On Nostr your key is your identity — there is no support line that can give it back. So it should not sit in a browser extension where any bad tab or bad update can copy it. On a VibeSigner the key is generated on the device, never leaves it, and nothing is signed until you press the button.
A key in a browser extension is a file on a computer that runs other people’s code all day. A key inside the signer is not reachable over USB at all — the device answers with signatures, never with the key.
The display shows what is about to be signed and waits. Nothing is silently signed in the background, and a website that asks fifty times still gets nothing until a human agrees.
The firmware is public under Apache-2.0. You can read what it does, build it yourself and flash it from the browser — no trust in our good intentions required.
Plug the board in, open the web flasher in Chrome, click once. No toolchain, no driver hunt, no command line.
The device generates the key itself and shows you twelve words to write down. Standard BIP-39 words as defined by NIP-06 — the same words rebuild the same key on any device that follows the standard.
A web client talks to the signer over USB and asks it to log you in. Your npub goes to the client, your nsec stays where it was.
Every note, every reaction, every private message is shown on the little display first. Approve and it is signed; deny and the client gets nothing.
Built on the LilyGo T-Display S3: display, two buttons, USB-C. Plugs into the computer, signs for web clients, fits on a keyring. This one exists and works today — the kit is in the shop, firmware and web flasher are public.
The paranoid tier: no USB data, no radio while signing. The event comes in as a QR code through a camera, the signature goes back out as a QR code on the screen. Prototype hardware runs, the case is being printed.
Planned: a signing image for standard SeedSigner hardware. The Pi Zero 1.3 has no WiFi or Bluetooth at the silicon level — the right home for the identity key you almost never touch.
We build the cases, buttons and mounts that turn a naked dev board into something you are happy to carry — that is why this project sits on a 3D printing farm. The USB kit is in the shop (55 € in sats, you flash it yourself); firmware and flasher are free and public, so you can also build one from scratch.
You write down twelve words when you set it up. Those words restore the exact same identity on a new device — they follow NIP-06, the shared standard, not a format we invented. Treat the words like a seed phrase: offline, on paper or steel, never in a photo.
Any web client that adds support for the signer — today that is flink.club, which was built alongside the device. The protocol is documented and the code is public, so other clients can implement it without asking us.
Decryption also happens on the device and also needs your approval — it will not hand out a shared secret behind your back. The device shows what is being asked for and waits for a button press.
No. The board is a standard, widely available dev board and the firmware is free and open. Buy it wherever you like, flash it in your browser, done. What we sell is the printed part and the convenience of not doing it yourself.
Only you can, and only with your twelve words. We never see your key, so there is nothing on our side to recover. The browser recovery tool turns your words back into a usable key — on your own machine, offline.
The firmware is public and flashes from the browser. Grab a T-Display S3, click once, and see whether hardware signing fits how you use Nostr.
