Why is it okay to have a hot wallet on your phone, but NEVER on laptop? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

Why is it okay to have a hot wallet on your phone, but NEVER on laptop?

452 sats \ 18 comments \ @Signal312 1 Oct bitcoin

Can somebody explain to me why it's okay to have a hot wallet on your phone, but not on the laptop? That's certainly the impression I get in general, from podcasts and reading.

(I understand you don't want to have a hot wallet on your phone for significant amounts).

Is there some substantial security benefit with the phone vs laptop?

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240 sats \ 10 replies \ @DarthCoin 1 Oct

On a mobile device you should have only enough for your daily spending (over LN). So the answer is NO, you should not have a hot onchain wallet in your mobile device, except for opening/closing LN channels.

As a general rule I always recommend the method of 3 levels stash:

HODL - only in cold wallets, long term holding, even in this level use multiple walelts, not just single one.
CACHE - medium amounts, in desktop wallets, nodes, intermediary wallets, to make coin control and good management of funds IN/OUT, swaps etc, multiple wallets too
SPEND - small amounts in LN wallets, multiple wallets too.

Well explained in this guide: https://darth-coin.github.io/beginner/be-your-own-bank-en.html

0 sats \ 9 replies \ @Satosora 1 Oct

Isnt it just bad opsec to keep stuff on your phone?

50 sats \ 8 replies \ @DarthCoin 1 Oct

So how you are gonna pay for your beers? With pink shells?

0 sats \ 7 replies \ @Satosora 1 Oct

With cash. Isnt that how normal people do it?

184 sats \ 6 replies \ @DarthCoin 1 Oct

I live in a bitcoin standard not in fiat standard... remember? Is time for you to do the upgrade.

Here is how I pay for my beers with sats.

And here are even more example how people are paying https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/bitcoin-lightning-irl-examples

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @Satosora 1 Oct

Im just not a fan of having so much information on my phone. Tell me how it goes when you lose it.

42 sats \ 2 replies \ @nerd2ninja 3 Oct

Loses $50 of spending money

and oh yeah, the PHONE which is more expensive!

More concerned with losing my phone than my sats in my lightning wallet.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satosora 3 Oct

Well, if someone who is knowledgeable picks up the phone, you can have a very bad day.

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71 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 1 Oct

Are you this guy ?

Im just not a fan of having so much information on my phone.

Then why are you here? Go back to fiat cage. Did you paid attention to what I said in the main post?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 1 Oct

I will listen to it when l am not near anyone. Cant really trust anyone now days. Could be him shouting obscenities. Whats wrong with believing in security? Just because you have gotten lax in order to use it doesnt mean we all have to follow you.

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67 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 1 Oct

I don't disagree with Darth's points here but the security model on phones is different from laptops. Most phones have much tighter restrictions in general vs. your typical laptop. There are far more targets on a desktop OS in general.

Now, you can run a laptop in a very secure manner but I would believe an iPhone or GrapheneOS phone are far less vulnerable than your average PC, even MacOS or Linux. Someone could write a book on the vectors of attack on a laptop. Phones are not great either but IMO they are marginally better.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @drlh 2 Oct

The most vulnerable part of phones and any other computer are humans. Phones are good until you give your own keys to bad actors.

Gonna finally setup my firewall :p

34 sats \ 2 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 1 Oct

Depends if the laptop is Linux or shitware spyware embedded Windows or Apple.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Signal312 OP 1 Oct

So you'd say that having a hot wallet linux is the equivalent of a hot wallet on a phone,(security wise) ?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 1 Oct

No I would say a hot wallet on linux laptop is somewhat safer than a hot wallet on a windows or apple laptop and also safer than on a phone (android or iphone), but obviously a Lightning Network hot wallet on a phone is more portable and easier to use for paying for things when out and about. For any serious Bitcoin computing use Linux OS. For small amounts for mobile spending on LN an Android phone is probably safe enough.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 1 Oct

It's all going to be okay.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 1 Oct

Was just going to add... there are perhaps very few coinjoin options that integrate cold storage. Trezor used to work with wasabi... but my understanding is that that's not really available currently? I haven't done enough research on coinjoin coordinators through wasabi and if they're reliable.

So the coinjoins that do exist are basically hot wallets on computers. How do we get around this? Robosats, Bisq, they're both hot on computers. Even the new proton-mail will be hot, at least to start although they say they're adding hww support.

So yes cold wallets for meaningful savings, but not using hot wallets in general is not really realistic imo.