport version 2.0.4 is now live!

We’re excited to announce that the latest version of Passport firmware – 2.0.4 – is now live! To download it, simply initiate the update from Envoy to be guided through the process.

What’s changed

With version 2.0.4 of Passport firmware, we added the Extensions menu, allowing users to enable extra features on Passport with the flick of a switch, starting with the Casa and Postmix extensions. We also greatly improved the QR code scanning and display functionality and fixed several minor bugs.

For more details on each of the changes, keep reading below!

New Features

Improvements

  • Improved QR code display and scanning
    • Improve the size and density of QR codes to better fill the screen
    • Remove vertical line from camera image when scanning QR codes
    • Remember last brightness setting when showing a QR code
    • Remember last pixel density setting when showing a QR code
  • Improve microSD and file handling
    • Autorefresh file picker when microSD inserted/removed
    • Erase the PSBT file after signing
    • Allow user to go back up a level when there are no files in the current directory
  • Improve user experience
    • Make delete key handling on Backup Code page more intuitive
    • Add low power warning dialog when battery hits 5%
    • Tell user when they are installing a developer-signed firmware update
    • Show new fingerprint (XFP) when switching passphrases
    • Show Clear Passphrase and Change Passphrase menus instead when a passphrase is already active
  • Show brick warnings on 5 and 1 PIN code entry attempts remaining
    • Ensure that users properly understand that the device will be bricked after entering an incorrect PIN code 21 times
  • Add several new/updated icons
  • Add support to enter account numbers up to 2,147,483,646
  • Improved paginated layout for seed words page
  • Rename Testnet menu to Network
  • Search “change” addresses for multisig address verification

Bug Fixes

  • Bring forward bug fixes from Founder’s Edition code
  • Fix Verify Address for all uppercase bech32 addresses
  • Fix XFP missing crash
  • Respect “Skip address verification” flag in wallet settings
  • Respect “Force multisig policy” flag in wallet settings
  • Fix multisig import and multisig address verification during connect wallet process
  • Fix text alignment in mulitsig QR import screen
  • Fix scrollbar margins in a few places
  • Fix QR and microSD wallet import crashes
  • Fix backspace bug when entering a 12 digit PIN
  • Fix toggle switch right padding
  • Don’t import duplicate multisig wallets (show error page)
  • When Auto-Shutdown is set to Never, the selection now scrolls into view properly
  • Fix Bitcoin URI parsing (when URI was followed by query params, parsing failed)
  • Allow up/down keys to increase/decrease screen brightness on all QR code pages, not just animated ones

Verifying and Installing Passport Firmware

If you’d like to verify and install the latest version of Passport manually, you can follow our guide on the topic here: Firmware Update support page