jrswab

No-fluff tutorials and privacy-focused tools for the modern productivity-minded developer.

You Need A Hardware Wallet

Categories: [Technology]
Tags: [security], [cryptocurrency], [money]

If you put money into Bitcoin or another crypto, it's mad essential to store your wealth in a hardware wallet. These devices keep your private keys offline which significantly increases your security and limits the chances of your currency being stolen.

I picked up my first hardware wallet back in 2015 about a month or so after I started to invest in Bitcoin. Even though I had very little I knew that as time goes on the value of any fraction of Bitcoin would increase. My investment was worth the amount I put in but also any gain in value over time, and I did not want to put my money at risk of theft.

There are two hardware wallets that I own and use today. The first one I owned is the Ledger Wallet and while the exact one I have is no longer sold their new version is even better. I also picked up a Trezor Wallet to get some hands-on experience with another brand in 2017.

Both of these wallets are an excellent choice for keeping your crypto safe from thieves and robbers. Any time someone asks me about buying Bitcoin or another currency in the space I always tell them to send the $80-$150 USD on a hardware wallet before purchasing any cryptocurrency.

There is no point in me telling them to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Monero if they are only going to leave it on an exchange or in a mobile wallet. When it comes to Monero, I actually do not tell people to hold off on buying any unless they are tech savvy enough to run the desktop wallet.

Even then there is still a chance of messing up and exposing the private keys to the world, and at the time of writing this post, there is no hardware wallet for Monero. However, Ledger is working to add this currency to their devices, and there is also a team working on a Monero specific hardware device. So look into the state of these wallets after reading.

Tips When Buying A Hardware Wallet

First, never buy from a site other than the original manufacturer's website. Even if the device is found on Amazon or eBay, it is never okay to trust these sources since they only offer a portal to sell. You can never be sure if a seller (other than the manufacturer) messed with your device an is then able to steal your funds.

Second, make sure the currency you want to store offline is available on the device you chose. The sheer number of coins out there make it hard for any developer to keep up. The principal currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum are almost always supported in one way or another. The same can not be said about some of the lesser know coins such as IOTA, EOS, and many others.

Third, make sure to copy down your seed phrase from your device and store it in a place that it will stay safe. This is the sole way to recover your funds if your device is lost or stolen and it is entirely in our hands. The manufacturers cannot reset our devices nor can they give us our seed phrase if we lose it.

Ledger Nano S

Ledger Nano S is a Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Altcoins hardware wallet, based on robust safety features for storing cryptographic assets and securing digital payments. It connects to any computer (USB) and embeds a secure OLED display to double-check and confirm each transaction with a single tap on its side buttons.

Features:

Trezor Wallet

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