Why it's safest — Keystick

Approach	Where the key is born	The problem
Browser extension wallet	On an online machine, inside a browser	Any malicious extension, any compromised page, any clipboard monitor. The key exists on a networked device that keeps running.
Mobile wallet app	On an online, always-on phone	Better isolation than a browser, but the device is permanently networked and permanently persistent. “Deleted” is a policy claim.
Desktop wallet	On an online machine	Same exposure as the browser, with more filesystem to leak into.
Hardware wallet	On a dedicated offline chip	Genuinely good — and exactly what failed at Coldcard. You are trusting firmware you cannot read and an RNG you cannot audit.
Exchange custody	Not yours at all	Someone else holds the key. That is a different product with a different risk, and it is not self-custody.
Keystick	In RAM, on a machine with no network stack	Your host machine could still be physically compromised. You still have to protect the paper.

01What we are actually better at

The generation environment has no network capability, structurally, rather than by configuration.
Your own entropy is mixed in, which is the one defence with a proven track record.
The tool refuses rather than falls back, so a silent entropy failure becomes a loud one.
Standard derivation, so you are never locked to us and never dependent on us existing.

02What we are not better at

Straight answer

If your computer’s firmware is already compromised at a level below the operating system, booting our stick on it does not save you. If someone is filming your desk, nothing here helps. And if you lose the paper, the money is gone — a hardware wallet with a PIN gives you a second chance that we deliberately do not.

Measured against everything else.

01What we are actually better at

02What we are not better at