EthVault: A Secure and Resource-Conscious FPGA-Based Ethereum Cold Wallet
Joel Poncha Lemayian, Ghyslain Gagnon, Kaiwen Zhang, Pascal Giard

TL;DR
EthVault introduces a secure, resource-efficient FPGA-based Ethereum cold wallet with hardware-implemented cryptographic algorithms and resistance to side-channel attacks, enhancing security for digital assets.
Contribution
This work presents the first FPGA-based Ethereum cold wallet architecture with hardware cryptography and attack resistance, optimized for portability and resource efficiency.
Findings
ECC architecture resists side-channel and timing attacks
Design uses minimal FPGA resources
Implementation validated on Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+
Abstract
Cryptocurrency blockchain networks safeguard digital assets using cryptographic keys, with wallets playing a critical role in generating, storing, and managing these keys. Wallets, typically categorized as hot and cold, offer varying degrees of security and convenience. However, they are generally software-based applications running on microcontrollers. Consequently, they are vulnerable to malware and side-channel attacks, allowing perpetrators to extract private keys by targeting critical algorithms, such as ECC, which processes private keys to generate public keys and authorize transactions. To address these issues, this work presents EthVault, the first hardware architecture for an Ethereum hierarchically deterministic cold wallet, featuring hardware implementations of key algorithms for secure key generation. Also, an ECC architecture resilient to side-channel and timing attacks is…
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