Bitcoin Forum

Hello folks.

I am looking to purchase bitcoin and ethereum as investments. In other words, I don't plan on using them to pay for services or goods.

My question is - what is the simplest method of cold storage? Is there a single desktop app I could use that supports both currencies? Is Jaxx the answer for this use case?

Thanks.

Not really.  Jaxx is good for someone who uses multiple coins on a regular basis, but if you want cold storage and long-term storage you'd be best off creating separate paper wallets for each coin.  You could have the paper wallets in safes, bank deposit boxes or buried, to give some examples.

You could also try using a TREZOR with multiple passphrases including a decoy.  Then you're quite safe from 5-dollar wrench attacks, hacking and nearly any other problems I can think of.  

I'm pretty sure you can store Bitcoin and Ether in the same TREZOR, using MyEtherWallet as well as their regular one.

It all depends on the level of security you want.  If you get Jaxx it will probably be okay, but you're susceptible to viruses and you might not know if something happens since you wouldn't be accessing it regularly.

Thanks for the reply.

A little more info - my wallet platform is linux. I've installed Armory and EthereumWallet. I was just wondering if there was a simpler option than parallel software for both currencies. It would be convenient to just purchase one or the other and then convert some amount to the other, and also to manage both from a single wallet.

Well, you can use coinbase if you are scared that you can lose private key or something like that. However, I suggest you should use electrum and myetherwallet

I want to use cold storage - I'm not gonna use an online wallet.

Yep.  For that kind of purpose, Jaxx would be ideal.  You could also try depositing some Bitcoin that you bought into an altcoin exchange like Bittrex (https://bittrex.com) and then withdrawing from there into your wallet, which would avoid potentially high fees from Jaxx (I think their fees are 1% or something - integration with Shapeshift).

Is bittrex a good exchange for buying (I'm in the US)? I'd like to use ACH from a bank account...I had been looking at coinbase.

I won't be able to tell you much about ETH because I have just started buying ETH and still holding a small amount in my exchange only. I am planning to use coinbase account to hold my ETH as of now because the amount is low.

However, for bitcoin, I would suggest you to use more than two wallets with a mix of online and offline would be good, if you are holding a good amount of money in bitcoin. Never keep all your bitcoin in a single place. Diversify and use more accounts like blockchain, coinbase, electrum and offline light account. That's what I do.

My advice if you choose ETH I think you need to keep a private key that is not directly connected to the internet at least prevent unwanted things, if you really will hold it as a long term investment.

He's looking for cold storage here and you're suggesting coinbase? For online be wallets there are several of them in sure the OP is aware but he was specific as to what he wants-cold storage.

Not coinbase, it's an exchange site come on. Best bet would be to download the clients and save the private keys manually.

For cold storage you can use a second offline machine with Electrum. You have everything explained in the Electrum official website documentation of how to set up cold storage with Electrum. If you don't want to use an offline laptop, you can buy a hardware wallet and it will act as a cold storage with the advantage that it can be used online without problems as I think these hardware wallets are immune from malware.

The best way to get secure cold storage would be to:
1. Download a linux distro and burn it to a CD
2. Download a copy of walletgenerator.net and put in on a thumb drive
3. Boot up the Live CD, insert the thumb drive and generate a paper wallet (if you plan to keep a digital copy be sure to add a password to it and keep the password on paper)
4. Print out your wallet or save it to your thumb drive

If you follow those steps you’ll have a very secure and easy to use cold paper wallet.

This is close to what I've already done, although I had an existing linux machine which I used (and is not offline, so not perfectly secure, but close enough for me).

The heart of my question was: is there a single wallet app for the linux environment I could use for both eth and btc. I've installed both EthereumWallet and Amory, which both seem to be full nodes. Seems like overkill to an altcoin noob like myself, but maybe that's as simple as it gets.

Anybody else want to suggest Jaxx?

i too would like to know this.. altho i do believe i will get a ledger nano s as soon as it becomes available again for purchase in usa.

i have generated offline wallet with vanitygen and use it in electrum for btc, but not many options for eth?


i was trying to download this but it times out.
https://ryepdx.github.io/ethaddress.org/#/about

While I've never used Jaxx myself, assuming it's legit then I would recommend it, only I'd keep a majority of the funds in paper wallets and then use Jaxx to spend the funds. I'm basically doing the same as you are except using the Coinomi wallet, however I may just end up checking out Jaxx at some point because it runs on PC. But yes, as much as it may be nice to run a Bitcoin node if you have a number of altcoins then running a node for them is just unnecessary.

just FYI, Coinomi have a PC version in the pipeline ;)

Ah neat, guess I’m not really up on the latest news regarding it. I’ll have to check it out when they release it, that would really make it a lot easier to use my Coinomi wallet cross platform (manually coping private keys is a pain).

Just wanted to provide an update - I have successfully purchased bitcoin and ether on coinbase.com. After purchase, I then send/transfer ether to an ethereum wallet on my linux laptop using myetherwallet.com. I send/transfer bitcoin to my bitcoin wallet on my linux laptop which is running Armory. Both wallets are backed up via paper and a USB drive.

Just wanted to know if anybody sees a problem with this procedure, or if I can consider this an appropriate setup. Thanks!

You should be good. I’m assuming that the “Linux Laptop” is the mostly offline computer of yours, otherwise there would be a risk of hacking/malware obtaining your private keys. Regardless, it’s still a pretty foolproof setup.

Thanks for the reply.

The linux machine is not strictly offline. Given it is a linux machine, I'm not too concerned about hacking/malware. This machine also is not used all that often.

Related question - where are the private keys stored? Are they in the respective wallet files themselves?

It the private keys can be obtained from the wallet files, however you would need the password (assuming that you encrypted the private keys, which I would highly recommend) to actually obtain the private keys.
*Edit: Grammar

Yes, both wallets are encrypted, so I consider the existing security sufficient, although not perfect.

Thanks for all your help.

You already have a lot of great answers here, but I want to share another very easy non technical way for cold storage.

1 Go to https://www.myetherwallet.com/
2 Follow the directions! (Super simple)
3 Print out your public/private keys and QR codes (They format nicely and look great once you print it out).
4 Deposit funds to your public key.
5 Check https://etherchain.org/ for your account balance by entering in your public key in the search box.
6 **optional (HODLLLLL)