TechFlow News, March 20: According to The Block, during the final stage of deliberation, Kentucky’s House Bill 380 (HB380) added Amendment Section 33, requiring hardware wallet providers to implement mechanisms enabling users to reset their passwords, PINs, or mnemonic phrases. In response, the Bitcoin Policy Institute criticized this requirement as “technologically impossible” for non-custodial wallets, noting that such wallets are inherently designed to ensure manufacturers cannot access or recover users’ private keys. Mandating backdoors would undermine Bitcoin’s core security guarantees and could force users toward centralized custodians.
This provision also contradicts Kentucky’s HB701, enacted in March 2025, which explicitly safeguards users’ independent control over self-custodied wallets and private keys. HB380 has now been referred to the Senate for review, where lawmakers still have the opportunity to amend or remove this clause before the final vote.
