Topic: key safety strategies? - page 3. (Read 563 times)

I am ok with printing the keys (or writing it manually) but I do not recommend saving it in your laptop nor in a usb device, because it simply may be hacked and cracking the password of zip/rar archive shouldn't be a big problem for the hackers.. About the usb device, it is risky since it can be infected or broken easily and you will lose everything.

You should consider the paper wallets as a secure way to save your private keys, Once you generate the private keys on vanity gen there are multiple ways to save them. You can print them and put it on a safe box, or you can save it on a text file inside a zip with with password.

Dont like this solutions, because it base on people and trust in a way. Bitcoin was made in a way that no trust is needed.
I would use different methods but to secure keys is almost impossible, almost always prone to human errors.
I hope in future there will be more reliable methods including hardware wallets that cant be fooled easily.

We are working according to your topic, what are the strategies? Because everyone wants to learn and hear from you.
Before creating a topic research for the work and understand the paragraph stanza by stanza, because this community is made up lesson's and learning.

Never handle private keys only handle seed words written on paper with your own hands. No electronic devices near it ever. No pics, no copy, paste, no printing, no cameras, no scanners etc.

The seed words internally recreate the key, but they are NOT the same. You should never handle private keys directly.

Can relate to the "scare" part: had my Ledger update go wrong once, which resulted in a stressful search on how to fix that and had to fully reset of the device. The scariest part is having to re-introduce the seed and wondering if you have even written down the correct seed upon initialization.

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A good strategy is to first of all keep using that Ledger but leaving Windows for good. I have more bootable disks and drives for various purposes, one of which is a Tails USB which comes with Electrum preinstalled. I use that for either anonymous browsing or crypto. Using Bitcoin with a HW on an amnesic OS through Tor sounds safe enough imo.

For the private key, most if not all strategies have their own flaws. However, there are so many ways you can store it safely including a crypto seed metal vault. If you purchase a quality non-corrosive one, you can just bury it in your garden and unless you forget where you placed it, it should be fine even if you had a $5 wrench attack and the intruder has plenty of time to steal it.

Regarding CASA, why the hell pay a monthly fee when you have so many fully free, open source and reliable options? Electrum and Wasabi are two options you can easily trust, as long as you don't download them off some fake website. I don't see any advantage paying for something that's supposed to be free. Just makes no sense.

I can tell you what I used to do and it kept me safe for years.

I had a full node wallet downloaded on a clean computer that I never used to download and install anything but verified software. Then I created an address and did not even open the app ever again. I used the address to store coins but only a blockchain explorer to check the balance. The plan was to never use it until I'm ready to sell my coins.

If you're a holder you won't need anything fancy like a hardware wallet. Nobody is going to steal your coins if your computer and network are free of malware and accessed only by you.

One of the best private key safety tip:
1) Bitcoin electrum wallet, or bitcointalk,is one of the private key that will enable you have access to your key control.
2) wallet back up, it's important to store back up seed with private key with strong  physical protection.
Casa APP, no private key given, no seed phrase any.you cannot compared hardware wallet with black up wallet.

It really depends on your circumstances and on what you are trying to accomplish. You have not given enough information in order for anyone to give you good relevant advice.

In general,

• It is important to store backups of your seeds and private keys offline with strong physical protection.
• Never store cold wallet seeds anywhere that is accessible to the internet.
• Hot wallet seeds and private keys must remain private and encrypted always.

I have just downloaded the Casa App, no private key given, no seed phrase. And being custodial, no 2fa authenticator. It is nothing to be compared with hardware wallet, if I have no enough funds to buy hardware wallet, I will go for airgapped device. For convenience, and having no money to buy hardware wallet, I will go for bitcoin electrum wallet or bitcointalk recommended reputed noncustodial wallets, I will be able to have access to my keys, control my bitcoin by myself and also will be able to recover my bitcoin using my private key which unlock the funds from bitcoin blockchain or through seed phrase that can have access to my private key.

Also that said, Casa also makes use of google cloud for encryption and storage of wallet backup, this is wrong to me, anything that goes to google cloud is not safe for me again because google is a thirdparty. I prefer to have my wallet backup written on laminated paper or on metallic sheet for safety purpose. The backup will be with me, and I trust my self than google cloud.

What's wrong with Ledger? Hardware wallets are generally the safest that you can get if you're not a very tech-savvy person and it's practically idiot proof if you don't type your seeds into random places.

Hardware wallets are designed to store the keys only within the device itself and you can connect it to compromised computers without much problem (ideally not).

Make a multisig wallat, 2/2
Print out each keys, two copies each.
Key A X 2
Key B X 2

Give the copy of Key A to a group of people, family A
Give the copy of Key B to a group of people, family B

Make sure these two group, family do not know each others, but they are common known to you and close to you of course.

You can have more than 2 copies of each key but it's safer when you have lesser copies. The reason for two copies each is just in case anything happen to one copy then you always have another copy as backup.

What are the best private key safety tips.

I just learned about the CASA app. But it has a monthly fee.

I recently had a scare with the ledger hardware wallet update and a windows 7 computer.
 Got it sorted but made me plenty nervous.
I will go for months without checking, and generally uninstall the ledger app from my devices.

What other srategies can I consider?