Topic: travelling internationally with a hard wallet - page 2. (Read 367 times)

I think you have reasons to be over cautious of traveling with your hardware wallet, because a lot of custom officials will confiscate it due to misinformation and a lack of knowledge on the use of these wallets. (be more cautious when you cross international borders)

On the other hand, some officials in some countries might think it is just a memory stick and they will let you go through customs without noticing it. (I put my Ledger Nano in my wallet and it goes through without any problems) 

I don't think if they catch people in the airport and check their hardware wallets. They are not allowed to do such thing and they can't do such thing but to be more secure you can easily write the recovery seeds in a peace of paper and take it with you. However, I only travel once while I had lager nano with me and the officers didn't say anything about the hardware wallet. So, I guess it's alright if you do travel internationally with a hard wallet.

This issue has been discussed in the forum and the idea of traveling to a non-crypto friendly country with a hardware wallet is not advisable but instead buying another hardware wallet in the country you are going, I think it better to download a mobile wallet which you will load with some few coins you're going to make use in the country you're travelling to while you keep the hardware wallet safe back at home.

Before you will move into other countries, have research first if they have Bitcoin legalities and this link might helpful for you.
Legality of bitcoin by country or territory

I suggest, don't travel bringing all your cryptocurrency, just only what you need, always separate your cold wallet and your hot wallet.  As much as possible,  remove all recoverable details or information in your hardware wallets such as contains with password or passphrase.  Once it will be lost, you can still recover using other wallets.

I don't see any problem bringing a hardware wallet while on travel but our safety while traveling ultimately depends on us, don't be stupid of being irresponsible of your asset.

Anyway, you might enjoy reading this from Ledger article, Traveling with Crypto.

I don't have experience yet traveling in another country with my hardware wallet because even me I haven't seen in person a kind of hardware wallet, but I don't think that there would be a problem once you have your hardware wallet on you, I don't think as well if they're familiar with it just like me. Don't worry about that., just make sure that you will keep it safe as you travel.

There is no dangerous threat when you have a hardware wallet and then take it to travel abroad for vacation. But it should be noted that every country has regulations related to the current existence of cryptocurrency, where in Indonesia, which is famous for its Bali Island, it prohibits the use of cryptocurrency to make buying and selling transactions in the jurisdiction of the country. You and the seller or cafe or shop will be subject to penalties that apply in accordance with the law.

The Indonesian state implies that there is only one FIAT currency that can be used for transactions, namely only IDR. Apart from IDR or Rupiah, the transaction can be withdrawn to legal channels by the prosecutor.
It will be safer if you don't violate the regulations that apply in each country so that your assets are truly safe.

The danger of traveling with the hard wallet is that you could loose the product and if you are leaving for another country all you need is get a locker from a reputable bank and make sure you have another back up as well. Never travel with it unless necessary and it is not about anyone confiscating because no one will notice until you say that to anyone else.

I guess there will be no problem if you do so travel across different nations in the globe while bringing a hardware wallet passing through immigration for it have not been declared to be illegal by having one upon entering across border of other country for travel. The only thing you might get concern is that if you might lost it along the way while you travel which will make you aware that you might have waste money for having hardware wallet may cause you money to buy another one. Just be aware before taking travel to know policies of the country you are going to better assess if you must bring your hardware wallet with you or not.

Why bringing it if you knew that the hw will be confiscated on the airport, though you can buy it only for +70$ as ledger nano s. I know I can still recover it but I would not waste my money for such reason, I'd better use mobile wallet with smaller amount just enough for what I need when I arrive on the particular place I want to travel.

Well, I don't see any danger there --hardware wallet is just like a USB stick that no one will be suspected that it is a bitcoin wallet.
Okay, let say, the customs are aware of it and in the airport, they are going to confiscate it. But you can still recover your bitcoin from another wallet, just simply recover it from the seeds that you have saved. However, if in your country bitcoin is not strictly prohibited, perhaps the hardware wallet too. You can do your own research for this and make sure that you are buying from the official distributor's store of the hardware wallet.

I don't think they are allowed to confiscate your property and I don't think that they are aware or they will know everything in your bag or something, I guess you could just hide it.

I mean if it is not allowed maybe they will look for it or something that is similar about it, just like for example a knife or a gun right?

Didn't see any cases similar to this one so I guess it is still safe, but I guess it is more like something that they could not stop like if it is illegal to buy bitcoin in a country or something, people can still buy bitcoin at that country you just need to do some work or I guess it is just a bit difficult than if it is not illegal.

Has there even been a case where a person couldn't enter a country or was asked hey what is this hardware wallet etc?  Only thing i could see is it getting stopped at customs when its shipped to a country... i read a thread on this.


But it looks like usb stick unless you get those trezors.


But again, what about your seed though?  I mean if you going to travel for a while, you going to leave your seed in your house/apartment if say you are gone for months?

If you're a normal person, why the government wanted to plant anything just to detain you? But that is a different story here.

There's nothing to worry about, but first, before you will go to on that country, just seek first if bitcoin is allowed in that place. If they allow, of course also having a hardware wallet is allowed. You can hide anywhere your hardware wallet that visible to them, that is a small thing that easy to hide and I guess that is not a problem here.

There's nothing wrong that unless you are caught doing funny things in the airport in any national airport in the world. once they suspected you of something they will go through your things and might ask you about your hard wallet. You just need to extra careful and act as if nothing is different because depends on the country you are going some have their own propaganda to detain you just by having 1 bullet in your bag.

Cryptocurrencies are more convenient than fiat, precisely because they are virtual and can be used and stored without any physical manipulation. It allows you to travel all around the world if you want it without having to bring your funds with you neither to use a trusted third party. It let you being your "own bank". So yes you can use a BIP39 HD wallet generated from an hardware wallet to store your funds, then you will be able to recover them  "just" with your BIP39 seed(and eventually the derivation paths used)

Looking around for cases with issues derived from carrying a hardware wallet barely seems to return anything significant, if at all, so it doesn’t seem to be a currently running issue.

It does have a potential though, and that is whether they will interpret, at some point, that carrying a value in BTC above a certain threshold might qualify for the need to fill-in the corresponding declaration form. The US Customs for example, requires you to explicitly declare if you are carrying in or out of the country an equivalent of >= 10K$ in currency or other monetary instruments.
Bitcoin is currently not considered technically as such in most places, but it doesn’t seem far-fetching to envision its inclusion (securities and stocks are on the list provided below for example, which one might not have expected).

Of course there’s all the debate around the fact that you’re not actually carrying bitcoins, but rather keys to access them. Even so, I would not be the least surprised to see cryptocurrency explicitly listed in the years to come. Then everyone would shift to using passphrases just in case ...

See: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/currency_reporting.pdf
  

Why would anyone think of a hard wallet as some form of doomsday-inducing device from the future? It's not like nobody knows about bitcoin nowadays even if it's second-hand knowledge. Besides, the newer version hard wallets are much lighter and much more appealing to the eyes so you don't have to worry about people thinking you're carrying a bomb on the airport. Not unless you buy the ones that weigh a lot however, that will definitely get you screwed. So it's not about how bitcoin is accepted in the country, it is what are the means you will use to keep it with you where ever you are. If you chose hard wallets, that's good. Pick the best based on your need and preference and stick from there.

I had thread on this as well a while back.  But to those of you who travel with hardware wallet, do you carry your seed as well with you?  That seem to be a huge concern because let say they flag you for some reason even though you have nothing on you and ask you to take everything out, well you seed will be there.  So imagine you have it in your wallet or carry on or whatnot and they look at it, well assuming they know about crypto, im sure they would easily be able to get your coins right?  Also x ray see everything but could they see words as well?  Imagine you have piece of paper in your carry on and as the person checks the xrays, they see a bunch of words and then go... hey that looks like a seed phrase.  Then couldn't they just rescan while taking a pen and paper and write it down etc?  Or is that very extreme paranoia etc.



I also heard of cases where people were told to unlock their phones and maybe laptops such as if they are suspicious of them traveling... but could they say hey put your pin in to open your hardware wallet?  That would be very bad if they could do that but zero case of that ever happening right?  I mean if you are a criminal or things like that... could they even do that to them?



Someone mentioned about traveling with the crypto debit card instead.  Im not familiar with those cards but when you use it... you still need to type a pin though right?  If so, how is that any safe than a hardware wallet?
Im guessing it look like credit cards so its not like they confiscate it and use it etc?

You can use the wallet like wazirx ,it was a sub wallet of binance and trusted one.Because I had using over a week,it was easy to withdrew crypto into the your fiat.Because many exchanges and website charging huge money to withdrew crypto into fiat.So it will be the good option to use such wallet instead of caring the funds in hand.We don't know,how the new environment will be.

@jakesun64, I'm sure that you'll be fine, but even if you want to be hundred percent sure for your safety on your international traveling, then simply:  Don't use hardware wallets. Use a computer software instead. There are plenty of useful non-custodial wallets. My favourites are electrum and wasabi.

Although, you must ensure that the laptop you're travelling doesn't contain anything malicious. Keep in mind that the difference with software wallets is that your keys can be found on your hard drive. If you're not sure about your computer's security ^{(you are probably not)}, don't risk your funds. Carry the device with you.

How can you really propose such solution to someone? Since when storing your bitcoins on a hardware wallet is the same thing with visa card or any other single authority?

No, it wouldn't. You would then have to trust your mobile, which usually runs on a closed-source environment. Besides the operating system, you have to be careful of the apk you'll install. Not to mention that you have to be sure about your phone's security. There are just so many victims that lost funds from a mobile wallet... That's because there are many intermediates.

A person that isn't familiar with technology will have to trust:

• The operating system's developers.
• The developer of the wallet.
• The app store he/she will download it from.
• Every other application he/she has installed.