Topic: The best Bitcoin cold storage? - page 6. (Read 19375 times)

Just thought I'd introduce you to new little stainless steel bitcoin cold storage wallets that are laser etched and fireproof, almost indestructible. We think the pricing is on point and hopefully you love them as much as I do! Feedback (and orders) is appreciated.
https://ColdCoins.co

Someone recommended the following method to me and it is really an outstanding way to secure your wallet AND add redundancy. My friend compared it to the horcruxes in Harry Potter.
-First, You'll want to boot into linux (you can do this on a flash drive, if you don't know how to do this, comment here and I will be happy to help you out) and do not connect to the internet at all.
-Second, you should already have the java applets www.bitaddress.org and www.passguardian.com saved on a flash drive. You'll need to access these files (they'll open in the internet browser.
-Third, the bitaddress applet will generate a public key (bitcoin address) and a private key (the password you need to extract your bitcoins). Save the public key somewhere (perhaps the flash drive) so that you can send BTC into that BTC address.
-Fourth, copy the private key and open the passguardian applet. You will want to select split a secret. Here you will paste the private key into the box that says "secret to share".
-Next, you select the number of shares (i usually pick 7) and threshold (i usually pick 4). This means that you will receive 7 different passcodes and in order to recover your "secret" you need to have any 4 of the 7 shares.
So passing it out to 7 shares to 7 people that you could trust, parents get one, sister, friends, etc. But shit happens. People lose stuff, houses burn down, people get robbed. If you set it up this way, you only have to rely on 4 out of 7 people to actually keep that share.

very sweet.

Armory paper wallet packup, with a 2-of-3 recovery option, or 3-of-5 or whatever.

As long as you're the only one who knows the location of ALL 2 (or 3) pieces needed to restore, it doesn't matter if one of the pieces burns.

Now that is some work that comes in handy.
Even barcodes that is cool.
I have not gotten that creative yet but you have given me ideas. 

nice. My newest thing is storing all my account passwords on "lastpass" .. all of them are now random gibberish passwords generated from password generators... the master password to lastpass is a random password I have laminated into a QR code stored in my physical wallet and safe deposit box. The password to the main google account associated with all my important accounts including lastpass has it's own random  password that is also laminated as a QR code.. this password is not stored on lastpass. Both are protected by google 2 factor authentication. As secure as I can make it and no longer have to remember passwords. I have an "MS-1690" 2D USB barcode scanner I bought on ebay recently to scan these barcodes if I'm not using a phone (which I don't and have the mobile bypass feature turned off)

"I just scored 97.4% on the LastPass Security Challenge ranking 1678th overall. It securely analyzes the strength of your passwords, alerts you if you have any duplicate or weak passwords, and tells you how to make them more secure."

http://i.imgur.com/WUtFKdU.png

I also made and laminated a series of barcodes for work since we use barcode scanners as part of the job and have to change passwords and remember usernames and sometimes relogin to buggy java software that freezes every hour or two, the barcodes come in handy.

This brings up another little thing I enjoy doing.. making complex 2D barcodes of various types and with various texts.. I don't know why barcodes fascinate me... I can't imagine before the days of bar codes and self checkout having to wait behind a line of old farmer joes as they manually type in the price of everything by hand.. I'd go crazy!

Laminating is fun.
For quite a while years ago I laminated tons of stuff just to do it like a dork.  My girlfriend at the time (now Wife) thought I was goofy.  Joke was on her when we had moved and a couple boxes got wet.  She was so happy I had laminated a couple of her certifications.  She did not lose them.

Make a paper wallet using the link in my signature. If you are paranoid print your paper wallets using "hiren's boot CD" disconnected from the internet with the print spooler turned off.  Buy a cheap laminator and the credit card sized laminating pads from wally-fart. Print your wallet and private key and follow the directions. The private key cannot be exposed unless the lamination is cut open and the cold storage is now fairly weatherproof and you can make multiple copies of a single wallet for a safe deposit box or whatever.

It would be fairly difficult to break open the lamination without anyone noticing, or adding personal identification or watermarks underneath, so it might be useful for selling... can only be returned if lamination is intact, etc. I'd use a UV marker to the underside of the lamination before laminating then you can detect of the lamination is your original lamination.. all sorts of ideas along those lines.

I love laminating things. What self respecting male doesn't love playing with fire, or heat and melting things?

I used two methods.
The first I put one copy of my wallet in my gun safe.
It's fireproof to a huge temp.  I printed it and laminated it.  I also put in on a metal plate in the safe.
The 2nd is backed up to 4 flash drives one in a safe deposit at the bank one is hidden in the house.  Another in a family members safe and the last at my best friends house in his safe.  Each USB drive is encrypted and passcoded.
I went nuts I just don't want to lose access the the tiny amount I have.

Are you supposed to put that in your butt?

It seems that house fires are unlikely to get that hot usually but something to bear in mind.

I'll make a guess. Completely computerized, disconnected from the internet, automatic engraving machine. For absolute security, the client will go to the location to pick up his or her choice of diamond (or bring your own), and engrave the private key on the spot, with only the client knowing the private key.

The engraving machine then engraves the key, much like a printer prints on paper.

Then it clears it's memory and resets, and you can verify that the machine no longer has your private key. Or reasonably sure it is securely deleted.

Short of killing the engraver (or data entry person) ... how have you got around the security leak of sharing private keys with the engraver?

Instead of the "forever" echo in the theme song, it would be "diamonds are forever... (your bitcoins, your bitcoins)". LOL

Sounds like a James Bond movie "Diamonds Are Forever Your Bitcoins".

I will be offering Bitcoin Private keys laser engraved in diamonds pretty soon. It's a little bit more complicated then originally expected so there are a few things to work out still, but my service is coming. :-)

Why don't you just write it on papyrus paper using carbon soot from an olive oil lamp as ink. Then put it in a clay jar and store it in a cave. I hear that will last for a couple of thousand years.

I like that cointainer...... wait.. I am going to market those and call them that coin-tainers! ... Okay, I said it first, if you wish to use the name, you can use it for free as long as you mention me. But you can also tip me a royalty. (or you could care less and just use it anyway, that would be sad; unless you pretend you never heard of it from here.)

Coin-tainer by Dabs. Stainless Steel Cold Storage.

why not select one aribtray transaction from the blockchain .. maybe the first you have ever done using your first BTCs ... selected the last 60 letters of the transaction id .. run  sha256 and/or other hash over it an use the result as privkey .. .. that way you can always get you privkey aslong as the block chain exists. .. if it seases to exist, you coins are gone too :-)

The smartest thing to do is to engrave the private key on the lens inn your eye. That way you can always see it. Since Im into AltCoins I have a huge list of priv keys so I had to dedicated my left eyeye for this. But its pretty safe. Will never in my life use a retina scanner though. Also since priv key is so dangerous if other see it, nowadays I only use the public key.

Edit: on a more serious note I guess the priv key isis best stored, engraved in a durable material duch as metal or stone. If metal starts to corrode, just make a new one. Dont engrave inn goöd or silver though because most people will see another type of value in those.