Wallet Help

[PrivacyG]

Avoid Ledger at all costs.  If there is one company I would NEVER want to work with, it is them.  They have a long history of suspicious behavior and blatant lies.  This is besides the customer data base leaks and all of the other crap their customers had to endure.  Such as defective products.

Even Satoshi Labs who create Trezor are not saints either, but they at least have an Open Source device.  The best option for a Newbie in my opinion is purchasing a Trezor and using it in conjunction with Electrum.  Then you can advance to much more complicated ways of storing Bitcoin and earning your Privacy.

[snerd]

I’m a newb to Bitcoin, been trading for a year or so. I’ve left my coins on the brokerage site, but now I’m looking at other wallets.

I’m running a full node, and want to know about the wallet in Bitcoin Core. Is it a safe software wallet? Is it widely used?

I also bought a hardware wallet, the Ledger Nano X. How safe is this type of wallet?

Which would you recommend of the two? To me, it’s a huge step to secure my coins locally without understanding these wallets.

Thanks!
Mike

God damn, something isn't right with your topic OP, I smell lies here and there.

You called yourself a newbie, and you've been trading for a year or so? That makes you no newbie anymore.

You are running a full node already, like you said, but you don't know about Bitcoin core? Bro! Asking if its a safe wallet and if its widely used is like you stabbing my guts with a knife.

Stop it! All these are made up stories, not real.
Why asking about if Ledger nano x can be trusted after you've ended up buying it? Why not ask about the hardware wallet before buying it? Stupid move, just imagine if it's a messed up hardware wallet, why aren't people learning?

You can't just decide to do something in your own way when you don't know much about it, you will make stupid mistakes, this forum exists because of people like you and I.
Your biggest problem is doing something you don't know first before asking questions, you don't understand wallets and yet you went for a hardware wallet, do you even know how to use this wallet the right way?

Forget everything you think you know, start learning first, start asking question before taking actions, it will help you a lot.

Gawd damn! What is it with you people?! Schizo?! Paranoid?! I can see no reason whatsoever to be calling new members, posting in BEGINNERS, to be called a liar by two posters already!!

Sure, I traded Bitcoin for awhile thru my broker interface. Now I’ve decided to contribute, run a node, ask questions, and all I get is grief! I just don’t get it. Getting this much grief in the Beginners section, I’d be terrified to post anywhere else!!

ETA oh, I see. Price is way down today. Everyone a little ancey and on edge? A little irritable? Hey, don’t take it out on me!!

[satscraper]

I’m a newb to Bitcoin, been trading for a year or so. I’ve left my coins on the brokerage site, but now I’m looking at other wallets.

I’m running a full node, and want to know about the wallet in Bitcoin Core. Is it a safe software wallet? Is it widely used?

I also bought a hardware wallet, the Ledger Nano X. How safe is this type of wallet?

Which would you recommend of the two? To me, it’s a huge step to secure my coins locally without understanding these wallets.

Thanks!
Mike

Bitcoin Core wallet is safe until and unless your machine is infected, someway or other,  which could make possible the attacks targeting wallet.dat One of such well known attack is Padding-Oracle-Attack.

Thus, hardware wallets are always preferable in crypto domain, but Ledger Nano X is not the wallet I could trust due to its closed source and team's coming-out about  their potency  to  get custom's SEED.

To be truly safe I would make U-turn and head to the proven hardware wallets one of  which is  Passport .

[snerd]

Yes, I discovered the Ledger debacle 'after' I bought it. Lots of people recommended it, so there you go!

At the moment, I've installed the Trezor instead. I would like to transfer my coin off brokerage into this Trezor wallet. I assumed I could just do that from brokerage to wallet, but now someone said I need to get the Electrum wallet. I'm confused on that part, but feel I should ask no more questions. I'll figure it out.

[Cricktor]

I see no immediate problem when you use the Trezor Suite to control your Trezor wallet. And if you decide later to connect your Trezor hardware wallet to Electrum, then you can just do it.

Electrum wallet is able to connect to some hardware wallet. Personally I'm quite used and familiar to use Electrum. I've used it as a software wallet and I still use Electrum with my hardware wallets (PiTrezor and BitBox02). If you're happy with Trezor Suite then use it until you want more from a wallet software.

Just make sure you always download a wallet software from the original website and always thoroughly verify that your download is genuine (cryptographic hashes and/or GPG signatures or both). Beware that sometimes the top Google search hits are from fraudulent entities!

Use only open-source wallet software like Trezor Suite, Sparrow, Electrum, Bitcoin Core (I may have missed some others).

[snerd]

I see no immediate problem when you use the Trezor Suite to control your Trezor wallet. And if you decide later to connect your Trezor hardware wallet to Electrum, then you can just do it……

Thanks! What more does Electrum offer over my Trezor cold wallet? Do they interact and/or have other functionality than Trezor alone?

[The Cryptovator]

For wallets, I had been using Ledger Nano X. But recently I decided to move my Trezor wallet since I need a multi-currency wallet. Hardware wallets are always more secure than software wallets, and for Bitcoin Core, you need to download the full node. So a lot of space is needed to use it. However, for security reasons, I advise using a hardware wallet that is open source. Personally, I like to use Ledger, which has an easy interface, but I leave it because their source code isn't open source. Now using Trezor, though a bit complicated, and not much coin support on Trezor Suit. But we can use other coins from an external wallet, like Metamask. 

[snerd]

For wallets, I had been using Ledger Nano X. But recently I decided to move my Trezor wallet since I need a multi-currency wallet. Hardware wallets are always more secure than software wallets, and for Bitcoin Core, you need to download the full node. So a lot of space is needed to use it. However, for security reasons, I advise using a hardware wallet that is open source. Personally, I like to use Ledger, which has an easy interface, but I leave it because their source code isn't open source. Now using Trezor, though a bit complicated, and not much coin support on Trezor Suit. But we can use other coins from an external wallet, like Metamask.

Okay, I’ll recap here. I ‘have’ downloaded the “full node” software. I’ve been running the full node for almost two weeks. I’ve got a hardware wallet, Trezor. I want to transfer my coin off brokerage to cold wallet. Can I do that with Trezor alone, or do I need Electrum between them?

I don’t know how to ask any simpler!

ETA I think where some are paranoid is that I used the term “Bitcoin Core” referring to the node software, whereas that actually refers to the wallet software included. I think?!

[Cricktor]

...

Your hardware wallet like a Trezor, BitBox02, ... are basically a secure vault for the private keys of your wallet and a transaction signing device. A wallet software like Trezor Suite, Sparrow, Electrum does most of the managing, except for signing a transaction.

Always carefully check all the details of a transaction on the display of your hardware wallet before you sign the transaction!!

If you use a hardware wallet, the accompanying wallet software is basically a watch-only wallet because it doesn't have the private keys. The private keys are securely stored in the hardware wallet which should never let them leak out, no matter what.

Of course, do not save a digital copy of your mnemonic recovery words of your wallet on an online digital device. Write it on paper and maybe also stamp it into steel or titanium washers for fire protection. Analog backup only!!

Your question is sort of incorrect because your Trezor hardware alone can't do much. Why do I use Electrum and prefer it over Trezor Suite or BitBox app? Electrum is a well matured wallet software that has a well enough user interface, no bling bling, offers me full control over transaction fee, I can easily use coin control to precisely decide which UTXOs to use as inputs in a transaction, it's rather easy to use pay-to-many feature to combine multiple transactions into one, even a Lightning wallet and transactions is usable. Electrum probably satisfies more than 99% of my needs and I'm used to it.

I’ve got a hardware wallet, Trezor. I want to transfer my coin off brokerage to cold wallet. Can I do that with Trezor alone, or do I need Electrum between them?

I don’t know how to ask any simpler!

You don't need to use Electrum, but you can. To transfer your coins off brokerage to your Trezor wallet, you can use Trezor Suite together with your Trezor hardware.

[snerd]

Thank you! So the Electrum wallet is just a better interface for transactions!

A big source of my confusion is how to buy/sell through these wallet software suites instead of using a brokerage console.

[snerd]

I gotta say…….. after perusing Bitcoin.org website to compare wallets, and learning a bit more, it seems that the best software wallet to use is Bitcoin Core wallet! As long as I can transfer coin from it to the hardware wallet, it should be gold!

Is this a better/more secure approach?

[Cricktor]

A big source of my confusion is how to buy/sell through these wallet software suites instead of using a brokerage console.

It depends on personal preferences what you consider or experience as a better user interface. It doesn't hurt to try different wallet softwares and choose by own criteria.

In my opinion a software wallet shouldn't offer features to trade coins, maybe with the exception of Bisq which is tailored to facilitate P2P trades. You trade on an exchange of your choice where you know and accept the conditions. Electrum or Sparrow don't have trading features and that is very much fine for me. YMMV...

I gotta say…….. after perusing Bitcoin.org website to compare wallets, and learning a bit more, it seems that the best software wallet to use is Bitcoin Core wallet! As long as I can transfer coin from it to the hardware wallet, it should be gold!

Technically it should be possible and as far as I've seen there's a piece of additional software that attaches certain hardware wallets as signing devices to Bitcoin Core. I haven't tried it yet and can't comment on this approach.

I run Bitcoin Core and an Electrum server on a Raspi 4B device to connect Electrum, Sparrow and should I use it also Trezor Suite and BitBox app.

Checkout this thread for a possibly wider perspective on wallets: 22 Bitcoin Software Wallets, compared feature by feature

Consider also to make yourself familiar with your hardware wallet before you transfer real funds to it. I would play around with Testnet Bitcoins (there are free faucets to get some), practise wallet recovery and everything else necessary.

[Coyster]

A big source of my confusion is how to buy/sell through these wallet software suites instead of using a brokerage console.

Electrum and all other wallet softwares are not exchanges, so you cannot buy and sell bitcoin through them, you need to use an exchange for that, and you have to decide if it is going to be centralized or decentralized exchanges.

I gotta say…….. after perusing Bitcoin.org website to compare wallets, and learning a bit more, it seems that the best software wallet to use is Bitcoin Core wallet! As long as I can transfer coin from it to the hardware wallet, it should be gold!

I don't quite get you, of course you can transfer bitcoins from any wallet software to your address on your hardware wallet.

Is this a better/more secure approach?

It is a full node wallet and if you have all the requirements to run one, then that is fine. It is only better and more secure because you run your own node, and you don't have to connect to servers of third parties. That being said, you can keep your coins safe even in an SPV wallet.

[Cricktor]

It is only better and more secure because you run your own node, and you don't have to connect to servers of third parties. That being said, you can keep your coins safe even in an SPV wallet.

I'll elaborate a little more on this. A "light wallet" like Electrum (and Trezor Suite, BitBox app, Ledger Live, ... all are SPV light wallets) doesn't store the blockchain data (currently ~672GiB blocks+chainstate+indexes). It has to submit user's wallet addresses to an Electrum server to obtain transaction history of those addresses and to subscribe to new transaction activity for them to get notified of new incoming transactions.

If you run your own Electrum server (requires a full Bitcoin node and Electrum protocol server) then your wallet's addresses aren't submitted to third-party Electrum servers. If you rely on third-party Electrum servers then those get to know your wallet's addresses. Your coins are not at risk because of this. A third-party Electrum server just gets to know that a request for transaction history from a certain IP address likely belongs to addresses from a certain wallet (I'm no expert in Electrum protocol, so don't ask for details).

Altruistic Electrum servers likely don't care and don't keep such communication data. Blockchain analysis companies that run multiple Electrum servers are definitely more interested in such data because this allows them to attribute addresses to wallets of entities. It's a privacy issue for your used and still unused addresses^{only those already pooled} of your SPV wallet

[Kristiyana]

Well I have no idea about those wallet you just mentioned, but as long as we have our personal decision I think the choice is yours, if you choose to move your assets to new wallet I think is a nice idea, but I most say I have no idea about those wallet,I think you should try and read threads of high ranked members, I guess you can get opinion from them.

[Coyster]

Well I have no idea about those wallet you just mentioned, but as long as we have our personal decision I think the choice is yours, if you choose to move your assets to new wallet I think is a nice idea, but I most say I have no idea about those wallet,I think you should try and read threads of high ranked members, I guess you can get opinion from them.

If you had read through the thread, and not just reading the OP alone and replying to it, you would have had a little understanding about the wallets mentioned in the OP. A handful of users in this topic have said something about both bitcoin core and Ledger hardware wallet, which are the two wallets the OP mentioned, but you didn't read their post. If you don't read through threads how are you going to learn and have an idea about things like this.