Trezor question: Going very cold, would that be different than Ledger (USBs)?

hexafraction

sr. member

Activity: 392

Merit: 259

Tips welcomed: 1CF4GhXX1RhCaGzWztgE1YZZUcSpoqTbsJ

Quote from: HeroCat on June 22, 2016, 07:56:44 AM

If you do not even use Trezor for some time, let say one year or two years - what can happen then ? For example, if you do not use your laptop for one year - everything is fine. Wink

Magnetic media experiences bit-rot as well. Copious use of error-correcting codes is often implemented to prevent it, but anecdotally I can speak to bit rot causing data corruption over time (mainly in large files whose data/program reading them are sensitive to even single-bit errors.

HeroCat

hero member

Activity: 658

Merit: 500

If you do not even use Trezor for some time, let say one year or two years - what can happen then ? For example, if you do not use your laptop for one year - everything is fine. Wink

BitcoinNewsMagazine

legendary

Activity: 1806

Merit: 1164

Surely you do not expect a Trezor to last indefinitely. That is why you guard your 24 word seed in case you lose your Trezor or it breaks. You can then quickly restore to a new Trezor. I had a three month old Trezor go bad, it happens. Keep a spare handy!

hexafraction

sr. member

Activity: 392

Merit: 259

Tips welcomed: 1CF4GhXX1RhCaGzWztgE1YZZUcSpoqTbsJ

Quote from: Windpower on June 17, 2016, 02:53:11 AM

Ledgers aren't USBs, nor do they utilize USB technology. They use bank grade security chips Roll Eyes

This seems to be confusing some things. USB is a bus; flash memory is a technology. The cryptoprocessor choice isn't strongly related to the type of nonvolatile storage used.

Windpower

hero member

Activity: 532

Merit: 501

Ledgers aren't USBs, nor do they utilize USB technology. They use bank grade security chips Roll Eyes

Carlton Banks

legendary

Activity: 3430

Merit: 3071

It depends alot on the form of non-volatile memory the Trezor is using to store the keys, likely some form of EEPROM or flash. And then again, it also depends on the error correction algorithm (if any) that the controller for the memory device uses. What I can tell you is that information that does not change and stays in the same memory cell (at least with flash, not sure about EEPROM) is actually pretty reliable; long term deterioration manifests as an inability to write to faulty mem cells, not an inability to read from them. So you could end up with a handful of failing memory cells after > 5 years, but it won't matter much as all controllers are designed to accommodate that kind of failure graciously (i.e. without data loss, just capacity loss)

OROBTC

legendary

Activity: 2912

Merit: 1852

...

I read recently that USB storage drives (thumb drives), and apparently USB wallet-hardware (like Ledger's Nano) might have an issue re longer-term storage. Namely that the device might "forget" everything on it after a long time (or perhaps after a long time of no use).

Trezor seems to operate differently, as it seems to have its own fairly active processor.

Would Trezor be vulnerable to lack of use over a long period?

For that matter, any comments on Ledger (and similar) usability over long periods of cold storage?

It could be that I am mis-informed re "USB-style" hardware wallets... Many of us would like to know the truth.

Thank you.

Topic: Trezor question: Going very cold, would that be different than Ledger (USBs)? (Read 667 times)