We've made some major updates over the last month to both our mobile app and the safe's operating system. We also brought in an additional engineer to review our CTO's work. During that review, they identified several opportunities to strengthen our backend infrastructure and implemented some major security improvements across our systems. These improvements aren't something that can be implemented in just one week. They take several months to complete, but they'll help ensure that your experience, personal information, and overall security are significantly strengthened.

🛜 OTA

Oh, we have some exciting news about our OTA system!

OTA updates are still working, and we've been making some major upgrades to both the OTA system and the software.

As you know from one of our previous updates, we were not able to unify our two PCBA firmware branches, so we currently have to keep them separate. While this isn't ideal, it has been working. The downside is that nearly every software change we make has to be duplicated across both firmware versions. This means that any coding changes have to be implemented, reviewed, and tested separately in each branch. Essentially, almost the same work has to be done twice. Until we can figure out how to unify them so they can boot and operate together, this is the approach we have no choice but to continue doing. The team still believes that, over time, we will be able to unify them.

This also means that every time we create a new OTA build update for the safe, we actually have to build two separate OTA packages, one for each firmware branch. As we mentioned in one of our previous updates, each OTA build takes several hours to generate. This means that it doubles both the development work and the testing required before an update can be released.

Because of this, we decided it was finally time to build the OTA management system that we first mentioned in one of our earlier updates (we believe around January 2026). At the time, we had planned to postpone its development; however, because we now have two different firmware branches, it essentially forced our hand to begin building an OTA management system now.

Before the OTA management system, our update server could only point every safe to a single OTA file. There was no way to tell the system, "You are a Rev. 1 safe, download the Rev. 1 firmware," or "You are a Rev. 2 safe, download the Rev. 2 firmware." That meant if the OTA file wasn't changed at exactly the right time, some safes could receive firmware that wasn't designed for their hardware. Obviously, needless to say, that would be a disaster. This is exactly why we had to build the OTA management system. It allows us to organize safes into different update cohorts and ensure that each one receives the correct firmware based on its hardware configuration. Without it, we simply cannot manage which safes would get which firmware, which means that if the wrong safe received the wrong firmware, that safe could stop working, and we would have no way to recover it remotely.

Even if we eventually unify the firmware into a single branch, this OTA management system would still have been developed to direct different software versions to beta testers, internal testing, etc. The lack of firmware unification simply accelerated its development.

Below is a look at our OTA management system today. It allows us to organize safes into different update cohorts and control which OTA releases are delivered to each group. As development continues, we'll continue expanding its capabilities. (Feel free to right-click and open the image to zoom in.)

⚠️ Insurance and Warranty

Some other exciting news is that we recently signed an agreement with an insurance company to offer an extended warranty and accidental damage protection program for ALL of our customers (new future orders, and previous orders that haven’t yet been shipped).

If you choose to purchase this protection plan, for just $200, you will receive:

• A 4-year accidental damage protection plan
• A 3-year extended warranty on top of the standard 1-year SPACE warranty; for a total of 4 years of warranty coverage

This means that if something happens to the physical safe or its electronics, you would be covered. What makes this plan so special, is that the plan includes a $0 deductible.

Over the years we have put a lot of effort into finding the right company to partner with on this, and it has been on our roadmap since we first launched SPACE. The problem is, most warranty companies out there offered limited coverage, high deductibles, or terms that we didn't feel provided enough value to our customers. We found that many of these insurance and warranty companies try to find ways of getting out of honoring the warranty when a claim is started. We’re happy to announce that we finally partnered with a great company.

While we haven't officially released the program yet, when we do make it live, it will be available for purchase on our website when ordering a new safe.

Since all of you have already purchased your safes, we will also give you the opportunity to add this protection plan to your safe within 60 days after your safe ships.

Please note that this warranty and insurance program is currently only available for customers located in the United States. (The insurance and warranty company currently only offers this within the Untied States. As both our companies continue to grow, we hope this program will eventually become available internationally, and expand outside of the US. If they ever do, we will try to find a way to offer a special extension plan for those outside the US. Even if it means conducting a remote inspection).

Please note that you won't be able to purchase or add this protection plan until we're ready to begin shipping your unit. At that point, in addition to confirming your shipping address, we'll also give you the opportunity to purchase this protection plan within 60 days of delivery (not our shipping date, but your delivery date). This means we will NOT be collecting any money now.

Just as a reminder, the price many of you paid during Kickstarter and Indiegogo is significantly below the safe's current retail price. We believe this protection plan offers excellent value. Whether you're moving your safe and accidentally drop it, or something damages the touchscreen, this plan is designed to help protect the investment you made.

We do want to be clear that this protection plan does not cover the contents stored inside the safe. For those items, we recommend maintaining a homeowners or renters insurance.

Over the coming weeks we'll share additional details, including the program website and full coverage information, terms and conditions, etc, so you have ample time to decide if you want to add this incredible warranty and insurance to your safe. Spread over four years of coverage, it works out to less than $0.14 per day. We believe that's an incredible value and a small price to pay for the added peace of mind. 

🫆 Fingerprint Sensor

Over the last two years, we've mentioned issues around the fingerprint sensor many times throughout our updates. During that time, we found bugs in the original implementation, spent more than six months debugging and rewriting large portions of the code, and continued adding new features as development progressed.

Since our last update, as we expanded fingerprint authentication to more areas of the operating system, our testing requirements also changed. Previously, we only needed the fingerprint sensor to operate reliably during relatively short testing sessions, which typically lasted around a minute. However, as we began integrating fingerprint authentication throughout more of the operating system, we now needed it to remain active and stable for much longer periods of time.

That change in testing uncovered something alarming.

For years, we believed the issue was caused by our software. In fact, we thought we had finally solved it after months of debugging because every short test passed successfully. We were excited... or so we thought.

However, once we began running the fingerprint sensor continuously for much longer periods of time, it started freezing far more frequently than ever before. While it worked perfectly during our original testing, our new long-duration testing exposed a problem that had been hiding in plain sight the entire time.

Over the last month, we worked extremely closely with the fingerprint sensor manufacturer through constant testing, debugging, experimentation, and countless rounds of back-and-forth until we finally discovered the real root cause.

The issue was never actually our software.

It was hardware.

Even more surprising, the issue actually dates back nearly three years.

The original Chinese engineering team missed a tiny, yet critical, part of the PCBA design that allows the fingerprint sensor to periodically reset itself in the background. Without that functionality, the communication between the fingerprint sensor and the safe would eventually become stuck (or "wedged"), causing fingerprint authentication to stop working completely. The only way to recover it was by rebooting the system.

While that may not sound like a major issue at first, imagine needing to reboot your safe simply because the fingerprint sensor stopped responding. For a security product, that's completely unacceptable.

The reason this issue was so difficult to find is because our original testing requirements never exposed it. Our fingerprint testing sessions were intentionally short because that's all we needed at the time. Once our software evolved and fingerprint authentication was added throughout more of the operating system, we naturally began much longer testing sessions, and suddenly the issue became impossible to ignore.

Unfortunately, we also discovered that this same oversight carried over into the Ukrainian PCBA revision as well. The good news is that we've now identified the exact root cause and can correct it before mass production. This is yet another example of why thorough engineering validation is so important before shipping thousands of products.

This is one of the most important PCBA issues we've uncovered during development. Ironically, it was caused by a tiny missing part, proving once again that sometimes the smallest hardware details can have the biggest impact on an entire system.

We're incredibly happy this was discovered now instead of after thousands of safes had already shipped.

Fingerprint Speed:

One question we get asked quite often is:

"How long does it take to unlock the safe using a fingerprint?"

We’ve actually tested and quantified this for everyone; the fingerprint authentication itself takes approximately 0.2 seconds, while the motor unlocks the bolts in approximately 0.5 seconds.

That means from the moment you place your finger on the sensor, the safe unlocks in well under one second.

To the best of our knowledge, we believe this is one of the fastest fingerprint unlocking experiences available on any biometric fingerprint safe.

Honestly, after using it myself, it's a really satisfying experience. The development team also added a small timer that shows exactly how long fingerprint authentication and unlocking took, allowing us all to see and experience this performance for yourselves. So you can always track this in the future. You can see an image from the safe here:

🧠 Firmware & System Stability & 🧩 PCBA Hardware Update

We are still working and testing both the new PCBA and firmware, and while we still need some more time before we can sign everything off for mass production, we want to let you all know that we've made several major firmware improvements since our last update.

One piece of particularly good news is that, after additional investigation and firmware development, we successfully resolved the temperature and humidity sensor issues. Both sensors are now fully working and communicating correctly with the system.

This is another important milestone because environmental monitoring has always been one of the core features we wanted to include in the safe. Every sensor we bring online is one less unknown standing between us and production readiness.

While this may sound trivial, it is actually an important part of our validation process. Every sensor, feature, and subsystem that previously worked, must be individually tested and verified on the new PCBA and firmware to ensure nothing was broken during the redesign. This is exactly the kind of work that takes time, but it's also what gives us confidence that the final product will be stable and reliable before mass production.

⏳ Timeline Expectation

The progress this month has been one of our biggest engineering milestones in quite some time, and we're happy to report that the unknowns continue to narrow.

We know everyone wants a shipping date. We want that too. But we also don't want to give a date simply for the sake of giving one. The responsible path is to complete the remaining validation work and confirm that the new PCBA and firmware are truly stable enough to move into mass production.

This is not ideal for anyone, but it is controlled, measurable engineering work that must be completed before we move forward. Every month, the number of unknowns gets smaller, and every month we get closer to production readiness.

We continue to receive emails asking when the safe will ship. The honest answer is that we still cannot provide an exact date until the new PCBA and firmware are fully validated. We'd rather give you an accurate timeline when we're confident than an optimistic one that we later have to change. We also kindly ask that you avoid sending individual emails asking for a shipping date, as our answer will remain the same until we're ready to announce one. When we have a confirmed shipping timeline, we'll share it with everyone immediately through one of our monthly updates.

💻 Software & System

Before we continue, we want to point out that there are now two different OTA-related systems that we've mentioned throughout this update. To avoid any confusion, here's the difference:

• OTA Update System – The safe's ability to download and install software updates directly onto the Safe OS.

• OTA Management System – Our online backend platform that manages OTA deployments and determines which safe receives which firmware update.

We are continuing to refine the software carefully so the final product is stable, reliable, secure, and ready for real-world use. And when you get the safe, you will love it!

One of the best features of the Safe OS is that it will continue to evolve long after your safe arrives at your home. Whether you receive your safe today or a year from now (we haven't shipped any safes yet, we're simply using an example), you'll continue receiving new Safe OS features, improvements, security updates, and bug fixes through our OTA Update System.

As we've mentioned many times throughout the years, the OTA Update System has always been one of the most important long-term features we've built because having a bug in a feature and not being able to fix it would be disastrous, especially in 2026. The good news is that the OTA Update System has now been running successfully for months, allowing us to continuously improve the product without requiring you to send your safe back or perform complicated manual updates.

We view this as a huge software win, and it's continuing to work seamlessly.

🏆 💰 Pitching

Some other amazing news on the pitching side! We recently pitched at MindSpace's annual pitch competition, moderated by Daymond John from Shark Tank, alongside four incredible judges. With only 3 minutes to present, the judges selected our founder, Oscar, and company SPACE as the overall winner! 🎉

We're incredibly honored by the recognition and excited to share this achievement with all of you. It's another reminder that others continue to believe in the vision we're building and the future of SPACE.

We're not going to say exactly how many companies applied or participated, but we were incredibly humbled to be selected as the winner among such a strong group of startups and established businesses.

You can read more about it here:

Refresh Miami: SPACE wins The Big Pitch Night and Daymond John offers Miami founders advice

and also see another article here in a local publication on the top left of page 19:

Biscayne 6 15 26

 

Below you can see some of our images:

Product:

Some of the pitch:

Some of Daymond John:

Some of the audience:

The final contendors and judges:

Winner videos:

Some images after announcement:

Although we have not secured an investor yet, the process is ongoing and we are staying persistent. If for some reason these conversations do not result in funding, one of the alternatives we are evaluating is launching a Wefunder crowdfunding campaign. This is simply a backup route we may explore, and our goal is to give ourselves every possible chance to get the product into everyone’s hands.

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We request that you please hold back from sending individual messages about delivery dates and refunds. We will continue to provide full updates through our monthly updates, so please stay tuned for that and when we will be ready to ship. Your understanding and patience during this time is greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you for your unwavering support.

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TLDR - SUMMARY

• We identified and resolved the fingerprint sensor issue after tracing it to a small hardware component missing from the original PCBA design. This was one of the biggest engineering discoveries we've made and prevents a long-term reliability issue before production.
  

• We completed major improvements to our OTA infrastructure, including a new OTA Management System that allows us to safely deploy different firmware versions to different hardware revisions.
  

• The temperature and humidity sensors are now fully working on the new PCBA and firmware, bringing another core feature online.
  

• While we still need to complete the remaining validation work before mass production, the number of unknowns continues to shrink each month, and we're making meaningful progress toward production readiness.
  

• We are not ready to announce a final shipping date yet, but the unknowns are much narrower than before, and the path toward production readiness is clearer.
  

• On the business side, SPACE won MindSpace's annual pitch competition, moderated by Daymond John from Shark Tank, providing another exciting milestone for the company.
  

• Investor meetings still continue. 
  

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Next update will be sent around (not before, and possibly after): September 6, 2026.
Thanks for your support!