Trézór Bridge®™ | Secure Crypto Connectivity
Trezor Bridge is a small, locally installed software utility that acts as a secure communication layer between a Trezor hardware wallet and applications running on your computer, especially in web browsers. Designed and maintained by SatoshiLabs—the makers of Trezor—Bridge resolves a fundamental challenge with modern cryptocurrency hardware wallets: how to securely let web or desktop apps communicate with a device that intentionally keeps private keys in a locked, offline environment. Without Bridge, browsers typically cannot directly access USB hardware for security reasons, and hardware wallets like Trezor cannot be managed if there’s no safe transport layer between device and interface.
Purpose and Role
At its core, Trezor Bridge serves as a trusted intermediary. When you plug in a Trezor wallet (e.g., a Model T or Model One) to your computer via USB, the operating system recognizes the device at a low level, but most browsers and web apps cannot talk to it directly. Bridge resolves this by running as a background service on your local machine, listening on a local interface (commonly something like 127.0.0.1 with a defined port). Supported wallet software such as Trezor Suite Web or third-party wallets then send requests to this local service. Bridge relays these requests to the hardware wallet over USB and returns responses back to the application.
Bridge doesn’t replace the internal security model of the Trezor wallet. Instead, it preserves security by ensuring all private key operations—such as signing transactions or authorizing accounts—occur on the hardware device itself. Bridge merely passes encrypted commands and signed responses, never exposing secret data outside of the secure hardware.
Cross-Platform and Browser Support
One of the strongest advantages of Trezor Bridge is cross-platform compatibility. The software works on major operating systems—Windows, macOS (including Apple Silicon), and various Linux distributions—and supports modern browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and Edge. This universality means users don’t have to rely on outdated browser extensions (like old Chrome plugins) or dependency-specific APIs; Bridge standardizes the USB communication layer reliably across environments.
Security and Privacy Features
Security is fundamental to Trezor’s design, and Bridge reflects this priority. The software runs locally and does not connect to the internet, meaning it cannot expose wallet communication beyond your machine. All traffic between browser, Bridge, and the hardware wallet is encrypted. The codebase is open source, allowing independent security experts to audit the implementation. Bridge also enforces strict controls to ensure only recognized, authorized applications can communicate with your Trezor device.
Why It Matters
In practice, without Trezor Bridge, most browser-based wallet tooling would struggle to interface with the physical hardware wallet due to security policies that sandboxes USB access. Bridge is therefore critical for enabling a smooth user experience, enabling transaction signing, firmware updates, and account management through web apps. It not only simplifies technical hurdles but also increases security by isolating the communication layer.