One of the most interesting aspects of our modern world is the ability to work collaboratively despite the challenges of geography and time zones. Distributed engineering is a trend which we’ve watched pick up steam over the years. One such example is the Mooltipass offline password keeper which was built by a distributed engineering team from all over the world. The project is back, and this time the goal is to add BLE to the mini version of the hardware. The call for collaborators was just posted on the project page so head over and check out how the collaboration works.
The key to the hardware is the use of a smartcard with proven encryption to store your passwords. Mooltipass is a secure interface between this card and a computer via USB. The new version will be a challenge as it introduces BLE for connectivity with smart phones. To help mitigate security risks, a second microcontroller is added to the existing design to act as a gatekeeper between the secure hardware and the BLE connection.
Mathieu Stephan is the driving force behind the Mooltipass project, which was one of the first projects on Hackaday.io and has been wildly successful in crowd funding and on Tindie. Mathieu and five other team members already have a proof of concept for the hardware. However, more collaborators are needed to help see all aspects of the project — hardware, firmware, and software — through to the end. This is a product, and in addition to building something awesome, the goal is to turn a profit.
How do you reconcile work on an Open Source project with a share of the spoils? Their plan is to log hours spent bringing the new Mooltipass to life and share the revenue using a site like colony.io. This is a tool built on the Ethereum blockchain to track contributions to open projects, assigning tokens that equate to value in the project. It’s an interesting approach and we’re excited to see how it takes shape.
You can catch up on the last few years of the Mooltipass adventure my checking out Mathieu’s talk during the 2017 Hackaday Superconference. If this article has you as excited about distributed engineer as we are, you need to check out the crew that’s building this year’s Open Hardware Summit badge!
Yay!
(Mooltipass fanboy)
thanks for the support :)
I liked my multipass, and having one I can just toss on the desk might be cool, but when I came back from NZ my card was locked and haven’t used it since… nfi how it ended up locked I didn’t even use it while I was away, just sat it in my backpack.
“How do you reconcile work on an Open Source project with a share of the spoils?”
OS has spoils?
It is true that so far we’ve always used the money we “made” to start other mass production runs!
Thanks a lot Hackaday for covering this new adventure!
Most heartily do urge input from the masses, and tread down hard on the supposed “experts”. If the “experts” had it right last time there would be no need for this time. One time would have done it. It is a moving target, but ONLY because none have predicted it would be a moving target as obviously it is yet seems to have been missed.
Trust NO experts. None are. “NEW” would not be needed if they were.
Now. Spend your time raging at me for saying it…… Or spend your time making it really happen this time.
I just love the name of this device…
I’d be more interested if there was support for implanted NFC tags. I always carry mine with me! I’m surprised there isn’t, as I know Mathieu has one too.
damn, you know me well :)
BLE would be a wonderful addition and would probably push me over the edge to actually pick one up. Being an IT contractor this device is a blessing. But i haven’t been able to convince myself(or the missus) to spend the cash on one.
The only thing besides BLE i would love to see, is a recessed control for it(it would live in my pocket 80% of the time), something not liable to get bumped and wake it from sleep.
Any chance we can get smaller cards this time :D
I’m afraid that won’t be the case due to backward compatibility reasons.
In any case, you may trim the cards :)
a year and a half now….. any new news ?