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Topic: Idea: Ledger as seed generator? - page 2. (Read 328 times)

legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 18711
November 25, 2023, 01:57:34 PM
#6
Ledger devices are closed source, so you cannot verify how they are generating entropy and producing a seed phrase for you. With that in mind, it all comes down to how much you trust Ledger. No one can say for sure that what you are proposing will be entirely safe.

Your process is definitely better than using a hot wallet, but I would argue inferior to using an airgapped machine with Tails as you have mentioned, verifiably drawing entropy from /dev/urandom. If you don't want to generate an Electrum seed phrase, then I see no reason you can't use the same set up with Sparrow wallet to generate a BIP39 seed phrase (although I haven't tried this myself).
legendary
Activity: 3668
Merit: 6382
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November 25, 2023, 01:26:20 PM
#5
So you are going to keep using the ledger as your wallet, because I thought it was only going to be used for seed generation then import the seed into some other wallet because you/we agree Ledger is no more to be trusted for storing cryptos.

Am I confusing, what you are trying to say? Roll Eyes

No, it was only an example.
I no longer want to keep funds on the Ledger, but I fear that most other wallets (and hardware wallets) will not like (i.e. accept) Electrum - generated seed, hence... I want to try to use Ledger as generator.
Sorry if I was not clear in the previous post Wink
hero member
Activity: 2366
Merit: 793
Bitcoin = Financial freedom
November 25, 2023, 12:56:45 PM
#4
A seed made with Electrum didn't work on Ledger. Electrum has its own standard. That's why.

So you are going to keep using the ledger as your wallet, because I thought it was only going to be used for seed generation then import the seed into some other wallet because you/we agree Ledger is no more to be trusted for storing cryptos.

Am I confusing, what you are trying to say? Roll Eyes
legendary
Activity: 3668
Merit: 6382
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November 25, 2023, 12:48:05 PM
#3
But I don't see any difference at all between a seed created in a way like you said and in an offline electrum wallet or any other wallet, which means the Ledger is obsolete here and we don't need it anyway for random generation of our seeds.

A seed made with Electrum didn't work on Ledger. Electrum has its own standard. That's why.
If there would not be that "restriction" then I'd agree with you, Electrum would have been just fine for the job.
hero member
Activity: 2366
Merit: 793
Bitcoin = Financial freedom
November 25, 2023, 12:38:29 PM
#2
And now the idea: why don't just use Ledger (only!) as seed generator?
I mean: reset Ledger as a new device, write down the new seed, reset it again (because it's unsafe), and I'm done.
Is it anything I've missed? Is this also unsafe for a reason I've missed?


Not a bad idea though, and since we reset after creating the seed there is nothing to worry about. So if you guys have a ledger then make use of it like that instead of just throwing it away.

But I don't see any difference at all between a seed created in a way like you said and in an offline electrum wallet or any other wallet, which means the Ledger is obsolete here and we don't need it anyway for random generation of our seeds.
legendary
Activity: 3668
Merit: 6382
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November 25, 2023, 12:31:06 PM
#1
This should have been coming for quite a while, but I was so busy I didn't have time to post as much as I'd like and I didn't have the time to give this a good thinking.
I wrote here and there, using a Tails stick is 90% of the time a good solution for me, but I've used my Ledger for simplicity.
Of course (not surprisingly) I no longer trust my Ledger to keep more than 100$ worth of BTC on it and since I still get some earnings from signatures... I want to go away from my Ledger before it's too late.

On the other hand, I also don't want to have Electrum-specific seed, for example because I'm eyeing SeedSigner for the future.

I've been reading different topics on coin and dice based seeds and, after weighting various possibilities (like use random generator for better dice generation) I've came back to this post, which I tend to agree more and more:

1. Leave cryptography to the cryptographers.  Seriously.  Please.  For your safety and the safety of others.

Generating your own random numbers is low-level crypto.  >99% of programmers should never, ever touch low-level crypto directly.  This is not to insult your intelligence:  The smartest programmers in this space all either study up on their cryptography, or leave cryptography to the cryptographers.  Studying cryptography takes lots of smarts; knowing the limits of your own knowledge also takes lots of smarts.

And now the idea: why don't just use Ledger (only!) as seed generator?
I mean: reset Ledger as a new device, write down the new seed, reset it again (because it's unsafe), and I'm done.
Is it anything I've missed? Is this also unsafe for a reason I've missed?

(Was this already discussed and I've missed that?)
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