Topic: Hardware wallets, types, security and safety - page 2. (Read 524 times)

If the owner loses the hardware wallet, my advice would be to not wait until another one is ordered and received, which may take days.
From what I know (please let me know if I'm wrong) there were movies showing that it's not that difficult to "hack into" a hardware wallet if one has it physically.
And because of that I'd advise to use (asap!) another (temporary) setup and move out the funds to a new wallet the owner controls.



If you miss the promotions it's some 60$. Still cheap for what it does, clearly.

Hardware wallets are expensive?

Expensive is to be hacked lol

Ledger nano s is extremely cheap imo. You can buy one with 50 bucks or even less.

This is nothing. Everyone should have one.

You are right, the ledger nano x is portable and can can be use with a mobile phone through bluetooth. Although, if you use the ledger live app, you are limited to 23 cryptocurrencies. But, I think that is good enough. For more, you have to access it through desktop wallet like electrum. But, for me, 23 cryptocurrencies is good enough to use ledger live.  You are right.


Yes, you are very right. If the hardware wallet is stolen, it will be difficult or not possible to get access to the private key and seed phrase by the pilferer . So, only what the owner will lose is the wallet. He can order for another new wallet from a trusted and reputed seller but ordering from the the company itself it advisable. So, after, he can retrieve back the cryptocurrencies.
 

No-no-no, I think that there may me a confusion here.
Paper wallet is great if you don't want to spend. And only if you don't want to spend. As soon as you start spending, you don't call that paper wallet anymore.

For transactions the handiest is clearly hardware wallet. But if you have plenty of time, not too many spend transactions, and you don't want to spend money on a hardware wallet (and indeed 60$ is not that expensive), an USB stick with Tails OS (or similar) can help. (Tails OS already has Electrum on it. Some trust that setup, some don't. I do.)

I myself did some tests with Tails OS as cold storage and worked out nicely. One stick with the offline wallet, another stick for transporting the transaction for signing, and the main computer with a watch only wallet to see, make and broadcast the transactions. https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

If you make a similar Live OS and you trust it 100%, you can even use it as a hot wallet. But I am not good enough for that.

However, many may not like the fact they'd have to enter the seed every time and if you store the seed, as o_e_l_e_o said, you'll have to encrypt the stick. So we are back to the convenience of proper hardware wallets.

If the USB drive is a live OS and the private keys or seed are not saved in persistent storage, the solution can work.
If the user also makes sure this setup stays always offline, it can even work as cold storage.

One of the main advantages of hardware wallets, in addition to keeping your keys permanently offline, is that if they fall in to an attacker's hands your coins are still safe (or at least, safe for long enough for you to recover your backs ups and send them to a new wallet). Your set up misses out this important protection, unless you are also encrypting the USB drive.

In terms of the argument regarding convenience of hardware wallets versus mobile wallets, the two are not mutually exclusive. It is entirely reasonable to use both - hardware wallets for cold storage or for transporting large amounts of crypto around with you, and a mobile wallet for small amounts of crypto which you can afford to lose but it is convenient to carry around with you on a daily basis.

Hardware wallets are devices that have input app for storing cryptocurrencies. They are offline wallet like the paper wallet. These are the two offline wallets. And they are considered the safest. Cryptocurrencies  are stored offine, you only connect online if you want to perform atransactions. This make it less prone to hackers because hacker do their malicious activity when wallets want are online. So, hardware wallet and paper wallet are offline wallet/cold wallet.

The second are online wallets/hot wallets/software wallets that are always connected online. There is more to talk about here but just still know that online wallets are online as it implies. There are three types, web wallet, mobile wallet and desktop wallet.
Web wallet are the ones you access through your browser like Blockchain wallet
Mobile wallet are the mobile apps you use to access wallet like mycelium wallet
Desktop wallet are the ones you access through computer apps like bitcoin core and electrum wallets.

As you know more about wallets, you will understand more.
This link will be helpful
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-wallet/#

1. I agree with you. But, people have $200 worth of bitcoin and altcoin will find it difficult to go for HW wallets. This is what I meant
2. People find mobile wallet more convenient, not that hardware wallet is not convenient especially for professionals, but, mobile wallet is more convenient like web wallet in comparism to hardware wallets.
3, 4. I talked about the disvantage not comparing it. So, far malware can change address to hackers address, then we should talk about it as a disadvantage. Also the RNG can be insecure truly. In. I did not compare but talk about the disadvantage so that wallet owners will be careful.
All your points are right. But, try and get me right too.


This is a lot helpful. But you said, it is inconvenient. It is also can not be safe like the recommended HW wallets.

The 'expensive' part needs to be explained further. I think most people don't think that $50 or so which is a price of a single Nano S (and there are other alternatives around that price point) is expensive.

And even if you can't buy that wallet, you can still use an open-source software wallet like Electrum for Bitcoin. I don't think people that store low amount of crypto would choose an online-based wallet compared to the better alternatives.

I just want to add that you can create your own de facto hardware wallet with a USB Flash Drive with these simple steps:

1. Install a persistent version of Linux on your flash drive. (Something like this)
2. Get Electrum on it, either from another flash drive while it's booted (if you never want it to touch the internet) or simply from electrum.org.
3. Turn off networking permanently; it's only a cold wallet if it's completely offline.
4. Create your wallet offline with Electrum.
5. Learn how to use your new cold wallet.

Edit:
6. As o_e_l_e_o points out, encrypting it would cover more bases.

It's a lot more inconvenient to spend from, but that has its advantages. You also don't need to worry about it being compromised in transit, having manufacturer-specific vulnerabilities, etc. Do note that I'm not saying that this is necessarily better than commercial hardware wallets; it's just another option you can look at.

Table of contents

Abstract
Introduction
Charactaristcs of Hardware wallets
Advantages of hardware wallets
Disadvantages of hardware wallets
How to protect hardware wallets
Examples of hardware wallets and recommendation
Conclusion


Abstract
Unlike online wallets, hardware wallets are safer. It has a random number generaror that are used to generate private key offline, this private key generation wallet address know as public key.
The hardware wallet can be expensive and not really convenient to use but it is still the  safst and more convenient way to store bitcoin and altcoins offline.
They are safe but can be hacked, lost or not accessable by the owner due to owers carelessness. So, certain precautions should be followed for the wallet and the coins on it to be safe.


Introduction
A crypto wallet is an application, a program or a device used for storing cryptocurrencies. There are two types which are hot wallets and cold wallet. The hot wallets are online wallets that can be a phone app, desktop app or a website version type. The second, which are cold wallets, they are of two types which are paper wallet and hardware wallets.
The cold wallet storage are the safest means of storing cryptocurrencies and here, I want to talk about the hardware wallets. Hardware wallets are devices that run app that is used to store cryptocurrencie.


Characteristics of a good hardware wallets
1. All hardware wallet have a random number generator, this is used to generate private key.
2.  They are non custodian wallets in which you have the full ownership of the wallet and a private key will be newly generated for you. The wallet must be new, highly not secure to buy the second hand one even from someone you trust, make sure it is new, if new, new private key will be generated for you which must be protected and not revealed to anyone.
3. The new hardware wallet will also generate a recovery or seed phrase. This are just words which can be easy to know of hand. Private key and seed phrase are very important to retrieve back cryptocurrencies  if the wallet lost or damaged.
4. The private key will be used to generate the public addresses. Public addresses are made of long mixture of alphabet and numbers. They are need to for transactions. You can transfer cryptocurrencies to another wallet through the public addresses of the person you are sending to. They are also called address codes.
5. A pin is necessary in case of theft. The theif will not be able to access the hardware wallet so that he will not get access to private key and seed phrase.


Advantages
They are a safest means of storing bitcoin and altcoins, just like paper wallet.
 Protected against viruses that can easily affect online wallets
The private key is generated offline and this makes it safer than the ones generated online
They are most of the time offline, unless you want to perform transactions. Hackers operate only when wallets are online.


Disadvantages
1. They are expensive, that is why people that store low amount of cryptocurrencies prefer to use online wallet. But storing coins worth more than 1000, hardware wallet is recommended.
2. They are not convenient to use like online wallets that you can easily access and trade.
3. A malware from hackers can erase the address code a donor is sending to while
sending high amount of bitcoin. The address will be replaced by the hacker's bitcoin address. This could happen to altcoin of high amount too depending on the malware.
4. The random number generator can be insecure and create a private key that can be known to hacker.

How to protect hardware wallets
1. The owner should be careful to make his computer used to access the hardware wallet to be free of malware that can change the inputed address to another one. When sending bitcoin or altcoin, it is very mandatory to check, double check and check again the address you are sending to.
2. Viruses that can affect online wallet may not affect offline wallet but the computer should still be free from viruses like trojan that can reveal factor authenticator to hackers.
3. Do not store your private key and seed phrase online using any cloud srorage. Do not reveal it to anybody but you. Do not also store it on phones or computer. The best is to store them on paper and protection the paper. Dublicate it or triplicate is advisable. Keep it in a place that will not be noticed. Do not keep it in a place that can be accessible by thieves.
4. Be careful of hackers manipulations, treat everything you see on screen with care. So that you can easily know if hackers are at work. For more about the safety, you can click on the last two links.


There are many hardware walkets. These are examples, Ledger Nano, Trezor, keepKey, BC Vault, SafePal S1, SecuX W20, Ellipal Titan, SecuX W10, Cobo Vault Wallet, D’CENT Hardware Wallet, BitLox Hardware Wallet, Ellipal, Keevo Wallet, XZEN Wallet, MIRKey by ellipticsecure. And, there are still many not yet mention. But, I can recommend you the best ones that I know. They are:
Ledger Nano X
Ledger Nano S
Trezor Model T
Trezor One and
KeepKey.

Conclusion
Hardware wallets are so safe to keep cryptocurrencies  but care most be taken because most hardware wallets that has been hacked or stolen of cryptocurrencies are mostly due to owners carelessness.

Links used
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-wallet/#
https://www.bankrate.com/glossary/c/cryptocurrency-wallet/
https://blockgeeks.com/guides/best-hardware-wallets-comparative-list-blockgeeks/
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardware_wallet
https://coinfunda.com/best-cryptocurrency-hardware-wallets/
https://medium.com/ledger-on-security-and-blockchain/ledger-101-part-3-best-practices-when-using-a-hardware-wallet-198b60df2681
https://www.coolwallet.io/how-to-protect-crypto-hardware-wallet-private-keys-and-recovery-seed/