There are two components at play in the Tangem Wallet.
The first component is the hardware wallet device — a pack of two or three Tangem cards required to create one wallet. The second component is the Tangem mobile app, available on iOS and Android. You can use any mobile device with an Android operating system higher than 6.0 or iOS 15.0 and higher with full NFC support, except iPhone 6/6s and iPhone SE (1st generation).
Please note that iPhone 7/7 Plus and some Android models do not have full NFC support. In this case, backing up your private keys on your phone is not available. You can use any other phone — iPhone 8 and up or Android 6.0+ with full NFC support — to create a backup and continue using the app on your device.
Let's see how these two components work together.
Tangem cards
Tangem cards have an inbuilt secure element chip that functions as a microcomputer. When the card is manufactured, the chip generates its own key pair: the Kcardpriv private key and the Kcardpub public key.
These keys are unique to each card and are not connected to the future user's wallet. They're only required so that the card can prove its authenticity and tell the app that Tangem manufactured it.
The Tangem app
The Tangem app displays the functionalities of the Tangem wallet, including stored assets and user controls for managing cryptocurrency.
How Tangem cards and app interact
Tangem Wallet interacts with the app on your phone via Near-Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a wireless connectivity technology that allows devices to communicate when brought within a few centimeters of each other using magnetic field induction.
Get started in 3 steps:
- Download the Tangem app from the App Store or Google Play
- Tap the card to your smartphone
- Follow the steps for activation
The setup process takes no more than three minutes.
You don't have to worry about losing your phone or resetting the Tangem app because all information about your crypto assets is stored in the card’s chip.