Nunchuk presented its Decoy Wallet or decoy purse. Announced in early October, this is a solution that improves the security of bitcoin holdings through “plausible deniability.” This implementation is now available for the Nunchuk wallet mobile app for free.
The best way to understand this decoy wallet is to imagine it as a hidden compartment that can be deployed at the right timeto pass it through the user’s main wallet:
“The Decoy wallet is a bitcoin wallet specially designed to store a small amount of bitcoin as protection against possible threats. In situations where you might be forced to reveal your wallet, a Decoy wallet allows you to present a minimum amount of funds, defusing the situation without compromising your core assets.”
Nunchuk, bitcoin wallet developers.
This wallet is suitable to be used in times of high pressure, when an attacker can access private funds through blackmail and coercion.
At such a time, the user with their Decoy activated will be able to enter an alternate PIN when opening their mobile application. That special PIN and different from that one gives access to an alternative wallet, with few funds in BTC.
Although the amount to be stored in said wallet depends on the user, storing few funds in it serves to deter the attacker from stealing them, or at least reduce the consequences of a theft. This wallet serves as a decoy because by having some real bitcoin, it acquires credibility and appears authentic.
According to Nunchukwhich, as CriptoNoticias reported, is a team specialized in multi-signature wallets, users will be able to create several decoy wallets with different PINs. This series of fake bitcoin wallets or traps cause “plausible denial” of the existence of the main wallet.
These add-ons, tricks and additional security-focused features are important when choosing a bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallet.
How to add a decoy wallet to Nunchuk?
To create a wallet of this kind from the mobile app, just go to the add wallet function, the same as if you were trying to create a wallet or import one into the application. By tapping the “create a wallet” button, the option to create a decoy wallet will immediately appear.
The user will then need to set a PIN for the decoy and send some BTC to make it credible.
Among other additional functions, entering the PIN of a decoy wallet will cause the other active session to be closed to protect the main wallet. This decoy wallet will be opened in guest mode, ensuring “that an attacker cannot determine if you have additional wallets or an account.”
At the time of writing, there is no way to recover decoy wallet PINs if they are lost. The Nunchuk announcement emphasizes the importance of making backups of these PINs to avoid loss of access to the decoys.
Nunchuk is not the only wallet to implement a decoy wallet functionality. The passphrase, a security measure implemented in wallets such as Trezor or Ledger, represents a solution analogous to the decoy as it allows the generation of hidden accounts only accessible through an additional and special seed word.