Query on "do not keep your money in online accounts"

[skarais]

You are right and i would love to use a hardware wallet but I live in a country where crypto is in grey areas and not legally accepted. If i order a ledger wallet from their official site, the wallet will reach my country but may be retained at customs and they may start investigating as who order this crypto wallet and that person must be holding a lot of crypto and bitcoin. Due to this, i don't order it online.

I don't know which country you're from, but I'm sorry that your country's government seems to have seemingly strict rules for crypto users even if you don't use it as a means of payment. I don't think my country's government will intercept delivery of a hardware wallet at customs even though currently crypto is not legalized as currency and legal tender.

There are some local merchants who are selling Ledger wallets locally but i have heard not to trust those hardware wallets from the people who are selling indirectly. For example, buying from Amazon and eBay can be risky too.

I'm not very familiar with hardware wallets, but it looks like you can still verify the wallet is compromised or not with a few steps like:

1. Check Integrity of Hardware Wallets

[Welsh]

I'm not very familiar with hardware wallets, but it looks like you can still verify the wallet is compromised or not with a few steps like:

1. Check Integrity of Hardware Wallets

You can, however it isn't foolproof especially when it comes to malicious users manufacturing their own copies. Although, like I said this is a rather sophisticated attack which is beyond a lot of people's ability to actually pull off so the risk is relatively low.

I do believe most hardware wallets have tamper proof stickers on their packaging, and potentially the device itself these days. Again, not foolproof though. I'm guessing you could potentially contact the manufacturers, and see if the serial number matches up, although that would highly depend on the manufacturer, and device I'd have thought.

[virasog]

I'm not very familiar with hardware wallets, but it looks like you can still verify the wallet is compromised or not with a few steps like:

1. Check Integrity of Hardware Wallets

You can, however it isn't foolproof especially when it comes to malicious users manufacturing their own copies. Although, like I said this is a rather sophisticated attack which is beyond a lot of people's ability to actually pull off so the risk is relatively low.

I do believe most hardware wallets have tamper proof stickers on their packaging, and potentially the device itself these days. Again, not foolproof though. I'm guessing you could potentially contact the manufacturers, and see if the serial number matches up, although that would highly depend on the manufacturer, and device I'd have thought.

I haven't use a hardware wallet yet but i have heard that by resetting the device, the hardware wallet default key is changed and therefore even if the third party untrusted seller has taken note of the private key, it will be of no use as now the private key has changed and only you know this new private key.

Rather we should reset the private keys of the hardware wallet in both circumstances that is buying the wallet from the official store or buying it from any other seller.

[Pmalek]

While CZ seems to be more trustworthy than SBF(obviously due to recent events concerning FTX/Alameda), I wouldn't blindly listen to him.

I think shahzadafzal was being sarcastic when he said that. No one should trust CZ either because his priority is filling his own pockets. If the world burns after that, he wouldn't care.

You are right and i would love to use a hardware wallet but I live in a country where crypto is in grey areas and not legally accepted. If i order a ledger wallet from their official site, the wallet will reach my country but may be retained at customs and they may start investigating as who order this crypto wallet and that person must be holding a lot of crypto and bitcoin. Due to this, i don't order it online.

There are ways to overcome that. Some people have family and friends who live abroad. You can always have the hardware wallet shipped to them or shipped to a location where you are currently on holiday. After that, figure out a way to get it into the country.

I haven't use a hardware wallet yet but i have heard that by resetting the device, the hardware wallet default key is changed and therefore even if the third party untrusted seller has taken note of the private key, it will be of no use as now the private key has changed and only you know this new private key.

Rather we should reset the private keys of the hardware wallet in both circumstances that is buying the wallet from the official store or buying it from any other seller.

A couple of things:

- A private key that signs transactions and verifies ownership for coins on an address can't be exchanged for a different one.
- Private keys aren't accessible in hardware wallets by default. There are advanced ways to get to them, but that requires exporting your seed to 3rd-party services.
- Legit hardware wallets don't come pre-configured or pre-installed.
- You should never use a hardware wallet where someone already generated a seed for you and is asking you to use that seed. The seed should only be created on your device locally.
- A hardware wallet can be reset to factory settings and have its memory wiped to delete the generated seed that is in use.
- Some hardware wallets have a self-destruct PIN you enter to achieve similar results to what I mentioned above. Others require that you enter a wrong PIN x number of times.