Hey,
I'd like to buy 5-10 of the coins, I just have a question.
Mike Caldwell explained many times his process for generating private keys and the limited people involved in getting the keys on the coins.
I've personally seen the process, and pretty confident that in 10 years no one will be able to steal my keys, including Mike himself. He is also a well known member of the community for a long time.
What is your process like? Do you retain copies of the keys? Who is involved?
Great question. We recently added a much needed update to the security page on our website with a bit more detail about that very issue.
https://www.titanbtc.com/titan-bitcoin-security/I'm summarizing it here, but basically we're as paranoid as Mike is about the handling of those keys. We print private keys in batches of a few hundred, on demand as the coins are manufactured. They go straight from the printer to being placed underneath the holograms and they're printed and assembled in a room that's access controlled and under video surveillance.
The computers and printers that print the codes are permanently offline. Hard drives are securely wiped after each printing (we usually do batches of private key coins 2-3 times a week) and we follow a procedure for clearing the memory on the printers as well.
With that said, we're working towards implementing a more automated 2-of-3 key system for the coins that should address some of the security concerns with having a third-party like us handling private keys.
For our 2-factor authenticated coins, we handle cold storage on our customers' behalf and we DO have access to the private keys for those coins. IN return for that trust that owners place in us, we are able to verify a coins authenticity and identify counterfeit coins when they are scanned as well as provide extra services. For example, one customer lost his coin in a movie theater. The "new owner" contacted us to see about registering the coin. Long story short, we were able to reunite the coin with its rightful owner.
Anyway, we're trying to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of bitcoin users with different concerns and requirements. If we're leaving anyone out, I'm happy to look into how we can adapt to serve this community. I was an early bitcoin evangelist and this business is an extension of that drive.