Bitcoin Forum

Hi, I'm kinda new to this whole Bitcoin thing, but I heard it was big and wanted in, so I signed up for Coinbase and bought about $1500 worth.
Then I was reading up and read that I shouldn't store my coins on exchanges because if they're hacked you could lose everything.
I heard that hardware wallets are the way to prevent that... but what would be the best one?
All I really need is for it to be functional and have Bitcoin support.
I heard that Trezor or Ledger hardware wallets are pretty good... but what do you guys think?
Thanks!

--
Sam Jennings
Investment Banker at Chase
sam9@mailfence.com

Ledger and Trezor are the most popular options for hardware wallets. Coldcard is also a very good wallet because it has the option to be used in an air-gapped manner which means it doesn't ever need to be connected to a computer.

For new users either any of the two most popular wallets are beginner friendly and will keep your bitcoin safe.

Trezor or Ledger are the best way to store bitcoins, paper wallets are much easier to loose, not to mention the price of buying a hardware wallet will make you want to keep track of them.
and when it comes to keeping your money or coins, the main concern you should pay attention to is “how safe can I keep it”. and I think Trezor offers the best security for your coins.
At Trezor, the main goals are mobility, security and reliability. Trezor provides you with a reliable, efficient, mobile and 100% secure hardware Cryptocurrency wallet. When you get all these features from a trezor product then it's up to you to decide if trezor is the best, but in my opinion Trezor is the best.

Welcome to the roller coaster ride with us. Yes, that's great because you are a newbie and have realized that it is not good to store assets on centralized exchanges, "not your keys, not your money".
Currently we have many different types of cold wallets, but the two most popular and widely used are Trezor or Ledger that you mentioned. Both are good and worth using, you can choose either, as long as it suits your pocket. What's more important is that when you own it, how you take care of them must be a top priority. No matter how good a wallet is, if you don't store it carefully, your assets are still dangerous as usual.

This is a list of hardware wallets compiled by a reputable member that you can refer to, but I still recommend using one of the two wallets you mentioned.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282364.0

Could sum up the market with Ledger and Trezor. But, if you need an online wallet, where you have the private keys, I recommend Mycelium. I use this a lot of time

If you don't know what you're doing, keep it simple.

Ledger Nano S/X + Electrum

or

Trezor Model S/T + Electrum

and

Just write down the 12-24 word backup on a piece of paper.

Are we talking about only 1500$ worth of bitcoins or you need to buy more in the near future and keep them in the cold wallet.
You will get a lot of good information about the hardware wallets in reply to your thread but i will advise you that you should transfer the bitcoins from coinbase and keep them in the electrum wallet.
I don't recommend spending money on hardware wallets if you have small amounts of bitcoins.

I'd recommend getting accustomed to using bitcoin and sending a few dollars back and forth from the exchange to a Software wallet to ensure you're comfortable doing it when you get a hardware one. You don't want to be losing your whole funds and being dissuaded from crypto because you make a mistake with your first transaction (which can happen). I wouldn't do too many tests though either because fees aren't 0.


Mycelium is compatible with ledger and trezor too so it's a good wallet for mobile (but it is closed source).

If you're only storing bitcoin op then using electrum with your hardware wallet and picking a trezor or ledger is a good place to start.

[LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288971.0)

You can choose Trezor, Ledger wallets as well as some hardware wallets in the list.

You can also use Electrum wallet as a cold wallet.

Download: https://electrum.org/#download
Verify: [GUIDE] How to Safely Download and Verify Electrum (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5240594.0)
Cold storage with Electrum: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

For bitcoin holding Trezor or Ledger is likely good cold wallet . but from here Trezor is something advanced then Ledger . i have a bit long experience in Trezor wallet it is really a cool wallet. you can choice this. i will never force you to use this wallet. do your own research before start using . i just give you a suggestion from my opinion

Right. You shouldn't keep your bitcoin on an exchange and that's not only due to possibility of getting hacked.
You shouldn't keep your bitcoin on an exchange, because in this way, you give them full control over your bitcoin and they can freeze your fund at any time for any reason.
It's always recommended to use a non-custodial wallet or a hardware wallet.

Take note that you don't have to use a hardware wallet.
You can use electrum and if you want to be 100% secure, you should install it on an airgapped device.
If you want complete security and you can't use an airgapped device for any reason, you should use a hardware wallet.

Trezor is still my go-to for cold wallet, it's a pretty awesome wallet and it's easy to set up plus it's totally safe, that is if you follow their guides and you are buying from a respectable seller that wouldn't tamper with the wallet that they're selling. Overall though, pretty decent wallet even though there are some huge downsides.

There's nothing wrong with cold storages but you could have opted in for bitcoincore preferably, but the option of choosing a cold storage like electrum wallet is a very good idea along with the hardware wallets (ledger nano and trezor) as you've mentioned and you will need to ensure that you have a good and secured means that xan handle the safety of your keys if using (electrum) and where to safe keep your hardware wallet if using (ledger nano or trezor) agaist damage, lost or stolen from external constraints.

Both of them are good, I'm a Ledger user but haven't tried to own Trezor. I have no complaints about how I store my assets through a ledger wallet, the old version is what I've got, the s.
I reckon the suggestion about trying out Electrum first and that's a good desktop wallet that everyone recommends while you're waiting for any of the two once it's on delivery.

All hardware wallets usually support Bitcoin but they are not all the same and you don't even have to buy them if you only want to store Bitcoin.
You can use your old laptop, make it offline without internet connection, format it and install fresh encrypted Linux OS with Electrum wallet.
Alternative option is to use your laptop in combination with Tails OS and Electrum wallet for making transaction.

I would never buy ledger wallet again, it is closed source, it has bad quality control, and it is mostly oriented towards shitcoins.
Trezor wallet is better, it is open source but it doesn't have secure element yet, so it can be less secure if used without passphrase.
Hardware wallets are quick and easy solution, but you should be careful how you purchase them, and what data you leave as that often gets hacked and leaked online.
Topic I made [LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288971.0) is worth checking out for more information, but I think that Trezor, Bitbox, Passport and Keystone are all OK.

PS
You don't have to write your full name, workplace and email address with your full history here...

I think hardware wallet is a good solution for beginners. It is not necessary to buy exactly ledger or trezor, because there are other manufacturing companies. But these are the most common and are very popular. Ease of use will allow beginers to protect their funds as much as possible, although it will require some expenses for the purchase of a hardware wallet. But I think it's worth it and it's better to pay for it than to lose your savings to malware.

Hardware wallet are very secure when it's come to security, it's good for newbies who doesn't know in depth technical. But I'd say setting up your own cold storage with your old PC are more secure than hardware wallet since your privacy will protected 100%, unlike hardware wallet which you need to purchase and giving your personal information to the sellers.

The complete guide you can read it here [Guide] Secure air-gapped crypto wallet storage method (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2828437.0), I know it's very full of text and not an easy task to understand it.

Braveness investing in Bitcoin although you still beginner in this cryptocurrency world, but your decision choose saving Bitcoin assets in hardware wallet is good between Trezor or can use Safepal. I think hold and saving your bitcoin fund in Coinbase wallet keep safety because this exchange market have more secure about security log in until withdrawing process. Detected when access using different IP address and Coinbase need your authorize on email notification send, I think if your account get hacked and you still have email in your hand they can't access to your Coinbase account. But I am glad with your choose to save Bitcoin fund in Tezor hardware wallet, but keep remember you need sync first when try log in back and send Bitcoin assets to exchange market for selling.

Trezor and Ledger are the best solutions, you choose from one of them, if you have a lot of doubts about storing assets on the exchange then choose a cold wallet that suits you, of course, of all the choices, it's the best but you have to study it if you don't know.
I think it's pretty clear the various sources that have been shown above, it's just up to you to decide from this cool wallet.
I myself choose Electrum to store assets but partly from Ledger as another option, but remember it's better to keep it in a cold wallet than on an exchange.

For that amount having a hardware wallet is indeed a must. I never have a trezo, only ledger but i heard it has good support, well, ledger too. What i mean all possible questions and problems are already on their faq page. Their twitter handle is responsive too when it comes to asking questions to related problem.

Also, i seconded the use of electrum + the hardware wallet as i feel annoyed using ledger live when transacting. I only use it to update the firmaware, install and uninstall apps.

First of all, you can do cold storage in one of two ways.

[1] Fully analog key storage, no digital signer. This means you generated a wallet and addresses on an airgapped, offline PC using https://tails.boum.org/, and store the seed phrase on paper and / or metal. This method doesn't allow you to spend the funds easily, but it's very secure.
[2] Hardware wallet; easier to set up, easy to back up to paper and / or steel, but also allow you to spend funds without too much hassle and with relatively low risk of attacks / small attack surface.

If you want one of the latter, your question would fit better in Hardware Wallets (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=261.0), and it's also not the first time it was asked.
Here's a search query to check out: https://ninjastic.space/search?board=261&title=best%2Bhardware%2Bwallet

I'm repeating myself, but in my opinion, the minimum requirements are:

My favourite so far, is the Passport.

You sound like a typical newbie who quickly get in after hearing that btc can make them a millionaire but anyway coinbase has a lot of users so their security is kinda robust and maybe they offer some kind of refund in case problem can occur and users lost their funds but what you are planning there is also great.

It's always better to be safe than sorry. Not only hacks can happen but coinbase itself can restrict their costumer from using their funds just like a bank so it's better if we transfer the coins to the wallet that we fully control. It doesn't really need to be a hardware wallet but there are online wallets too like electrum (https://electrum.org/#home) which you can use for free.

Best depends on your needs (usability, safety, number of different altcoins you want it for along with bitcoin). It's hard to tell which is "best".


Yes, they're are the most used ones because they have an older history and reasonable prices.
However, Trezor doesn't have secure element chip and Ledger has a recent history of fuckups, from getting customer info (incl. addresses) stolen to faulty parts.

Plus, for Ledger and Trezor (and others too) the communication with the companion software wallet is done via cable (arguably no longer air gapped) or Bluetooth (arguably not that secure).
If this is a problem for you, you may also read about SeedSigner (https://seedsigner.com/), which uses images for communicating with the software wallet, but keep in mind that this is basically a Raspberry Pi with custom software, hence no secure element and the name is not Hardware Wallet, instead it's an air gapped signing device. Bitcoin only.

This is exactly the case, that each crypto-user has his own needs and it is impossible to say which of the proposed options OP needs. This can only be determined by him, personally for himself, but as is usually the case with beginners, he doesn't have sufficient knowledge and experience. Therefore, beginners want to hear and expect a ready-made solution from others, for which such topics are created. Of course, experienced people share their advice and recommendations, but beginners should do the main work themselves: by analyzing their needs and choosing the right crypto wallet after evaluating offers on the market. Most people are too lazy to do this and they want an easy ready-made answer.

When it comes to hardware wallets, these 2 brands are always remembered first of all: old and well-known, which are on everyone’s lips and their names have become household names, personifying hardware wallets. Of course, you can experiment with new devices, but which of the newcomers is ready to take risks? Among new hardware manufacturers there may be interesting and good solutions, newcomers will still prefer proven brands. New items are the lot of crypto-enthusiasts and technically capable people. Mostly.