Recently, the new EU battery regulations have gained a lot of attention. Many people complain that this is "backwarding" or "regressing," but I think they might have misunderstood — these rules are actually using regulatory force to drive deep structural changes in the hardware ecosystem, which has significant implications for the entire crypto hardware industry.

Let's first look at the regulations themselves: starting from February 2027, all portable electronic devices in the European market must support users to safely replace their batteries themselves. Manufacturers are required to provide spare parts for at least 5 years, prices must be transparent and publicly available, and user manuals must be permanently preserved. At first glance, this might seem like a step backward, but from a different perspective — it’s redefining the concept of "hardware full lifecycle security."

This is especially meaningful for the crypto hardware community. Currently, hardware wallets on the market face a dilemma: sealed designs ensure security but become completely obsolete once the battery ages, forcing users to send devices back to the manufacturer for repairs, during which the device’s state is a complete black box; conversely, designs that allow easy disassembly are more vulnerable to physical attacks or tampering. The EU’s new regulation mandates a "removable + long-term supply" model, which just happens to resolve this contradiction — enabling core hardware components to remain replaceable and traceable, greatly enhancing user control.

Specifically, some new hardware wallets are already experimenting with modular designs, separating key cards and batteries. The benefits are straightforward: first, when the battery ages, it can be replaced directly without affecting the private key generation logic; second, key cards support multi-card backup redundancy, so losing one card doesn’t compromise security; third, a long-term spare parts system prevents devices from becoming "disposable," aligning naturally with the "permanent ownership" attribute required for crypto assets.

Even more interestingly, transparent manuals and maintenance standards are actually building a trust system for hardware — users can understand the device’s construction, reducing the black box operation space, and thereby increasing security and transparency. This "constraints as empowerment" logic is worth the entire crypto hardware ecosystem to ponder carefully.