The key starts on the chip
During setup the chip creates the private key. It is not typed in from a laptop, and the laptop does not keep a copy.
Hardware wallet
Read the line, then press the dial.
Aurora Root is a hardware wallet from Goingclear, Inc. in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. It is a low, wide rail that holds the private keys for cryptocurrency. The key is created on a chip under the glass. A request is written across a long horizontal line, and the silver dial on the right is the press that confirms it.
On the chipThe key is created here
The lineOnly the chip draws it
Silver dialA press confirms
USB-CThe cable opens a reading
No radioThe rail stays off the air
The object
A rail that lies flat.
Aurora Root is a short bar of matte violet metal, wide enough to read in one glance and low enough to sit under a hand. The screen is a long black window. The name is engraved beneath it. A round silver dial finishes the right end, and a small square key sits at the left.
A hairline of teal light runs the top edge while the chip is awake. USB-C is on the end beside the square key. A sealed cell can keep the line lit long enough to finish reading after the cable is set aside. That cell has no antenna. When the reading ends, the slit goes dark.
Why the rail is shaped this way
Three habits, built into the metal.
The line is local
A request that arrives on the cable is drawn by the chip. If the words on the line are wrong, the dial stays up.
Twenty-one words, once
Setup shows a 21-word recovery phrase on the rail. You write it by hand and keep the paper away from the computer.
A reading
Cable, line, dial.
A program on the computer can prepare a request. Aurora Root finishes it where the line can be read.
The cable brings a request
The program cannot finish the request by itself. It can only pass the details into the rail.
The line writes them out
What is being asked, where it is aimed, and any warning the chip raises appear on the glass. That view is the one that counts.
The dial confirms
Pressing the silver dial tells the chip to sign. The square key steps through the line or clears it. Without the press, the signature stays inside.
On the desk
Dark until a reading starts.
Aurora Root waits with the line blank. The dial does nothing until a cable is connected, or until the sealed cell is asked to light the glass for a look. A session with a computer begins at the USB-C port and ends when the line has been read.
Bench list
Leave a name for the bench.
Aurora Root is keeping a bench list. A name and an email hold a place. Three things come back with it.
01A number for that place on the bench.
02A single sheet about the rail, before the bench is called.
03A note on the morning the bench is called.