It's obvious and easy to see differences and compare all products on their website, but they only looking similar from the outside.
In short, Satochip is a hardware wallet for making transactions, and Satodime is more like physical bitcoin aka the bearer cold storage.
https://satochip.io/compare/Yes, I saw this comparison. The difference is only in the use value.
The hardware differences interest me. As far as I can see, both solutions use the same EAL6-certified secure element, so it seems it's just a matter of software.
In terms of hardware, there is no difference. Each product uses the same J3Rxxx smart card equipped with an EAL6+ certified chip (SE).
Satochip is a signing device, which means that it can sign a transaction using the unique private key stored inside its SE.
Satodime is not a signing device. It can generate a Bitcoin key pair (up to 3) inside its SE and will only reveal the private key if requested by the bearer. If you want te retreive the Bitcoin from a Satodime, you'll have to unseal the keyslot and sweep the private key in your existing wallet.
Same hardware - different products - different use cases.
First off, cool project. I definitely want to try this out.
I'm curious - what is the exact model of the cards, j3r110, j3r150, j3r180? Do you mind disclosing where you get them from? The reason I ask is, I've been looking at these for a couple of days and find the whole smart card landscape quite confusing. As far as I can tell, the j3xxx cards use NXP P71D321 chip/secure element. However, are the cards themselves manufactured by NXP? They're sold as such by some sellers (e.g. Cardlogix) but I can't find a single mention of these cards on NXP's website. So I'm a little worried about the source - is there a way to make sure the hardware is actually genuine?
Currently, we are using J3R180 smartcard from NXP. We cannot disclose our supply chain for many good reasons. And yes, the smartcard ecosystem is a real jungle. Too many products, too many vendors, not that much quality in the product sold. It's quite complex to navigate in this field.
As for the "genuine" check, each card is signed with our certificate and you can check the authenticity of the card by yourself using our PKI.
Use the dedicated application (mobile or desktop), go to the setting and you should find a button to check the card authenticity.