The cryptography inside these devices ages gracefully.
The chemistry and mechanics around it do not. Custody planning
means designing around the parts that rot.
Li-Ion Batteries
Risk: swelling, capacity loss, storage sensitivity
Window: ~3–5 years under typical use
Internal Li-ion is the stealth attack surface for “cold storage”
if the device lives in a drawer or safe. Plan refresh cycles,
or use AAA / no-battery designs for anything you expect
to just sit and wait for years.
Screens & Touch Panels
Risk: dead pixels, ghost touches, total failure
Beautiful screens make for better onboarding, but they add
new ways to die. Ghost touches + signing is
a nightmare scenario. Keep at least one “dumb input”
signer in any serious multi-sig setup.
Firmware & Protocol Drift
Risk: obsolete formats, stagnation, quiet deprecations
Wallets that stop getting active engineering become harder
to operate safely over time. Favor devices with clear
update cadence and release notes, and do an annual
“still fits our stack?” review.
Production & Supply Shocks
Risk: early-batch quirks, surprise EOL
First runs surface weirdness (screens, plastics, assembly).
Later, SKUs vanish. The sweet spot: slightly after launch,
once issues are known, and before sunset — with a small
buffer of spares you trust.