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99 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 9h \ on: Don't run before you can walk - accepting my limitations bitcoin_beginners
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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