Tips for cold storage?

[rkandrades]

So I grabbed a few BTC and I want to put them into cold storage for a while. I have been browsing and I think that a wallet that gives me a 12 word seed phrase would be best. I am thinking about Electrum. Would you guys agree or do you have any better (if possible free) alternatives?

Thank you!

Electrum is a very recommended wallet.

But just the cold wallet is not enough.

You should think about backup, antivirus protection, firewall...

Remember to set your cold wallet as "only read" when you connect it to internet for updating...

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[shorena]

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Remember to set your cold wallet as "only read" when you connect it to internet for updating...

You dont connect to the internet for updates with a cold wallet. The point is that its offline, you dont need updates on an offline system.

[notlist3d]

Paper wallets are as bout as cold as it gets. You set up one print it off from a safe printer, and make it on a computer that is for sure clean and has no malware/virus problems.

You put this away in a safe, or safty deposit box.  Something very secure to hold it, also have a few copies in case as you don't want one copy incase something happens to it.

But then use a phone app, or blockchain to view your address without having access to your account.  it is nice since you can watch it hopefully grow and not have to worry about connecting to internet and becoming a hot wallet each time you want to see how much you have.

[minifrij]

Recently I set up cold storage for my funds. What I did was I set up a spare Raspberry Pi and I installed Electrum onto it which acted as the storage its self.
Since I have the addresses on my main PC to send the funds to, I don't intend to turn on that Raspberry Pi until I need the funds out of that wallet.

[LiteCoinGuy]

So I grabbed a few BTC and I want to put them into cold storage for a while. I have been browsing and I think that a wallet that gives me a 12 word seed phrase would be best. I am thinking about Electrum. Would you guys agree or do you have any better (if possible free) alternatives?

Thank you!

a hardware wallet is good too:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0

[sana9821]

hardware wallet would be the best but if you cant afford it you can use armory on your computer or something like that i think

[VirosaGITS]

So I grabbed a few BTC and I want to put them into cold storage for a while. I have been browsing and I think that a wallet that gives me a 12 word seed phrase would be best. I am thinking about Electrum. Would you guys agree or do you have any better (if possible free) alternatives?

Thank you!

a hardware wallet is good too:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0

If you have your own spare computer you can use that as a cold hardware wallet too. Basically run Armory on a 100% offline computer and us it to sign transaction in the rare case you need to.

Cold storage is pretty much for storing BTC for a long period of time so you could even do this on a VM, for the same level of security.

Actual hardware wallets are good when you move a lot of BTC often. So i see them more useful for hot wallets than cold storage.

[Velkro]

So I grabbed a few BTC and I want to put them into cold storage for a while. I have been browsing and I think that a wallet that gives me a 12 word seed phrase would be best. I am thinking about Electrum. Would you guys agree or do you have any better (if possible free) alternatives?

Thank you!

You dont need pass phrases, its not vanilla bitcoin. Plain and simple paper wallet is good enough, laminated tho to not beign easily, damaged

[christycalhoun]

One thing to keep in mind is to not keep your eggs in one basket. Diversify your funds in different cold storage methods.

[Vinnie Stanley]

I think hardware wallets are only a waste of money.
Instead I suggest to use Electrum in its portable version. Just put the wallet in an USB and keep this device in a safe place.
For better security you should write your seed in 3 or 4 different places ( for example a sheet, a file on another USB and of course your brain too  ) .
Imho acting this way your coins will stay very safe.

[BTCBinary]

First of all you should pick what software will you use to generate the cold wallet Keys.

Second and most important: you should create your cold wallet keys offline.

You might wanna use ARMORY

[ranochigo]

Remember to set your cold wallet as "only read" when you connect it to internet for updating...

I fail to see how it would help. A malware can still infect your computer and capture whatever information needed. Or in theory could damage the randomness of signing of your transaction. (It's in theory, not sure if possible)

Recently I set up cold storage for my funds. What I did was I set up a spare Raspberry Pi and I installed Electrum onto it which acted as the storage its self.
Since I have the addresses on my main PC to send the funds to, I don't intend to turn on that Raspberry Pi until I need the funds out of that wallet.

There isn't a need to connect it to the internet unless there are protocol changes on the signing of the transactions. You can download the transaction from an online computer and sign it on the offline computer then broadcast it on the online computer.

[VirosaGITS]

Remember to set your cold wallet as "only read" when you connect it to internet for updating...

I fail to see how it would help. A malware can still infect your computer and capture whatever information needed. Or in theory could damage the randomness ot signing of your transaction. (It's in theory, not sure if possible)

Recently I set up cold storage for my funds. What I did was I set up a spare Raspberry Pi and I installed Electrum onto it which acted as the storage its self.
Since I have the addresses on my main PC to send the funds to, I don't intend to turn on that Raspberry Pi until I need the funds out of that wallet.

There isn't a need to connect it to the internet unless there are protocol changes on the signing of the transactions. You can download the transaction from an online computer and sign it on the offline computer then broadcast it on the online computer.

And if that even happen you can update the software offline anyways, pretty much the same way you plug your usb key from one computer to the other to sign the transaction.

All in all Armory is indeed very handy. Which is the one i would use to do this.

[BitcoinBlackjack]

+1 for Electrum

You can easily take your wallet.dat file and save it on a USB somewhere and then delete it from your computer

[Miracal]

So I grabbed a few BTC and I want to put them into cold storage for a while. I have been browsing and I think that a wallet that gives me a 12 word seed phrase would be best. I am thinking about Electrum. Would you guys agree or do you have any better (if possible free) alternatives?

Thank you!

Electrum is good to go.I would also write down the keys somewhere and hide it safe.It is better to have 2-3 different methods of saving your coins in cold storage. I also recommend to safe the wallet.dat at least two times if you use usb or external hard disk drives.

Agree to that. Saving your paper wallet in a truly safe place is essential to ensure your Bitcoins security. Hackers and thieves are adapting to the latest technologies. Any place off-grid seems more secure than the traditional ones online.

[wadili89]

hardware wallets are an option but i would not go for these if i were you, if you want to store for long time the of course not they are good flash drives but still  flash drive which can be currepted and after all its an electronic device it can fail, paper wallet is they way to go

[ranochigo]

hardware wallets are an option but i would not go for these if i were you, if you want to store for long time the of course not they are good flash drives but still  flash drive which can be currepted and after all its an electronic device it can fail, paper wallet is they way to go

If you're going to store Bitcoins for long term, you need multiple copies of it with layers of protection to prevent any damage to it. IMO, hardware wallets are great for frequent use as it is hard to get infected compared to spending from a paper wallet.

[stingers]

I had one paper wallet created as an offline wallet. I know how to import it on blockchain.info. Can anyone tell me that how can i import that address, along with private key to bitcoind on Ubuntu using command line?

[defaultking]

So I grabbed a few BTC and I want to put them into cold storage for a while. I have been browsing and I think that a wallet that gives me a 12 word seed phrase would be best. I am thinking about Electrum. Would you guys agree or do you have any better (if possible free) alternatives?

Thank you!

a hardware wallet is good too:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0

Is there somewhere in the forum like this for all the different wallet types. I thought I had a pretty good understanding about how to set-up a paper wallet, but after reading this I'm not so sure. Basically what I would be looking for is these are all your options for a hardware/hot/cold/etc wallet. These are the pro's and cons. These are the recommended options. This is one example of how to set up your hardware/hot/cold/etc wallet. Maybe something like this is a bitcoin wallet best practice procedure. Or does everyone differ too much to have a best practice bitcoin wallet system?

[wadili89]

hardware wallets are an option but i would not go for these if i were you, if you want to store for long time the of course not they are good flash drives but still  flash drive which can be currepted and after all its an electronic device it can fail, paper wallet is they way to go

If you're going to store Bitcoins for long term, you need multiple copies of it with layers of protection to prevent any damage to it. IMO, hardware wallets are great for frequent use as it is hard to get infected compared to spending from a paper wallet.

there are some good paper to use and good printer still multiple copies are more efficient its all depend on what are you storing how much it is ofcourse if you are storing 100 BTC then spending 0.5 BTC for it will not hurt anything