Bitcoin Forum

If you buy crypto currencies in one country and then travel to another country, as long as I have the passphrase and private key on paper, hidden in mulptiple places and the crypto on an online exchange, no kyc, p2p bought, non custodial and bought on a clean laptop, can I delete the website from by laptop, including the online wallet, and then sign in again to that exchange after travelling.

I have heard, dont know if it is true, but better safe than sorry, that they now have devices to scan your smartphone and laptop to see what is on it. I would not be surprised if they do that now, the governments of the world are becoming very anti crypto currency, especially for privacy coins.

Yes I've once heard of such instance hence why I'd also be taking extra safety precautions; though I'm not sure how widespread these cases are.

But yea. As long as you have your 12-24 word backup(and your passphrase, if you use one), you can freely uninstall your bitcoin wallet app on your mobile phone(or computer) and simply just reinstall it after you leave the airport in the destination country.

Yes, you are completely safe. Just make sure your seed phrase is secured and written correctly and you'll be fine.

its what makes crypto easy to bring because all you need is the private key or the pnemonic seed you can already cross without worrying bringing  cash thats more than 10k. you will also not be able to do it with gold.

it looks u safe writing the keys multiple times on multiple papers, highlighting words in a book works for me.

don't it need a search warrant before they can scan your smartphone?

It depends on the country. Although one would think that it would be a common requirement, it’s not always so. I don’t know how widespread it is on a per country basis, but recently a court has ruled that US Customs & Border Protection agents can, without a warrant, proceed to perform a search on your phone, review the content, and even copy data.

I don’t know if it will stand for long, nor just how many cases have been carried out under the above precept, but it’s certainly one thing to look into to be on the safe side.

See: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/10/22276183/us-appeals-court-first-circuit-border-phone-search-decision-fourth-amendment

Thanks to everyone who answered my post, nice to have confirmation on these things!

Yes you can delete and uninstall the wallet on your device then you ensure your passphrase is propertly written down. If you cannot access where you wrote down your passphrase it's a clear indication you have lost access to such wallet and as such you can no longer access the funds in such wallet unless the passphrase is retrieved

Before the delete, you could still have their copies stored on multiple SD cards (or written down on papers) and then encrypted.  One or few of the cards and papers could be kept back home just incase something happens to the ones you are traveling with... you can always call someone who is trustworthy to transfer the encrypted contents when you get to your destination.

People in governments are subject to Just Laws and don't have right to stop people from using good crypto. Better they encourage Safe Cryptocurrency Space and monitor it for abuse/misuse.

Don't show any sign of crypto ownership on your phones and perhaps sew the privkey into the label of a t-shirt or something. I definitely wouldn't want them to find out that I own crypto, so why not just hide it in plain sight lol.

I'd purchase a new cheap phone and travel across the border with it. If these guys copy data off your phone, at least they won't find out even a word related to crypto inside it.

There's no problem with your idea of keeping your cryptos as long as you have those passphrases. I agree to the idea and don't ever let other people that you're into crypto. They might get an idea that you've got tons of money.
That's the thinking of most people when they hear someone who's into crypto and then you're traveling, so be careful.

If you have access (password, private keys) then you can access your wallet anytime, anyplace by uninstalling wallet or deleting the browsing history etc. But in this case one thing need to check that the country accept Crypto or not. The country banned Crypto or illegal. You just aware of this matter. Otherwise i don't think that any device can scan your device that which you already browse in your laptop or something like that.

In theory, you should be fine as long as you have you keep your private key, I  don't think they have reason to confiscate your bitcoin at some point, or how are they gonna know that you hold bitcoin in the airport?

I mean you can easily hide it if you want to make sure about it, if the country doesn't have any issues buying cryptocurrency I think it's fine but we never know. Especially in  country where bitcoin is banned I think that is where you might encounter problems if they know that you have they bitcoin.

But just like what I've said you can easily hide that from them and there's no way that they will know that you have bitcoin holdings in your wallet.

I am wondering what countries do that kind of very strict rules about cryptocurrency. And I am s relieved living in this country that supports crypto although only as a commodity, not as a payment.
However, if you are going somewhere, yeah it is important to seek the information regarding cryptocurrency for the sake of the security of your assets themselves.
If there are such rules and advanced technology to scan your smartphone or laptop that include your wallets or exchanges, you must be careful and really secure your own.
Yeah, you can delete it if needed only. However, as many people said here, don't forget to save and keep your phrase, password, private key, and everything data that are important and need for the security and access your wallet again. Because, once you lost them, you will lose your money forever.
Don't be panic every time there is a check of the application and mobile phone. There may be any dispensation for the tourists who are caught using such forbidden application in a certain country and only told not to use it. But, yeah, it is better to seek the information at first about the local rules for crypto.

You are mixing many things up, paper wallets have nothing to do with exchange accounts that usually need your email address and password, but you don't have any control of coins in your account.
Access to your exchange account should be possible from anywhere in the world if you have your login details unless some country is in some restricted region,
but they can always lock your account and freeze your coins or withdrawals like we see happening in Binance and other exchanges.

There is no special device that can scan your smartphone and laptop if they are encrypted and protected with strong passwords, but if they want governments can always extort and blackmail you to give them access or go to jail.
Backdoors for devices are also possible but why should they waste time on this when they can break people much easier with old fashioned mafia way, and they are also working on bounties for cracking hardware wallets.

As long as you have the necessary information to access it, I think that there will be no problem for you to encounter. Somethings fishy with what you are doing though, you seem to be evading someone and you are trying to hide your money so you can get away with all of it since a lot of cash is impossible to bring in an airport.

This is the safest and the most preferable thing to do when you are entering the airport with your crypto.

Being wise is not that hard when you really think of other solutions that will benefit you just to overcome a certain problem.

If you really want something, there's a plenty of way on how to do it, you just need to take the risk and think critically.

Custodial wallets and non custodial wallets, please choose later one (non custodial wallets).

What makes you choose online wallets in the first place? They are risky type of wallet. If you do not choose it, you won't have to worry about leftovers in your smartphones, laptops when they are in hands of anyone else.

When you use a non custodial wallet, the best is create that wallet offline.

Do things offline and secretly, you won't have to worry about them.

Custodial vs. Non Custodial Wallets - "Not your keys, not your coin" Explained. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5173370.msg52090702#msg52090702)
Recommended wallets (https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/recommended-wallets.html)

Bitcoin Q&A: Not your keys, not your coins (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcrEEnDLm58)

Your passphrase holds your private keys so there is actually no need to write down your private keys on a piece of paper. Your passphrase is everything that you need.

But what do you mean by crypto on an online exchange? It is best to pull out all of your cryptocurrencies from exchanges and keep them in a wallet where you have your passphrase. If you login to your exchange account thousands and thousands of miles away, something might be triggered and you're asked to undergo KYC.

You can delete the cookies in your browser so there is no websites list on your laptop. But the best thing you can do is reinstall the laptop, so there is no sign that you already use that laptop.

You need to keep the passphrase and everything related to your activity on your computer and do the thing in the above step for the wallet.

You can buy a new laptop in the destination country and install everything necessary to access your credential, including your wallet, to make a transaction.

Not all governments will become very anti cryptocurrency, and you can feel safe when you visit their country.

Agree with the guy above, if not want to trade it yet, better to save it in wallet only. Especially if want to use exchange without 2fa, KYC, etc, because KYC is something important to make them sure if the account is ours. If me, i will save all in wallet, save passphrase or private key in paper, notepad in flashdisk,and travel safely.

It's not really bad to take precautions because it can be a risk you never saw coming. If ever you've some news with regards to the issue, it would better to be safe than sorry. Maybe there are countries that can scan through your wallet yet you can avoid such instances through uninstalling your bitcoin wallet app first and if you have no plans on spending it there, much better if would just let it stay there. Find any ways possible so that you can still access your wallet in another country, just make sure that you wouldn't end up getting caught or be blamed on a certain violation.

I think yes you're safe just make sure you have it all writen correctly.
And I think it is better to have a hardware wallet than an online wallet or paper wallet for me it is the best wallet to secure your crypto.
I also like the idea of crypto and travelling since we just need to know where to exchange our crypto into Fiat.

Why would you keep the coins in your exchange though, you can just have it in the wallet (which you own) so that you can just have your coins back and have complete control over it if any issue happens and also some exchanges are banned in particular countries, but to be on the safe side, just make sure you follow both countries laws, and if there are taxes to be given in your home country or in the destination one, do that. Don't break any rules and you will be fine :)

That is the benefits of a hardware wallet because we do not need to install the wallet on our laptop or mobile phone. If we want to access the wallet, we can plug the wallet into the devices we want and transact directly.

But I think he can install Binance apps on his mobile phone and don't send any coins to his wallet. He can send the coins into his Binance account wallet and sell them using the P2P market. I think that can help him get the money sent into his bank account to get a local seller from the country he visited.

only true if you don't borrow to invest in bitcoin, many of my friends invest bitcoin with borrowed money, and now they are in a state of panic not knowing what to do next. According to experts, this hibernation cycle of cryptocurrencies can last for 4 years

There are lots of ways that you can buy bitcoin and secure it and not have problems when next you want to access it. It is very much possible, it depends on the wallet you decide to make use of and as long as you have your seed stored safely you can always be able to access your wallet anytime you want.

And as for the government being anti cryptocurrency, that can’t really stop you from selling and buying cryptocurrencies, but if it’s not legal in your country then you have to be very careful the way that you’re dealing with crypto currency so that you don’t get into an any problem with the law in your country.

A key could be anything though. You could have the line on a page in a book that only you know, and it would take 16^64 guesses for someone to find it. It is possible to do convert any phrase to an address, although it isn't easy for the average person.

Bitcoin core could enable base 64 to key conversion without the checksum to help people with this, although I'd foresee many and very permanently lost addresses.

Not sure if that's possible, OP though I even heard a myth or theory about that one.
If you're gonna uninstall your online wallet, you could clean it so that any residual junks from the uninstalled app would be cleaned as well though that will be way too much already to be honest.

You should probably research first if the mentioned country bans crypto usage though.

It is better to know the place you are going to first before coming up into a decision to get into that country to better know what actions you must do before entering their premises. There might be tight security for those countries who still not legally accepts cryptocurrencies and as crypto user, we must be aware with those countries that as much as possible we must avoid for now. I am not quite sure on the thing if you can delete your browser as it is but I think deleting your history will be enough or turning off the sync to your account logged in the browser. It will be a wise move to keep the pass phrase and needed keys in a safe place that will not be suspicious as well. But on the devices they could possibly use to check your devices regarding crypto, I haven't heard such but if there's one, that would be absurd.