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Bitcoin watch-only wallet vs hardware wallet for long-term savings
31 sats \ 4 comments \ @chaum 26 Nov bitcoin
I tend to go towards a watch-only wallet, because you don't have to update firmware, have no risks of security breaches of your customer info when you bought the hardware wallet or hacks for the hardware wallet's software. You could use e.g. Blue wallet or another FOSS one with your own Bitcoin node to use you watch-only wallet.
How would you rate the 2 options vs convenience, security and privacy?
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100 sats \ 3 replies \ @DarthCoin 26 Nov
As I described in this guide and this one an encrypted USB with TailsOS I see it much easier and enough safer for a regular user.
  • Convenience - 8 (not 10 because not any newbie will know how to manage properly a TailsOS, require some training)
  • Security - 8 (not 10 because require some training to know how to distribute copies of the USB in multiple locations and also how to encrypt it and use persistent partition)
  • Privacy - 9 (is almost 10 because nobody will know what you have on that USB, is not so obvious like a well known HWW and also you can have decoy wallets)
For watch-only wallets, yes we have multiple options, many apps now that can handle various scenarios, mobile and desktop. For watch-only I prefer desktop apps.
Let's not forget or ignore the golden rule of stashing on 3 levels:
  1. vault / hold
  2. cache / coin control
  3. spend / LN
I see HWW only for companies and/or scenarios where are more than 1 user involved in managing the funds.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @chaum OP 27 Nov
Thank you for the very detailed setup. I'm going to try that setup.
When running Electrum from TailsOS, I didn't see connecting to your own Bitcoin node mentioned. Is that not necessary because you only broadcast? It's probably necessary if you want to update your transaction history, label it, etc.?
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 27 Nov
If you use Electrum on TailsOS offline, why do you want to break that offline part and go online?
Don't you know how to use Electrum offline? You just have to prepare the tx, sign it and then save the whole tx code onto a txt file on a memory stick. Then from any other PC online with a dummy Electrum you just broadcast that tx already signed. There's not even need to connect to your own node.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ChrisS 27 Nov
This is misleading to me. At some point you have to connect to your own node or somebody else’s to verify you received a valid transaction. Yes once you’ve verified that you can create and sign the transaction offline and use whatever node you want to broadcast it.
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