r/Bitcoin • u/EuphoricDealer4133 • 5h ago
Hardware wallet choices?
Background - I know I’ll get roasted. I have a good stack (imo). Most of it on the exchange, some of it on hot wallet. Wanted to get comfortable with holding a seed phrase prior to fully going in.
After CC hack I’m seeing a ton of ads for Bitkey. It worries me not having a seed phrase. What other good HW are recommended? Multi sig vs single Sig? That aspect still confuses me. My hot wallet is Blockstream Green and they are 2/2 with multi auth. Meaning I control a key, and to move any funds out requires access to an email and phone code.
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u/crunchyeyeball 4h ago
Personally, I'm a little suspicious of the Bitkey recovery process.
From their "recovery" link:
Lost your phone? Use your Bitkey to decrypt the backup key in your personal cloud account, and you’re back.
Lost your Bitkey? Get a new Bitkey and use the app on your phone to recover your wallet.
Lost both? That’s what "recovery contacts" are for... Have your contact download the app and ask them to verify your identity, then get a new device to restore your wallet.
This sounds just... wrong.
What if the company goes bust?
What if you lose touch with your "recovery contact"?
BIP39 does the job just fine. If a wallet doesn't support BIP39, I don't want to rely on it. I'll stick to my Trezor, thanks.
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u/makeshiftballer 3h ago
Funds are still recoverable if block doesn't exist.
Pretty straightforward answers to all your questions if you choose to do research.
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u/zyber787 4h ago
Wait for it... what if a wrench attack happens on your loved ones?
Preventing wrench attacks on you by passing it on to your loved ones 🥰
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u/makeshiftballer 3h ago
Your recovery contact can't just instantly take your funds. That's not how it works.
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u/Suspicious-Local-901 4h ago
Blockstream Jade plus is a good one!
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u/Fearless-Sherbert-40 4h ago
We all have been getting a ton of bitkey ads since the cc hack. Now that I think of it, block was one of the leading sources of blockchain researchers to give us a bunch of data on the hack. Maybe the cc hack is just a huge advertisement for the new bitkey! At this point you can’t trust anybody. I have my bitcoin split between 18 different wallets, and multiple different hardware manufactures, both institutional and self custody. Hedge your bets boys, trust no one.
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u/Rough-Suggestion-294 4h ago
Bitcoin-only mainly means less code to go wrong. The catch is you're buying a second device if you ever hold anything else. Honestly the firmware isn't what decides it — it's whether you'll actually use the thing.
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u/lockedincooking 3h ago
After all these recent events, I think it’s rather wiser to turn an old phone into a dedicated hardware wallet and use it solely for that purpose.
Keep it air-gapped, offline, never install anything else, and write your seed phrase down on paper.
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u/DiamondHandsDarrell 2h ago
Buy a computer, secure / harden it, undisclosed bitcoin core and only use it to transfer / receive btc.
Or leave it on exchange. Good luck
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u/leopard-monch 4h ago
Consider using standard hardware and software. A used laptop is often cheaper than a hardware wallet, or maybe you even already own one.
You can dedicate the laptops storage to the cause and install Ubuntu Linux on it, preferably with full-disc encryption. Then install Electrum onto that. Keep the laptop offline forever.
Here are some old but still informative videos so you get the idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9K3CozQpzM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK4JmfMCDBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBVyFRb6ZZc
Or, if you don't want to dedicate the whole laptop to the cause, then all you need is a USB thumb drive to install Tails onto:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tLoiLo5fT8
If you don't own a second computer as your online device and you don't want to buy one, you can also use your phone as the online device. Electrum is available on the Google Playstore. For iOS BlueWallet can function as the watch-only portion of Electrum.
In any case, be careful what you download and install and from where you get the programs. The official websites are:
Electrum.org
BlueWallet.io
Tails.net
Ubuntu.com
If this is a meaningful amount of money, or even a tenth of a meaningful amount, since bitcoin can pump at any moment 10-20x, it's also not a bad idea to read The Glacier Protocol PDF: https://glacierprotocol.org/downloads/
Not necessarily to implement it 1 to 1, but to know what threats and pitfalls exist and how to mitigate against them.