Foundation

Foundation was founded in April 2020 to develop Bitcoin-related hardware and software.⁠[1]

Early investor Fulgur Ventures identifies four cofounders: Zach Herbert, Ken Carpenter, Jacob Johnston and Matt Beach.⁠[2]

Foundation publicly introduced its plan to improve Bitcoin self-custody through open hardware and accessible design, including publication of circuit schematics, design files and firmware. Its initial direction centered on hardware wallets rather than a custodial exchange.⁠[3]

Foundation announced a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by Bolt, with participants including Third Prime. Bolt partner Tyler Mincey joined the board. The announcement said Passport shipments had begun the previous month and described plans to expand engineering, design and operations.⁠[4]

Foundation introduced Passport Batch 2 and the Envoy companion app. The redesigned wallet added a color display, replaceable lithium-ion battery and power-only USB-C port. QR codes connected its workflow to a phone; Envoy guided setup and downloaded firmware for transfer through microSD.⁠[5]

Foundation announced a $7 million seed round led by Polychain CapitalPolychain CapitalPolychain Capital is a digital asset investment firm founded in 2016 by Olaf Carlson-Wee and headquartered in San Francisco. Its business covers actively managed blockchain asset portfolios and investments in related companies, with public investments spanning base networks, cryptography, on-chain finance, payments, data and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry, joined by Greenfield CapitalGreenfield CapitalGreenfield Capital (formerly Greenfield One) is a crypto investment firm headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, founded in 2018 by Sebastian Blum and Jascha Samadi; its early investments include Celo, NEAR and 1inch. It has invested in Safe since 2022, and in October 2026 it filed a supervisory complaint with the Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations over the governance of the Safe Ecosystem Foundation.Open the full entry, Lightning Ventures and existing investors. Funding supported team expansion and hardware/software development.⁠[1]

Envoy expanded from Passport’s watch-only companion into a standalone Bitcoin wallet for iOS and Android, usable without Passport. The release added Magic Backups, biometric or PIN protection and balance hiding, bringing everyday mobile spending and hardware-wallet accounts into one interface.⁠[6]

Passport Prime broadened the product scope to Bitcoin, multifactor authentication, security keys, seed management and 50GB of encrypted storage. Its Airlock limits which files are exposed through an external connection. The device runs KeyOS, with a roadmap for third-party applications.⁠[7]

The second-generation Passport was renamed Passport Core to distinguish it from Passport Prime. Core retains its Bitcoin-focused, air-gapped design, using QR codes and microSD for transactions and power-only USB-C for charging. The Passport family therefore includes devices with different communication architectures.⁠[8]

Keylabs audited Passport Prime hardware and dev-v0.9.0 firmware, recording five low-severity findings involving debug access, PIN timing and sensitive-memory clearing. It found no high or critical vulnerabilities. These findings concern the assessed version and threat model, rather than guaranteeing every future release.⁠[9]

Foundation announced $6.4 million led by Fulgur Ventures with Arche Capital, bringing total funding to $16.5 million, alongside general availability of Passport Prime and access to the KeyOS developer platform. Its stated expansion covered identity, authentication and human approval beyond Bitcoin self-custody.⁠[10]

The optional, manually installed Legacy Mode beta runs supported open-source Ledger applications on KeyOS. Initial support covers Ethereum and Solana, with USB compatibility tested using Rabby and Phantom. Support is limited to specified apps and assets; Foundation states that Ledger does not sponsor or endorse it.⁠[11]

KeyOS 1.4.1 fixed a multisignature-signer-list crash and several Airlock/USB file-access problems, while improving update speed and charging behavior. It added low-battery alerts and more reliable shutdown before depletion. These are release-specific improvements, not a claim that every failure mode has been eliminated.⁠[12]

Foundation reported over 23,000 phishing-email attempts, retained personal data in legacy order tables and possible ShopifyShopifyShopify is a commerce software company that originated in Ottawa, Canada, providing merchants with tools for online stores, physical retail, payments, orders and inventory management. The business began with Snowdevil, an online snowboard store founded in 2004 by Tobias Lütke and others, and the standalone e-commerce platform launched in 2006. The company went public in 2015 and now trades under the ticker SHOP on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange.Open the full entry-order exposure. Attempts did not represent a victim count. It revoked affected email credentials and disabled legacy services; it had found no device or private-key compromise, with investigation continuing.⁠[13]

Envoy 2.3.7 continued precautionary security changes, moving Passport Prime checks to a new onion address and adding verification. It also fixed screenshot protection when returning from seed words to the seed QR screen. Foundation noted that app-store review can delay availability after publication.⁠[14]

The current company site names cofounders Zach Herbert as CEO, Ken Carpenter as CTO and Jacob Johnston as VP of Operations, with Bitcoin QnA heading customer experience. Foundation describes its mission as building hardware and software for user control over keys, identity and consequential digital actions.⁠[15]

KeyOS is a Rust microkernel system that places apps in separate sandboxes, coordinates processes through controlled message passing and manages permissions centrally. This design supports multiple security applications; architectural isolation claims should be read alongside version-specific implementation and audit evidence.⁠[16]

QuantumLink separates the Bluetooth chip from the security processor running KeyOS, relaying encrypted messages and using QR codes for out-of-band public-key pairing. Foundation describes quantum-resistant key establishment with ChaCha20-Poly1305. This wireless design differs from Core’s absence of wireless communication.⁠[17]

Envoy combines a mobile hot wallet with Passport management. Hot accounts sign on the phone; cold accounts require Passport approval. It supports account viewing, transaction preparation, setup and updates. User control of wallet keys is distinct from the store’s processing of purchase information.⁠[18]

Foundation documents separate Magic Backups for Envoy and Passport Prime. Passport Prime’s default scheme reconstructs its master key from any two of three shares, held on two NFC cards and the phone side. The encrypted app-settings backup is distinct from the full master key; recovery depends on access to the necessary shares and accounts.⁠[19]

The KeyOS platform provides Rust apps, a UI library, simulator and CLI tooling. Apps declare permissions for capabilities such as touchscreens, cameras, NFC and USB-C. The developer page labels the SDK a public beta; showcase concepts should not all be treated as generally released products.⁠[20]

Foundation’s security hub provides threat models, source code, independent audits, responses and firmware-verification resources, including WalletScrutiny reviews of different Passport models. Open source, reproducibility and external review are distinct evidence types; none eliminates every device or surrounding-service risk.⁠[21]

The privacy policy effective May 21, 2026 describes processing order, shipping, support and account information through Foundation and service providers. Retention varies with business, legal and system requirements; it does not promise universal automatic deletion after 60 days. Wallet-key custody and commerce-data protection are separate matters.⁠[22]