Topic: Risk only what you can afford to lose - page 4. (Read 577 times)

I liked your suggestions but are they not obvious like in airgapped wallets you dedicate the device to either its wallet or a computer for wallet purposes and do not use it for personal uses. While in your suggestions you said, we should avoid SD cards to connect them to another device and should not scan QR codes from the hardware wallet (which are air-gapped). Don't you think using an SD card for other purposes while it should be dedicated to your air-gapped device will make your device not an air-gapped one?

This means your air-gapped device is not air-gapped if connected with the outside world, directly or indirectly. Never connect it to the outside world using an SD card, QR codes, or data cables, dedicate the whole setup for wallet activities and never open or update this wallet frequently, and talk about the updated files that you receive from the company, only prefer that company that has open source software like electrum or any other. Then you can also verify the authenticity of that update released by the company.

I guess that software wallet in linux VM without internet (only when sending) is still and option. If you use it as cold wallet you may not send anytinhg in years

This is the most realistic assertions herein, the truth is, whether hardware wallets or airgapped wallets, in as much as it has a mode of transfering files or documents, being in online or offline, it can not be hundred percent safe. And the truth is, there's nothing like having something that is 100% safe. Not in real life, not in human inventories. There can always be breach to information when you try to transfer something out or into the device, the only truth about it is that, the more you try to stay away from unnecessary exposure of the secret files from online connection, the better it is safe and secure.

For instance, even your paper can not be safe. Mind you, you got the private key somewhere and from that moment which you acquired your private key, it becomes more exposed and vulnerable to attacks or hacks. However, being extremely careful and learning to improve on your security system will help a lot into security your private wallets. As for risking only what you can afford, I don't think it's always the case because as a human being, the nature is that we need to store our assets for so many reasons a few which includes theft, spending and others. It is because of this reason that we all store our assets. So you can not run away from storing your assets, but always work towards Ha mb protecting them.

I think it’s actually a bad idea of just checking the funds on your address from the airgapped device it is stored on either hardware wallet or a PC/mobile device, you can actually do this by setting up a watch only wallet on another device to track transactions on an address.

We can continuously be warning of a clipboard malware or others like QR code or SD card/USB but is not hard to use just some seconds to check to the address on the transaction details before progressing to send. As for the drives like SD card/USB use it only for the purpose of transferring transaction data only and not for storage, Also be cautious of the device holding the watch only wallet it can also have malware that can affect the USB and that’s why the use of QR code is actually much better although it doesn’t eliminate the problem of malware fully.

QR code malware are mostly gotten from the software where it is created or the device use yo scan it, so a proper QR code generated not from maybe a websites can be considered safe.

You're right, even if you already secured your coins in a trusted hardware wallet, it will not guarantee you a 100% safe because there's a pros and cons of securing your assets on it. The best thing you can do is to check and monitor your holding daily so you can see if there's any changes like lossing some of it. But hardware wallet is the safest way rather than software wallet which is exposed by using internet and prone to hacking incident.

Apart from investing only what you can risk to lose, this is why you don't put all your eggs in one basket, hardware wallets should be use for storing our Bitcoin definitely but you shouldn't use the same wallet that you use for hodling for your daily transaction if you're very active in the market and not just a hodler. When you do this you don't risk losing all your Bitcoin if the wallet get compromised with the scenarios you have given. I still fully recommend using a wallets like electrum for your daily transaction irrespective of it been an online wallet while we keep our Bitcoin we allocated for hodling in a hardware wallet to be touch once in a while.

MK4 has hit the nail on the head, no matter what we do we can't be 100% safe so we should always take extra precautions to keep our Bitcoin safe as the constodial of our Bitcoin is in our hands and not that of any centralized body when we use non constodial wallets.

According to the majority, hardware wallets are the safest place to keep your assets, as well as air-gapped wallets. Since you are exchanging data in the computer even if you didn't use internet connection there's still a risk.

We can't read the QR Codes by the eye but it can easily be converted to text, so we have to avoid exposing our QR Codes anywhere in social medias.

There is no such thing as "100% safe" with hardware wallets or literally anything anyway. Everything has risk tradeoffs. All we can do is to make our coins as secure as possible, to the point that it's not 100% safe, but virtually almost impossible to break.

Let's talk about the king solution of keeping your Bitcoin safe, which to me is the airgapped hardware wallets but is it safe to say that they are 100% safe? I think the answer is no..

What and what is likely to go wrong with airgapped hardware wallets?

1. Cord connection: data can still be transmitted when connecting the hardware wallet to your PC.

2. SD Card: some comes with Sd card option for updating the hardware wallet, but I am not sure that using Sd card can always be safe either, I remember those days where I use to buy lots of Sd card because they have issues easily and also they get viruses easily. Old Symbian and Android users here?

3. QR Codes: honesty, QR codes are not readable by the eye, they comes with blocks like figures, there is no way to know what's written in that QR code anyway, there is no way to read it and know what kind of data is inside it.

4. You still have to rely on the company for future safetiness of the hardware wallet in terms of software updates, if someone hackers find a way to alter the upcoming update file you know what could happen.

The only healthy solution is to understand that there is no guarantee in crypto, risk only what you can afford to lose, even after every thing, something can still always go wrong.

You can limit the risk by choosing to not connect your hardware wallet to your PC or any PC for updates, use sdcards instead, but make sure you use a brand new Sdcard for your updates, once you use one for update today, store in a safe place simply for your hardware wallet updates only, do not use for saving files or downloading.

Do not scan QR code you find online, only scan when paying to another crypto wallet or you want to sell your BTC on an exchange, QR codes can come with malicious things too.

As for the software update from the companies, pray that nothing bad comes up from their side, I still strongly believe that they are the only thing that can easily messed up hardware wallet security.

Stay safe out there kings and happy holiday 🎅