Topic: How safe is hardware wallet for real (Read 131 times)

Online attackers do not have to see they want to hurt (the wallet they want to compromise), all needed are people that are not careful enough, not careful of malware and browse the way they like on their device which is also contain their wallet app. There are several cases of online attacks that people's wallet were compromised and coins were stolen, specifically, online wallets. The reason offline wallets like hardware wallets are different, their private key is never online, it is generated offline.

Actually hardware wallet cannot really be hacked unless the hacker gets it physically or the owner does something incredibly stupid.
And what you are telling about keeping themselves the private keys? Do you expect users will sign a transaction using pen and paper?
With or without hardware wallet, the seed or private keys have to be kept safely (in multiple places).

The main role of hardware wallet is to safely sign transactions. Of course, if one can handle properly a cold wallet, that may be safer, but I've seen so many users going online with the supposedly cold wallet for various silly reasons, I think that HW is way more fool proof.

I believe that so far there isn't any crypto wallet that have the safest option of keeping private keys that's users responsibility, you can only hurt, steal or break what you see right? So how do you expect crypto wallets to go about this? Users need to keep private keys themselves.

Hardware wallets are imho not perfect, however the best combination between safety and convenience.
I have a Ledger Nano S and I will compare to that, but there are nowadays better/safer hardware wallets too.

1. In order to have your hardware work properly it may need flashed to newest version, it needs the correct applications installed for the coins you want it to support. At least in theory, malicious actors can impersonate the official application (ledger live in my case) and make you install parts that won't work as you'd expect, making you lose money. Nowadays there's safety checksum available, although I find it incorrect/incomplete measure.

2. In order to actually make and sign transaction you need a companion software wallet (in my case that's Electrum). If you get the wrong software (a malicious copy) you may be tricked (at least in theory, maybe together with you not checking everything properly) into sending your coins to unwanted address (hacker's).

3. Hardware wallets were sometimes sent out tampered, or initialized with others' seed. That's again a possibly big problem, especially for inexperienced user.

4. If other actors can get your hardware wallet into their hand, it doesn't matter you have complicated PIN, it can be hacked into.

5. Users may recover their hot wallet seed into the HW thinking that they're safe.

6. Users may save their backup seed online and no matter they did all the rest correct, one can still steal their money.

7. Users may be careless about their backup seed and the HW can malfunction.

8. [later edit] I forgot to add clipboard malware. But it was already said previously. If one has the computer infected with a clipboard malware (that will change the address you think you're sending money to) and doesn't verify thoroughly the address on HW whether it's the intended one, he will get his money stolen.

So there are plenty of point of failure, but I still recommend hardware wallets because the chances for these bad things happen are fairly low if the user pays a bit of attention. And again, there may exist safer HWs too than mine.
However, I also think that no matter what, life changing amounts should stay completely offline (paper wallet or cold storage), because offline is the safest.

But if one knows a bit more about computers and not afraid to check and install a Live Linux onto an USB stick and boot from there now and then making sure that booting always happens offline, and also that one doesn't care about the small inconvenience of rebooting, and that one can follow the tutorial for installing a companion watch only wallet (maybe to the phone), and that one can look out how to use all that system correctly, then cold storage is a much safer option imho, simply because the user has full control over all the steps.

Hardware wallets aren't the safest method of storing private keys. But they are much safer than web and other online wallets. The safest method is being completely airgapped and offline. But for those who are just starting out, that might not be the most convenient way. It's the safest, but not the most convenient. Hardware wallets are a good compromise between safety and convenience. Yes, they will be connected to the PC through a USB port, but the private keys are safely stored inside the chip and inaccessible even to the user. And you can't lose what you can't see and access, right? There are ways to get to those private keys, but that isn't important right now. 

You are supposed to do that with any non-custodial wallet that lets you generate a seed. The recovery phrase should be written down on paper or engraved in metal. The seed and its safe storage is more important than the hardware wallet. A HW can break, malfunction, or you can lose it. In situations like that, you take out the seed and restore your wallets in a different but safe environment. 

Hardware wallets are not directly connected with internet and usb connection is done in secure way, it's not like regular usb connections.
There are even some air-gapped hardware wallets like Keystone who don't even any connection with other devices, except with QR codes.
More important thing than hardware wallet devices is the way how you keep your seed phrase backup on paper or metal plate.
If you import those words online on some phishing website you can't blame anyone but yourself for being dumb.

Hardware wallets are the safest, but mind you that they are not safe without the efforts of the user, people erroneously feel since they have a hardware wallet they can rest on their laurels, NO, you will lose your funds through your own folly if you do that.

Having said that, i think the most important reason why the HW wallet is said to be the safest is cause it keeps your keys offline, mind you that majority of the times people lose their funds cause they keep it in a hot wallet (online), it makes it easier for a hacker to break in if that is the case, so a hardware wallet keeps your keys offline, mind you, not your funds, but your keys, that is cause your funds are not stored in your wallet, but on the network and can only be spent through your keys.

Another reason is that a Hardware wallet has a pin, that i can say can be an additional security cause without your pin i do not think it is possible for one to break in and have access to your private keys. Of course you have to write out your seed phrase and ensure it is in the safest place possible and also ensuring that the computer you connect to is free from malware and other whatnots, that is where you as the user have to do your own part of securing yourself and not believing the HW wallet would do that for you.

Open source reputed hardware wallet should be safe and secure if you know how to handle it safely and securely. You need to protect your seed phrase against offline attacks and also still conscious of online attacks like clipboard malware.

One of the reasons hardware wallets are safer is because the seed phrase and keys are generated offline unlike online/hot wallets which its seed phrase or keys are generated online and can be stolen by hackers through malware.

Have you heard of airgapped hardware wallet? That link will be helpful. There are ways you can use some hardware wallet in a way you can be able to use a device for make an unsigned transaction, transferring the unsigned transaction to your hardware wallet for signing through the use of QR code which is one of the safest option.

But this never means hardware wallets that supports bluetooth like Trezor is not safe, but best to do away and by all means avoid malware generally.

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Clipboard malware may can still be able to change address you copy/paste, changing it to a hacker's address while making transaction even when making use of hardware wallet. Be careful of malware generally. Hardware wallet can be perfectly protected, but the protection is not complete if you do not adequately protect it.

Hello everyone I want to know what we considered hardware wallet as the safest option to keep your crypto safer because to use hardware wallet you need to insert them to a computer and connect to the internet, secondly you need to write down your backup file somewhere...