Therefore, a simplest cold wallet system is as simple as writing down the associated private key on something like a piece of paper and deleting every electronic data related to it.
A piece of paper isn't close to perfection, inscribing it on metallic pieces in different locations is one of the ideal ways of storing a seed phrase and private keys to your assets or bitcoin, papers are vulnerable to fire and highly fragile material.
Once that is done, only you, and you alone will ever have access to the assets in the cold wallet. No government, no hacker, no institution will ever gain access or obtain the information therein without your active approval. But the problem here is, if you ever lose your private key for any reason, your assets will be gone forever! There'll be no one to hold, no one to cry to, and no help whatsoever to retrieve it back.
That's why proper backing up your private key(s) or seed phrase is the first thing you do before funding any associated wallet address from that seed. If you take caution while making sure that your recovery phrase is done as recommended, you can always have a shoulder you can lean on when problems ensued in the future.
These are the reasons why I started looking at Binance and other exchange platforms and alternative credible means to store assets for maximum benefits. Platforms like Binance has some of the most advanced security protocols in place, and the insurance of my assets gives me added sense of security. If anything goes wrong, I have someone to hold responsible and get my money back. And they're more than capable to pay back, provided the loss isn't from your end.
I don't want to be biased, let's keep things on a neutral ground. In your second paragraph, what do you mean 'if you ever lose your private key', you think Binance is incapable of penetration because they own the best cyber security employees in the world? Because nothing has happened doesn't mean it 'may' not happen. If Binance has a security bridge, I hope you have read their policy terms, you may get compensation but SAFU doesn't have enough liquidity that guaranteed you 100% of what they hold in their custody.
- 2 Factor Authentication: Preferably - Google Authenticator. This ensures that your account can only be accessed through your (Android or iOS) devices.
Some people don't know the difference between Google Authentication and Autthy, the second is tied to phone number and many used it on their Binance and other exchanges accounts, any hacker or bad actor can recover your authy with phone number and get access to your exchange account, can you see now that a lot of people lack proper information. Using of cold wallet remains simple and safe for everyone.
- Address Management: A system that allows you to whitelist which address to withdraw to. This to me, is the most important security feature with Binance. Once this is enabled, withdrawal can't be made to another address.
Some days ago, I wanted to use Kucoin to swap BTC because of their KYC-less terms and I never knew they disable Native segwit address(Bech32), I decided to confirm before broadcasting the transaction, I was surprised it was disabled without making an announcement. This problem cannot happen to wallets where you hold their private keys, Cold wallet remain the best.
- SMS/Email Notification: You get pass code via SMS and Email to complete your sign-ins.
Let's not discuss these, I believe you know the implication of Email and phone numbers when it comes to security.
- Nord VPN: I prefer Nord VPN due to the high recommendation. Therefore, I had to purchase Nord VPN before doing anything with the phone!
Allow me to add this bonus, I have a colleague who uses Binance and for some reason, he used VPN a lot, he forgot to switch his VPN IP address from the US and was using Binance consistently, they warn him multiple times in his email but he doesn't go there to read as he hasn't made any recent withdrawals, do you know his account is still locked despite many messages and explanations to customer support, they haven't released his funds. Just be cautious of centralized exchanges, you may not have any issues, but others are silently making the same mistake of trusting centralized exchanges.[/list]