Topic: Before You Send Your Bitcoin To Hardware Wallets I Do This! (Read 438 times)

Where did you find this type of information? I've never heard about such thing, and exactly what do you mean when you say that hardware wallets "go dead"? The coins are stored on the blockchain, if you don't move them they are just going to stay there forever, they can't disappear, and the seed phrase doesn't have any expiration date so I'm really struggling to understand what you mean.

I completely agree with this. Some people believe that because the wallet is a personal wallet, they have nothing to worry about, but this is a bad habit. We should always consider what the Op says, no matter how much we believe the wallet. I usually do it whenever I move funds, especially large sums, to a specific wallet, because there is a danger that the wallet will be compromised.

I've been a victim of this type of thing before; I was overconfident that everything would be fine, but I was mistaken. As a result, whenever I transfer funds, especially large sums, I try to send a little amount first.

Each person is responsible for the assets they own. And if @OP uses the methods he shows, it means he is comfortable with those methods. We also have our own ways to ensure the security of the hardware wallets we buy from stores, offline or online.

We will also do the same thing as @OP but in ways we already know clearly. Maybe the methods used by @OP can be an alternative to ensure that the hardware wallet is safe from backdoors or whatever.

The important thing is that we must always ensure everything before we move all the assets into one place. But it's best to have several separate wallets. But if not, that's fine too. Everyone has their own way.

Well, it's possible that you can only deposit a small amount that you feel you are comfortable losing, but it might not also be a very significant amount that the hacker needs, so what they do is to be calm and study a Bitcoin wallet to see the amount of Bitcoin that usually comes into that wallet and how often transactions occur in the wallet. It's only when they see a significant amount of Bitcoin that they will steal it, but if it's still a new wallet, they might not be in a rush to launch their attack until they notice a significant amount of Bitcoin in the wallet.

Ledgers are multi-cryptocurrency wallet so instead of using Bitcoin just to test out if you can send and receive, why not just use altcoins that are also supported in a certain ledger to make it cheaper since Bitcoin transactions cost more than altcoins.

Factory resetting it is more than enough already, unless you bought a secondhand ledger which I don't recommend. But there's nothing wrong with being more than sure so I guess you don't have to be cheap when it comes to your funds security and self-assurance.

Is this really an effective solution? Because the more wallets you have, the more time and effort you will spend storing more seed phrases. I don't think storing bitcoins in 2 or 3 hardware wallets is a good solution. As long as you can ensure the security of your seed phrase, using a hardware wallet is safe and trouble-free. Don't try to complicate things. Hardware wallet or non-custodial software wallet, whether it is safe or not, is completely up to you.

Everyone in crypto should follow your thorough and informative two-step hardware wallet testing process. We should also diversify wallet types.

You've suggested dispersing assets among several hardware wallets, but lets also explore other wallets. Some of your assets can go to a hardware wallet, some to a safe software wallet, and some to a multi-signature wallet.

Each type has perks and cons, and by using multiple types, you're not placing all your eggs in one basket made of one material. This way, if one basket has an unexpected vulnerability, not all assets are at risk. Do it again: Diversify quantity, quality, and type. Be aware, and remain safe!

Hardware Wallet This is completely new to me. I have never used a hardware wallet before and I don't know exactly how to use this hardware wallet. But I heard using hardware wallet is much safer. There is no possibility of hacking using hardware wallet. If so I would buy a hardware wallet and hold my investment here. Today I saw a post on Help&Beginner about a person's trust wallet having a large amount of funds hacked. So if using a hardware wallet reduces this risk a lot, then I will definitely use a hardware wallet. But I hope I will slowly learn all the information about hardware wallet and learn how to use it very quickly. Everyone help me.

Of the 2 steps described, I applied all of them when I bought the first Hardware Wallet.
Doing a test like this will be very useful to find out if the hardware wallet is working properly or if there are some errors that might occur.

Of course, this applies to all types of hardware wallets.
But instead of sending Bitcoin I choose to send other coins like TRX to see how the hardware wallet works and the fee for the TRC20 network is also cheaper.

New devices bought from official stores are more trusted, but it doesn't hurt to do a reset to make it cleaner and safer.
Especially if you buy a used hardware wallet, it is mandatory to reset and create a new address.

Before sharing advises like this OP it's better to tell the difference of hardware wallets that newbies and beginners should be first, some are bad and vulnerable to attacks, having a hardware doesn't mean you can't get your assets stolen from you.

Make sure you pick a open source hardware wallet, there are many numbers of closed source hardware wallets this days and beginners won't be able to tell the difference without doing their own research first.

Even if you have an open-source hardware wallet like Trezor, you can still lose your assets, either by your own carelessness, so it's better to know how to keep your hardware wallet safe too, some people think that having money to buy a hardware wallet is everything that's there to know about hardware wallets, there are some do and don't using a hardware wallet.

Some newbies can't even differentiate what's meant to be share online, since private keys can be confused with Bitcoin addresses, they will copy and paste it online, Bitcoin address is made for sharing, to receive funds and private keys are made to be private, a secret, because it's the key to your crypto bank.

Using a crypto wallet has a lot of responsibilities, DYOR.

The precautions technique you want to apply it's a wise one, I understand that the whole idea is keep your your coins safe and secured.
But you don't really have to go through all this huddle's to keep your coins safe.

You just need to get a reputable hardware company that has stood the test of time and people can attest to it, and save you your coins there, a very good example of such hardware wallet is electrum.
What you should also have in mind is your ability to keep your seed phrase a top secret.

I seem to have missed this one step. So far, I have only continued to send Bitcoin from DCA on the exchange to my wallet without testing to send my Bitcoin back. In the past, I only tested it with the first step, namely sending a small amount from Cex. After that I just focused on sending from the exchange to my wallet.
I felt confident and didn't test by sending bitcoins from the wallet to the exchange because I had already checked that the seed phrase was working properly. So I thought as long as I held the seed phrase then it was safe and could definitely be used to send and receive.

But it seems I have to test a little as you said.

Well that's the point of sending small amount of coins because not all network/chains, exchanges or any centralized websites can be trusted. I agree to send small amount of coins to know what they will do after they received our coins.

But we're talking about hardware wallet here, where it must be the safe place to hold our coins and they have no way to steal our coins because they can't guess the seed phrase of our wallet.

I do this for all networks or chains I'm using for the first time, including Bitcoin, as long as I can afford the gas fee, even in depositing in a new exchange address or website. Sometimes, when sending a significant amount of crypto, I check even the old addresses to see if it's correct from the start to the end of the wallet address. The gas fee is high, but safety comes first.

Hmm, so you are just taking pre-caution from your side and not even trusting the flow and working of custodial or noncustodial wallets. I salute you for this, because if you are that much careful then I doubt if you will ever fall prey to phishing attacks. Or fall greedy for good-looking deals which results in phishing ones. You are on the right track dude. Keep it up and also try not to be that much precautionary in the real world because that might reduce your friend circle. Just a friendly piece of advice.

Now you heard about it.

Not everyone knows how to read codes so testing the send and receive functionality of the wallet is another to verify if the wallet is fully functioning.


Cases like these are uncommon, but they do occur. Taking a few minutes to test run a wallet isn't a big deal unless you don't care about your funds.

Yeah, I understand we need to test the seed phrase somehow. But is Ian Coleman's BIP39 tool not sufficient for this? Or, I'm curious, has there been a case involving at least the most trusted hardware wallets in which the seed phrase generated is wrong?

Also, I understand the principle behind testing the receive and send functions, but, again, has there been a case involving hardware wallets in which an address is the correct one but it cannot receive nor send coins? I know this case is common among centralized platforms, but hardware wallets?

Preliminary testing before using it as a personal device wallet should certainly be carried out. When I bought the Trezor hardware wallet I did what the OP did to see how the hardware wallet performed, whether it was safe or not.
If an error or any kind of problem occurs then stop using it and return it if necessary.
and don't buy a wallet from a third party who is not an official reseller, because this will be more dangerous if the wallet has been used before and they already have the private key. There are many incidents like that when buying wallets from non-official resellers or used wallets.

It is necessary to verify first your deposits with small amounts. That's a common approach when you're about to deposit in the hardware wallet you own. But there are people who don't do that because they think that everything is safe but little do they know that the PC they own does have malware that copy-paste's the address of the hacker.

Not necessary on exchanges but desktop wallets are enough for it. But if that's what you prefer, that's fine as long as you own the wallet and address but I prefer doing that with another wallet not with exchange's.

Yeah, this is good information. Normally when you buy a new device, you have to cross check the softwares or the apps in the device before using it. And in the process is f checking the it if you see any app and software you don't have knowledge about, you delete it. What said is not only to hardware wallet but also to cold wallet and also to mixers. That was why when I used a mixer first time yesterday, I used the minimum required amount to test the mixer and it was successfully so next time when I am using it, I will deposit big amount to mix. So using a hardware wallet at the first time, as the op said, make a factory reset so that any malicious software that is inside will be removed.

That's a piece of great advice, I would recommend doing deposit and withdrawal testing by using 1% of your funds before you send everything at once. You never know what if you are not able to recover the funds from the newly hardware device you bought, what if it's the only faulty product and some sort of other issues like water damage etc? I am sure people do not think about these issues when dealing with this transfer.

The best ideal method to first take in action is to verify the source you're buying your wallet from, then secondly, when you want to use the hardware wallet, make sure that you first tested it just as being advised that you sent a little amount into the wallet first and then send it back to another wallet, if these steps are achieved without a problem them you can also take the effect use of the hardware wallet to serve you it purpose.

Secondly, if you already tested it and everything is working perfectly, then try as much as possible to ensure you handle it with good maintenance from any form of physical damage on the hardware, how we handle it matters here, avoid any chemical substance having contact with it, avoid excessive heat, water or any form of hardware damage on the wallet to make it more simple for use, we have to store it in a secured place that will not be rough handled.

It might seem like a lot of steps, but it does make sense. When you set up a new wallet, you generate a backup in the form of a seed phrase written on a piece of paper or something similar. How can you be sure your backup will work if you lose or damage your hardware device if you don't test it beforehand? Okay, maybe you don't need to factory reset your device and start the whole process over, but it's a good practice to at least test the backup seed by importing it into a software wallet on an offline device before you send any substantial amount to your wallet.

If HW is compromised they may  wait to catch the big fish and will not be pay attention to small amount initially sent to test the wallet. The best way to protect yourself from possible backdoors in  any new wallet, including hardware one , is to create multisig wallet that requires   at least two independent keys, one of them is  from your new HW while the other one - from device of other manufacture (or from software wallet, let's say Sparrow).

If you think your hardware wallet e.g. trezor, ledger, Bitbox etc aren't safe and you're test them by holding small amount of money, then check it back whether your coins are still there or not, that's not verify.

Verify is where you read entire the hardware wallet source code or verify GPG key, unfortunately not all people are understand about codes, so what you can do is trust them without any doubt.

The best choice is create your own cold storage through Electrum, make sure your device is 100% safe, verify the GPG key and do it everything offline.

https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

Is this really necessary? Or is this kind of overdoing it? Is this is your own way of making sure everything is perfectly secure with your new hardware wallet or is this an advice you also get from somebody or somewhere else?

I had my first hardware wallet years ago and I cannot remember doing these many steps when I first used it. I could have done it wrong, but this tip sounds a little superfluous to me. You've got only steps 1 and 2 in the OP, but apparently it's more than just a couple of steps. Setup your wallet, send a little amount, wipe it clean, factory reset it, set it up once again, send the money back to where it came from, and so on and so forth.

I don't know why we have to send it back to exchange even we can create a new address self on another software wallet like Electrum for testing. Just send a small balance from the hardware wallet to Electrum, and vice versa. And, to check your 24 mnemonic seed is correct with the address, you can use iancoleman running on an airgap pc or locally. This can minimize the error when you swipe it back into your hardware wallet.

Choose open source hardware wallets to use.

[LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets

Because you have to spend money to buy hardware wallets, when you do it, buy it from official store and never try to reduce your purchasing cost a little by buying second-hand hardware wallets. It is very risky if you are not technical expert to test and verify those used wallets. You can lose big money by saving small money with second-hand hardware wallets. Risk is big, loss when happens is big so don't take that risk.

I also think, that as long as the wallet provider is legitimate enough, the kind of tests you recommended are not necessary.

What are you trying to test? If the hardware is legit, if the hardware is working, or if the hardware does not carry a backdoor.

The first one should be done by examining the packaging. If everything looks new and untouched you can check the wallet using software provided by the manufacturer.

The second one can be tested simply by setting up a wallet, turning the device on and off a few times, charging it and checking if it holds charge. You don't need to send money in and out because if you can set a password and access the device with that password it means it works. The wallet does not really send or receive anything. It's just a device used to confirm the key and passphrase. All the transactions are really done by software on your computer.

The third one may not manifest itself when you send a test transaction. If the device is infected the hacker may not try to steal your test amount of 0.001BTC, but will steal 0.1. Sending dust to the wallet will probably prove nothing if someone was good enough to plant a bug inside the hardware wallet or its cable. Yes, you read it right, it's possible to plant memory chips within the USB cables!

For me, as long as the wallet provider is legitimate enough, the kind of tests you recommended might not be necessary. It's advisable to store in a hardware wallet as it's safer compared to just letting your crypto sit in exchanges. So, if the most trusted wallet provider is not reliable, then it would affect the entire ecosystem, as people might think that storing crypto on any device or platform is not safe anymore, which could lead to a drop in interest to hold.

How often do people buy a hardware wallet, send money to it and find out it's been hacked or is bugged and wiped the keys from its memory by itself?
I wonder if you've done some research on this because I'd say this is very uncommon. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I haven't heard of anybody, who bought an original, unpacked device, verified that it's legit, set it up, sent the coins and lost everything.


What if you don't use an exchange, or can't send it back and forth? You don't trust a wallet provider, but you trust an exchange?
I buy my coins from a physical office, where I bring cash and they send coins to my address. I don't use centralized exchanges with KYC at all.

At first I would say it is not advisable to just start the process of saving your assets without test running your hardwares. Sometimes the hardware need to be properly tested before thinking of making any transfer from any device to it. One needs to be cautious and careful while doing it because if the hardware malfunctions while saving your assets without test running it, your assets are all gone. OP all you have said is just the right thing to do. Following the steps you have stated would save one the Heartache of losing their assets if properly done.

Like I have read other replies, reputable hardware wallet should be considered  when having the thought of buying one for yourself. Dr o well to always reset to factory settings after purchase before using it so as to making sure every setup before then is cleared for a fresh settings. By doing this I believe your assets are well protected.

This is wrong approach! Do not trust only Verify! Reputation can be bought.


No, I did not lose my coins. But this is a regular procedure for me whenever I get a new hardware wallet; I also use it on my hot wallet to check if the seed phrase I put down is correct.

Create a new wallet, backup your seed phrase, then delete and import it again to ensure you have the correct backup.
 
Never heard.

That's the first thing you should do after receiving a hardware wallet. Make sure to wipe and reset it to factory default and test the wallet to make sure the generated seed backup is not owned by someone else and to make sure it generates the right wallet.

And also take note of any hardware wallet that does not have open-source code like Ledger Nano. Better use a hardware wallet that has open-source code.

Did you lose funds? If yes, then to which hardware wallet? Actually, this is something totally new to me, and I did not know that we have to take that much precaution before making any transaction in a wallet. I tried to do some research but did not find any cases reported.

Well, if that's the case, then I will keep your words in mind next time and try to warn others too. Recently, I came to know that hardware wallets go dead if they are not in use for more than 1 year, and I am very shocked to learn this.

And I said that hardware wallets are not in a perfect state even after this much progress in technology. But still, there is room to grow.

You should note that there are hardware wallet that will be able to past those send and receive test and after a while, or when you get comfortable using it and you have a large sum it will get swept to a different location. So the first thing any newbie should consider when going for a hardware wallet is the company that is producing it (how reputable are they), is the wallet an open-source?, how are the seeds generated?, you can’t just go online search “hardware wallet” and then pick the first result that pops up and purchase it. If they do they’ll only end up losing their money even if they follow your advice. How the seeds are been generated matters a lot.

Not your keys, Not your coins but You should know this before moving your coins from CEXs, because most of you buy hardware wallets and use them right away without first testing them. Many Bitcoiners have lost their funds in the past due to a bad hardware wallet because they neglected to employ these easy crypto techniques; Do not trust, Only Verify!!!

Step 1.

Don't send your Bitcoin to a hardware wallet until you've thoroughly tested it. Taking your entire Bitcoin balance from your Exchange wallet and sending it to your ledger( cold storage ) without knowing what you're doing is extremely risky. First, you ought to send a small amount of bitcoin to your hardware wallet. Keep an eye out for it to appear there. Wipe your hardware wallet clean, factory reset it, and re-enter your seed phrase into your hardware wallet, plug it back into your computer, and check to see if your bitcoins are still sitting in your wallet as you believe.
 
Step 2.

Then send it back to the exchange. Check that you can receive and send Bitcoin, that you can wipe your device, that you can re-enter your seed phrase, and that everything still works. Do this with the smallest amount you can afford to lose; it is better to lose a single cent than your entire savings. Before sending all of your assets, make sure your hardware wallet is working.





Also, make a habit of distributing your assets over many hardware wallets; do not keep all of your coins in one location.