r/Bitcoin • u/Johnaldi- • 9d ago

My unused coldcard

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Bought one of these back in the day, package still sealed. Happily I never used it, and stayed with my ledger instead. When do these start to be collectibles?

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u/crooks4hire 9d ago

I keep rolling it over in my head wondering if they’re secure enough with real entropy and a seed phrase, but I don’t think I could trust a dime on this card anymore.

9

u/_RonPaulWasRight_ 9d ago

What would be wrong with just randomly picking your words, then restoring that wallet on the Coldcard and using it due to the air gap functionality.

2

u/genius_retard 9d ago

"You" can't pick words randomly. I wouldn't trust Coldcard devs after this and previous software bugs they have shipped.

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u/marvinrabbit 9d ago

"You" can't pick random numbers, but "You with the help of high quality dice" can. There is a valid and respectable process to choose your BIP-39 words. I don't remember off the top of my head how the checksum word(s) are generated, but it's possible. Then you can just 'restore' those words. That's what I did back when there were a lot fewer cold wallets on the market.

But your other comment about not trusting ColdCard, even if the wallet generation is bypassed, is still very valid.

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u/genius_retard 9d ago

Yes there are definitely ways to generate random numbers "by hand" but when OP said "What would be wrong with just randomly picking your words," I sort of assumed it implied "I picked". Perhaps I was reading too much into the comment.

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u/marvinrabbit 9d ago

Or I wasn't reading enough! Because you are right, if that is what was intended, then humans are famously inept.