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Hi, there are different options, like Trezor Ledger , Safepal.... in Hardwae wallet or use a metal plate that puts the seed or put the seed inside a tube. Which is the safest method to save and hold BTC and why?
Hardware wallet users please, show your experience with cold wallets. Thanks.
I would recommend a cold card or Jade wallet, that's what I use, I prefer to use hardware wallets that are bitcoin only, but you can also create offline keys without a hardware wallet so it's not really a need, it just helps you to sign those keys
You can put it on a metal plate I do recommend that but there is no "Safest method" but shutting up, never speaking about it and hiding your keys lol
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I think I speak for many of us when I say "I could really use work on not talking about it."
;-)
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LOL indeed we're all pretty bad with privacy and doxxing the fact that we have bitcoin, all you have now is coinmixing and denyablity
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There is a tremendous amount of debate around this topic. Between multi-sig, single-sig and wallet MFG's.
That said, I am a big fan of keeping it simple. Get yourself a Coldcard (purchased directly from Coinkite), and pair that up with Sparrow Wallet & your own node.
Use a standard 24 word seed phrase + passphrase and put it on metal. Not a fan of splitting, encrypting or anything else with the seed phrase, as it becomes a point of failure and most Bitcoin is lost due to user error.
I am also a fan of storing the seed phrase twice on metal and securing it in geographically different locations. You should load the initial seed with some BTC as a decoy and watch it in case it ever moves.
Multi-sig is great, but it is complex if you don't know what you are doing and could cause you to lose your bitcoin if you mess it up. Going that route, I would recommend using a service such as Unchained Capital or Casa. I personally have experience with Casa and their service is great!
Practice setting up your wallet, whichever one you get. Generate your seed phrase, store it, send some sats to and from the wallet then blow it away. Restore the wallet from your seed phrase, and you will be confident in the event that you need to do it again.
Note: the 24 word see phrase should never be stored online or typed into a computer of any kind. It can be used to restore you wallet regardless of MFG, hot, cold or otherwise.
Take your time, and check out BTCsessions on youtube if you want solid tutorials for almost any hardware wallet.
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You should load the initial seed with some BTC as a decoy and watch it in case it ever moves.
Could you explain this part any further?
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Of course!
So in a setup where you use a standard 24 word seed phrase + passphrase, you are creating a new "wallet" with each passphrase (you can make as many as you want). So, in this instance the thought process is as follows:
Wallet #1: Base 24 word seed phrase.
This is the least secure of them all, because if your seed phrase was compromised it would be the easiest to access.
Wallet #2-Infinity: Base 24 word seed phrase + passphrase.
These are the more secure layers of your seed phrase (keys). If your 24 word seed phrase is compromised, you still have the passphrase protecting the funds in these wallets. There is no way to know whether or not a passphrase is being used on a seed, so typically the attacker would either move on or try to brute force the seed phrases.
With those things in mind, the idea is to create some plausible deniability. So on Wallet #1, you should store some funds. That way if your keys are compromised, the attacker may think they got your whole stack. You could then sweep the funds from your Wallet#2 (protected by passphrase) off those keys entirely and re-secure your stack.
The decoy stack also allows for you to watch that parent wallet on the base 24 word seed phrase. So if you see any movement on it that is not your movement, then you can sweep and secure any held under a passphrase.
Keep in mind, its good to make the parent stack big enough and with enough activity to make it seem believable. Moving like 50k sats to it one time will not be convincing to anyone. Plus, in all actuality, those funds should remain secure under normal circumstances. There is nothing inherently insecure about the 24 word seed phrase, outside of the fact that the seed phrase exists in the physical world and could potentially be compromised if not secured properly or exposed via coercion.
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Мой метод хранения.1. Напишите на бумаге свое имя и фамилию или ещё что нибудь.. 2.Удалите повторяющиеся символы. 3.Разбейте все по два символв. 4. Возьмите приватный ключ в HEX виде и поменяйте в нем символы как в парах. Если такого символа нет то не меняйте его. 5. Эту комбинацию храните на бумага, почте, rq коде. Вы всегда востановите свой приватный ключ.
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Coldcard FTW
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For long term codl hodl, a multisig setup with multiple different HWW manufacturers would be a good start. An example of what this could look like is here. I personally use Sparrow Wallet instead of Specter, though.
If you're looking for just one device, you may consider these:
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I recommend 2 cold wallets from 2 different manufacturers with the same seed phrase. Put one by your desk and one somewhere else. Save the seed phrase in a third location. Generate a bunch of deposit addresses and use a different one each time. The only time you need to connect your wallet is for withdrawals (which you shouldn't be doing anyway. HODL!)
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I personally use a Ledger. It's incredibly easy to use.
Many do not like Ledger because their marketing department's CRM software was hacked or a CRM that their marketing department uses was hacked. This led to many customer records, mailing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, being leaked. To this today, these people receive spam messages and some even threats.
I did not purchase my Ledger. My friend bought 2 and gave me one. We then set them up together, because he was kind of clueless on how they worked. This was after the leaking of customer data. But either way for me, Ledger doesn't have my information.
If you do decide to use Ledger, I'd recommend not shipping the device to your house. Use a PO Box or have it shipped to your place of employment, any place that isn't your home or a loved one's home.
If you want to avoid a Ledger altogether because the above has you feeling uneasy, then I'd recommend using a Foundation Passport. They are robust and easy. They are a little on the pricier side though and are not for everyone because of this. I do not own a Passport, but I spent a long time using one at the BTC Conference this past year. If I did not have a Ledger already, I would buy a Passport in an instant.
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I'd take a look at seedsigner. It may not be the most straightforward but you learn much through the process. As you mentioned, having a secre seed is key. The rest is finding an airgapped or minimal-trust solution to sign your seed.
I've used both closed and open-source hw wallets and no problems with using multi-sigs.
If single-sig cold storage will suffice for your needs, I guess bitcoin-core should not be overlooked.
Safety tends to be a trade off between simplicity and security, IMO. But don't overlook either.
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After much discussion and liberation I came to the conclusions cold card is where its at seed signer looks cool too though I will say
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SeedSigner!
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Coldcard is on another level. It almost feels like security LARP (in a good way) with all the features and accessories they offer.
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Trezor with passphrase and with BTC-only firmware ;)
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Very confused by the comments.
In my real life people are mostly on Ledger.
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I bought:
  • Foundation
  • BitBox (Btc only)
  • ColdCard
  • Trezor T
I'm currently use BitBox and Foundation for the sleek UI/UX in combination for multi sig signing devices. All of them are good enough for self sovereignty and security, at the end it boils down to how the end user manages and uses those devices
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Cold card isn’t very user friendly. Something that is out the box easy cheap and gives reasonable security and privacy is Jade wallet. Hardcore folks hate the Bluetooth that it uses but it’s a tradeoff for ease of use. As you get more knowledge you can graduate to more sophisticated methods like cold card and multi sig
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бумажный.... 100%
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I mean, I just use multisig with sparrow. I have a laptop with an encrypted hard drive that I normally never use or turn on that is one of the keys in that multisig and then of course a physical seed backup.
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не пврь себя этим... сделай бумажный...
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Yes, I have a physical paper seed backup.
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Probably want to avoid Ledger. They collect user emails and shipping details and leaked over 270k customer records. Then they tried to cover up the leak for way too long.
Many Ledger customer have been targeted with phishing scams. Don't ship your hardware wallet to your home address.
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Someone on reddit recently reported having their funds locked while trying to use the swap feature on Ledger Live. That person wanted to tether his funds but when he used the swap feature the provider which was changelly locked his funds and demanded shotgun KYC.
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Some more reasons to avoid ledger:
  1. They disabled the ability for connecting to your own node in Ledger Live, this is a major issue and indicative of their mindset. If you must, use Ledger hardware with another wallet UI such as Sparrow
  2. They support a bunch of shitcoins like Bitcoin Cash. People can and do get confused and have lost funds from this.
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Trezor Model T
Я для хранения пользуюсь адресом и приватным ключ, которые ранее получил из кошелька электрум. Генерация ключей была без сети. После генерации ключей диск был отформатирован.
Люди наивно думают что железяка в виде аппаратного кошелька поможет не ошибиться. Ваш Биткоин сохраняется не в железке, а в сети. Безусловно для частых трат удобнее использовать аппаратный кошелек. Но для хранения достаточно хранить ключ.
Изучите как работает Биткоин. И для хранения достаточно правильно и безопасно сгенерировать для себя пару ключей. Аппаратный кошелек для хранения иметь вовсе не обязательно.
Ключевое слово в вопросе это " хранение". Для хранения используйте просто адрес и приватный ключ. Главное сгенерировать их и сохранить правильно. И знать как это работает.
Safepal is good and cheap and Air gapped. But lacks support for many advanced btc services.
I ended up getting Ledger Nano S Plus. It is nice and easy to use.
But if you are bit hardcore on security level. Go for Coldcard wallet.