the profits from selling hardware wallets alone are quite limited. that’s why most bitcoin hardware wallets have historically been built by community enthusiasts rather than large companies. while open source allows the community to inspect the code, it’s difficult to maintain a security budget large enough to fund continuous, multi-round audits by multiple independent third parties. that’s a challenge for every team building self-custody products. they have to avoid taking custody of users’ assets while still finding a sustainable business model that generates enough revenue to invest heavily in security. most teams simply don’t have that level of funding. it’s a difficult problem with no perfect solution. putting all your trust in a third party doesn’t solve it either. the collapses of ftx and mt. gox wiped out the savings of countless people. i had some funds on ftx myself, and i’ll never get them back. some people i know deal with this by diversifying where they keep their assets, splitting them between custodial and self-custodied holdings. for custodial assets, fully entrusted to third parties, such as exchanges or etfs. for self-custodied assets, split across multiple wallets, with only a portion of the funds in each. even if something goes wrong, this approach puts a meaningful cap on potential losses. it’s a bit more work, but i do think it’s an effective way to manage risk.(Yishi)