The Cryptosteel Capsule can be purchased at cryptosteel.com. Claims to be extremely durable - fireproof up to 1400C/2500F. Shockproof. Waterproof. Stainless.
Setup
This was pretty easy to assemble other than the final retention pin, though unlike pretty much every other style of device it’s fairly annoying to read back due to the orientation and spacing of the tiles. I also noted that it comes with a very large assortment of tiles, which makes it more versatile for potential use cases.
Heat Stress Test
Performed admirably - I didn’t even have any trouble reopening the capsule by hand.
Corrosion Stress Test
No acid entered the capsule. Even if it had, I doubt any data loss would have occurred.
Crush Stress Test
This was an interesting result. I gave it a 50/50 chance of bending and it held up pretty well to several tons of pressure, but eventually gave in a bit to my 20 ton press. The reason the result is interesting is that I didn’t anticipate the consequences of bending the tube. Obviously the data inside is still intact, but how are we going to read it? Because the end of the rod is permanently affixed to the screw-on cap, it’s now impossible to unscrew the device.
I don’t have the tools on hand to attempt opening the device, but I expect you’d want to somehow cut through the tube just below where the threads of the cap end. But that’s not all! Because there is only a retention clip on the opposite end of the rod, you’d then have to be extremely careful while pulling the rod out of the tube to ensure that the tiles don’t fall off, causing data loss. Because this is clearly a suboptimal Schrödinger’s cat type of situation with the potential for data loss, I feel the need to deduct a few points.
