Every edition makes keys the same way, from the same audited engine. One of them adds a switch.
One generation engine, audited once, in every SOLANAkeystick we ship. Nothing about how your key is born is held back for a higher price — the difference buys a property of the object, never a better key. What is identical across every edition:
Your SOLANAkeystick never stores a key. So the risk it carries between ceremonies is not theft. It is substitution. The stick sits in a drawer for years; at some point you plug it into a computer that is already running. If that machine is infected, software on it can rewrite what is on the stick — and the next time you use it, you boot a ceremony that looks exactly like ours and produces a key somebody else can predict.
On the standard edition you close that gap yourself, by keeping the stick away from any running computer between ceremonies. Done carefully, that works. The read-only edition closes it with a physical switch: with the switch set, the drive refuses writes, so software on the host has nothing to write through. It turns a threat you meet constantly — an infected computer — into one that is rare: a person with your stick in their hand.
With the standard stick, integrity is a ritual you repeat. With the read-only stick, it is a fact that persists.
Standard and for Mac are the same physical stick, as are the two read-only editions. You are choosing one thing: switch, or no switch.
| STANDARD · $60 | READ-ONLY · $75 · recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Generation engine | Identical | Identical |
| Keys stored on the stick | Never | Never |
| Keys you can generate | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Can software change the stick? | Yes, on an infected machine | No — the drive refuses |
| Keeping it genuine | Keep it off running machines | Set the switch. It stays true. |
| Tested before sealing | Written, read back, checked | Written, read back, checked, then a write attempted and refused |
Buy the read-only edition · $75 Buy the standard edition · $60
The standard stick is safe when used as directed. The trouble is that "as directed" is a rule you have to keep for as long as you hold the key — and the reason you generate offline is that you do not want your future self's memory to be load-bearing. Fifteen dollars turns a rule you must remember into a property of the object. Choose read-only if you expect more than one ceremony, you are generating for family or a business, or the balance is large enough that you would rather it not depend on your own discipline.