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Don't run before you can walk - accepting my limitations
2321 sats \ 4 comments \ @Taj 11h bitcoin_beginners
So i posted a technical question about a Hardware wallet yesterday and immediately Darth answered in his prompt no nonsense fashion
And it's a response i see regularly surrounding the use of TailsOS, electrum, a USB stick and an old laptop 💻
Now, I'm gonna be honest, since finding Bitcoin and SN and Nostr, my IT skills or computer science skills have improved massively
But I've had a look at Darth's very well written guide... #1291251

And i have to say, that's just way out of my league, and more importantly there's a good chance i could make a very grave error

  • From what i understand so far, I must change BIOS/UEFI settings whatever they are, disable secure boot, allow USB boot...no idea lost already
  • Apparently every manufacturer hides these menus in a different place, on some laptops you have to set a special password before the option even appears
  • One wrong setting would leave me staring at a blank screen with no idea of what to do
  • Cold storage only works if the tailsOS survives a reboot, well i can guarantee i won't know if it would or not reboot
  • I tick one wrong box, i could lose my keys or mistakenly leave something on the usb stick which renders the whole exercise pointless

Here comes even more technical stuff

  • I need to download electrum inside Tails while offline, check its GPG signature, and copy it over via a second USB??? Sorry wtf
  • I skip a signature and I'll let a trojan in that drains my stack! Sick one

Obviously the spending issue is not as needed as this will just be a deposit wallet

But even so, this is atm too technical...
  • Create unsigned tx, transfer via qr or usb, sign in tails, transfer back again and send from the Internet. Easy!
  • One wrong click and my cold wallet will be hotter than Darth's temper
  • Some usb sticks randomly unconnect themselves, laptops overheat and shut down midway through a tx
  • What if tails crashes midway, what's the disaster recovery? Don't ask me 🤷

Tails looks amazing if you know what you're doing but everything is manual, one mistake and the security is gone

Nope, i think ill stick with Jade plus for the time being and improve my level of knowledge as far as this goes.

Are there any Bitcoin beginners who also find some of this stuff, exciting but also challenging and slightly frustrating when you can't just do it

But i guess it goes back to the old saying
  • 'You gotta do the work'
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126 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 11h
I need to download electrum inside Tails while offline,
Tails already come with Electrum. But if you want to do it yourself, Tails also come with Tor included and you can do whatever you want online, even adding Sparrow or Bitcoin-Safe to the stack.
The idea is to use Tails as a total independent OS, wherever you are, offline or online and you are able to make how many copies you like to that USB as a safety precaution. That doesn't mean you should have all your stash there and use only that usb. Remember my other guide to think like a bank and compartmentalize your stash in 3 main parts with multiple wallets.
Consider this scenario of using a USB with Tails as your "escape plan" in case of SHTF.
In this way you can have all the time a OS dedicated only to your Bitcoin use and keep the rest of your PC/laptops / OS out of this.
Don't be so paranoic for your 0.11BTC stash
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Taj OP 11h
🤣🤣🤣
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99 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 8h
Tails + a HWW doesn't really make much sense, Tails itself just complicates things versus a regular Linux.
Important to remember why your using either of these things, and not just because other people have introduced complexity risk to their own setups.
  1. HWW's are to keep your signing keys away from a daily driver computer that may have backdoored software on it
  2. Tails is an amnesic OS for ephemeral activity and using Tor without DNS leaks
I can't think of a scenario in which its sensible to use both together.
If you're using a hardware wallet, your keys are already separated from your daily driver PC thats probably got at least half a dozen backdoors loaded on it.
If you have a dedicated system to use Tails with, just use a regular unbloated linux, and don't install anything unnecessary on it that might sweep your keys... Debian + Bitcoin-QT and you're done.
If you don't have a dedicated system already, a used or black friday laptop/chromebook is cheaper than most of the HWW's.
Ubuntu/Debian etc also offer disk encryption, so you don't have to worry about the laptop falling into the wrong hands with your config loaded on the hard drive. You can then back-up your wallet.dat (or use the HWW with it directly if doing a multisig) and back up any configs for that to eliminate the single point of storage failure. USB is fine for a backup, but not primary. An archive grade DVD-R is more resilient for backups over time.
Also anything beyond just straight Bitcoin is additional surface risk, custom HWW Software, Electrum, etc are more things you're going out to the internet and downloading and need to verify...
When if you have a dedicated laptop all you need is a Bitcoin binary that has countless eyes on it (plus the whole OS supply chain you have in either case)
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 11h
Yes, this is totally normal. We’re still very early and important things aren’t super user friendly.
Take the steps you’re comfortable taking. There’s always more to learn, so don’t beat yourself up for not understanding everything right off the bat.
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