I don't really trust hardware wallets, that's why I don't own one. My main reason is the lack of open-source for example, Ledger wallet is only partial open-source. That means that there is still some code running on the hardware that you can't verify. Besides that, they are quite expensive compared to air-gapped machines that only require an old PC. I have more fate in a computer, without internet capability running a wallet compiled from source (Armory) than pre-configured hardware. Armory allows you to sign transactions on your air-gapped machine and managing your wallet on an online PC without sign access (watching-only).
They certainly add a level of convenience, especially for all of the coins the support.
That's is certainly a benefit for people who store altcoins. But for my personal situation not, as I only store Bitcoin and some Litecoin.
Also, a ledger nano s for example is much cheaper than any laptop/very cheap desktop you'd find, I don't think it's fair to assume that everybody would have an old computer lying around.
Even the old computers that schools have, will run an offline version of Armory. I bet you can get these for less than 10 bucks on a flea market or elsewhere. Also Armory has support for single board computers like the Raspberry Pi, that can be bought for $25. It's a hardware wallet with even better security and validity, but at a fraction of the cost.
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Support for Armory has been weak for the OS X for some time, and future support for the MS version is not certain.
However, note that Armory supports regeneration using a keyword sequence. And that page you print out can have an encryption key.
So there is really no reason for the old PC, right?
Yesterday's computers likely will not work on tomorrow's database.
Armory requires a full copy of the CORE database, so the "old PC" will need something > 200 GB available. Since the CORE database is growing, any reasonable projection for the storage needs after say 5 years is what, maybe 500-800 GB?
I was talking about the offline version.
Windows and OSX still have full support for Armory, so I don't get what you're talking about.
Storage for the full blockchain is not that expensive, one terabyte harddrives go for less than $40.
Last I heard Goatpig had a buddy who now and then would answer questions or do tech support for OS X ,and he did not have a test machine on which the OS X version of Armory could even be compiled. So as a long time Armory user I can't share your optimism on this eg. "full support."
Now if we can buy 1tb drives for <$40 what does this mean? That the $10 PC no longer does the job....which is what I said...
Regardless, you are still doing it wrong "According to Armory." You print out a paper wallet with their word list and store that.
In five or ten years time there may be expected many changes in wallets and PC operating systems.
There is full support as long as there is someone in the community that can test it, which I'm sure of. You don't have to own a machine with the target OS to compile an executable.
That's right, to have Armory fully up and running you also will need an online machine with quite some disk space. Meaning that the total costs won't be $10, however I was not talking about the full set-up for Armory but just the offline machine only.
I like Armory for it's offline signing feature, which is easy and fast to use and that does not apply for a paper with the word list on it.
