Cryptocurrency startup Keyp is creating an offline cryptocurrency storage solution with a Game Boy cartridge that gamifies the seed phrase process.

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A small team of developers at cryptocurrency startup Keyp is revamping the original Nintendo Game Boy handheld consoles and optimizing them for offline cryptocurrency storage, transforming the popular handheld console of yesteryear into a hardware cryptocurrency wallet called Game Wallet.

Game Wallet

But the Game Wallet isn’t just a new hardware wallet with a Game Boy console cover. In fact, the Game Wallet is far from a gimmick, it’s a new Game Boy game cartridge that actually uses gamification to generate seed phrases from users through random quests and interactions with non-playable characters (NPCs).

Once set up, the gaming wallet will be able to store any cryptocurrency that uses BIP-32 seed phrases, meaning it can store coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum at launch. Its software will also be open source and available for anyone to create their own implementation, if desired.

Pokémon

Joseph Schiarizzi, founder of Keyp, told Decrypt that the wallet’s gaming experience will be “similar to Pokémon.”

“Our main focus at Keyp is to make Web3 accessible and secure for everyone with tools like social login and additional security layers for wallets,” Schiarizzi said. “Game Wallet is a fun project and an extension of that.”

While Game Wallet has been in development since January, Keyp’s nine-person team believes that the recent controversy surrounding Ledger’s new “recovery” service means that a truly offline storage solution is needed. Game Wallet is presented as an offline storage option that promises never to have firmware updates.

There is no official launch date for the Game Wallet yet, but Schiarizzi told Decrypt that the company plans to open presales soon and is targeting a summer launch, barring supply chain and/or technical issues.

However, this is not the first time cryptocurrency enthusiasts have “cryptified” the Game Boy. Two years ago, a pseudonymous computer security researcher turned the handheld console into a Bitcoin mining device, albeit a very slow one.