Topic: Understanding Cold Storage - page 2. (Read 1386 times)

This is for anyone, but my service https://apicoin.io has personally help setup 5 large cold storage wallets for business type transactions. We can help any business or site, get a cold storage with our software. We don't hold any funds or ask for private keys but we can help make that disconnect a lot easier

Depends on the person.

Some people are very good at taking responsibility for keeping their property safe, others are careless and inattentive.

Is it more chances of losing USD than keeping them safe?

Some time ago, I read on the internet a story about a person that accidentally lost $10,000 cash.  Someone found it and returned it to them, but it took like 2 days and they were VERY stressed out.

This is a dumb question to some, but just curious is it more chances of losing bitcoin then keeping them safe?

Some time ago, I read a reddit post about some huge whale gambler losing his paper wallet.

I think he found it, but he took like 50 hrs looking everywhere stressed out etc.

I'm not sure how long flash memory is likely to last before it deteriorates and becomes unreadable.  Another thing to consider is the possibility of it being lost or damaged.  Finally, keep in mind that computer connectors change over time, and it can become difficult to find a computer that an old device will connect to.  Imagine if you had stored your private keys on any of the following, how difficult would it be to access those private keys today if you wanted to:

• 1928 Magnetic Tape
• 1932 Magnetic Drum
• 1950s Magnetic Core
• 1963 Music tape
• 1971 8" Floppy
• 1976 5.25" Floppy
• 1981 3.5" Floppy

Or if you had to rely on any of the following connectors:

• DE-9
• DB-25
• DIN-8
• DA-15
• DC-37
• DD-50
• IEEE 1284 36-pin
• 5-pin/180° DIN

One of the more common methods of long term storage is pencil (or printer ink) on paper.  The only thing needed to access it is at least one working eyeball, and a mostly functional brain.  This storage method has stood the test of time, being first used with slight variations thousands of years ago, and still in general use today.  It is extremely cheap, and multiple copies can be stored in multiple locations to protect against loss or damage.


Yes, but not repeatedly for every transaction.  You can store the blockchain after you've downloaded it.  Then you only have to update from where you left off to get caught up again.  You can keep the online half of the program running on an internet connected computer so that is stays caught up at all times.


Yes, honestly.  Why would I be lying about that?


Done properly.

Like making sure that you don't connect the computer that generates the private keys to the internet before you are 100% certain that there is no remaining trace of the private keys on the computer.  Like making sure that you store the private keys in a way that you can access them in the future.  Like making sure that you store the private keys in a way that protects them from loss or damage, and from unauthorized access by others.  Like making sure that any time you spend any bitcoins that were received at an address, you spend ALL bitcoins that were received at that address.  If you only want to spend a portion, then create a new cold storage address, send the portion you don't want to spend to this new address, and then spend the entire remaining balance to the address where you are trying to send it.

A flash drive doesn't really work because at some point you still have to connect it to an internet connected computer unless your willing to run it off a LiveUSB version of Linux. Still better to have an airgapped computer for this (you can buy a Raspberry Pi for $30 which will do the job).

Yes, if you don't want to download the whole blockchain you can look at Electrum.

Yes, one such example would be blockchain.info which allows you to search based on addresses and transactions.

Yes and no, if you're properly air gapped you won't have to worry about any viruses getting onto your system.

How about flash drive?


so do you mean if i using Bitcoin Core or Armory i have to download +/- 20GB to do one single transactions?

honestly,  

done properly? like having antivirus in your system well updated?

Cold storage is a set of private keys (and the associated bitcoin addresses) generated on a computer that is not connected to the internet, and stored in a way that has a significant likelihood of longevity while remaining inaccessible from the internet, and secure from unauthorized physical access.

Generally, to maintain security the computer that generated the bitcoins is either kept permanently offline, or has it's hard drive formatted and the operating system re-installed.


Armory or Electrum offline are both good ways to generate addresses on an offline computer while still being able to access the bitcoins if/when you want to.  They both provide ways to import private keys when you finally decide to spend from the cold storage without needing to expose the private keys to a potentially vulnerable system.


The blockchain is currently closer to 20 GB. Wallets such as Bitcoin Core and Armory require you to have the entire blockchain in order to generate and send transactions.  Electrum does not, but relies on servers run by someone else to provide the Electrum wallet with the needed info.

If you are not trying to create a transaction, then you don't need the blockchain at all (locally or from a server).  There are several blockchain
explorers you can use to identify the current balance that a private key has access to.  You can look up the balance with the bitcoin address.  Here are three of them:

• https://blockchain.info/
• http://blockr.io/
• https://blockexplorer.com/

When done properly?  Yes.

Hi, i'm newbie here and i want to ask some of the following question

1. What is cold storage?
2. do u have any recommended cold storage?
3. is it true u have to download +/-2GB in order to have your cold storage updated?
4. Is it save?

thanks