Future proof hardware wallets? OR paper wallets?

[jamalnasir]

Hi all

Need some guidance about wallets. It seems from what I've been reading over couple of weeks now that hardware wallets are best for storing crypto. However, am a little confused since I had a look at ledge nano s and it seems it stores a limited amount of crypto and has a limited space. Now, I was planning to buy some top 10 coins but if I keep them on the exchange there is a problem that if the server gets hacked am robbed of my hard-earned money.

Paper wallets seems nice because they are free. But I don't know if I should use them or not. The positive for paper wallet seems that we can make multiple copies of it and store at different places and there seems to be no issue in them like hardware wallets of malfunctioning hardware etc. But I think there are no paper wallets for all the top altcoins as well?  Also, am not sure how do I check if my money has been transferred to a piece of paper and how much that paper is worth...


Kindly give some clarity and guidance on it plz. 

[shillberting]

I dont know how paper wallets work as I have never used them myself so will refrain from comment on that. However, I have used a hardware wallet in Trezor. I will say that hands

down I feel secure using it and moving forward I think a hardware wallet is necessary for any crypto trader. Regardless of what you do you got it right in the sense you should not

keep any funds on an exchange.

[jamalnasir]

I dont know how paper wallets work as I have never used them myself so will refrain from comment on that. However, I have used a hardware wallet in Trezor. I will say that hands

down I feel secure using it and moving forward I think a hardware wallet is necessary for any crypto trader. Regardless of what you do you got it right in the sense you should not

keep any funds on an exchange.

thanks,  however if one is trading is it not feasible to store the coins on the exchange as moving them to and from from the hardware wallet would be a cumbersome process and all the IN/OUT fee charges that would be charged as well?

[HeRetiK]

[...]

Paper wallets seems nice because they are free. But I don't know if I should use them or not. The positive for paper wallet seems that we can make multiple copies of it and store at different places and there seems to be no issue in them like hardware wallets of malfunctioning hardware etc. But I think there are no paper wallets for all the top altcoins as well?  Also, am not sure how do I check if my money has been transferred to a piece of paper and how much that paper is worth...

[...]

Each hardware wallet comes with a 24 word long seed phrase that can be used to restore your wallet in case your device breaks or gets lost. This seed phrase you can and should back up, giving you the ability to back up multiple copies just like with a paper wallet. Worst case, if your hardware breaks, you can always restore it to a software wallet such as Electrum (or to a new hardware wallet, should you decide to buy a new one).

If you stick with paper wallets, you can check its balance by entering its address in a block explorer such as blockchain.info. Most other alts have block explorers of their own.

I dont know how paper wallets work as I have never used them myself so will refrain from comment on that. However, I have used a hardware wallet in Trezor. I will say that hands

down I feel secure using it and moving forward I think a hardware wallet is necessary for any crypto trader. Regardless of what you do you got it right in the sense you should not

keep any funds on an exchange.

thanks,  however if one is trading is it not feasible to store the coins on the exchange as moving them to and from from the hardware wallet would be a cumbersome process and all the IN/OUT fee charges that would be charged as well?

If you're actively trading it makes sense to just leave the coins on the exchange. Once you stop actively trading and decide to just hold, however, it makes sense to take them off the exchange to mitigate the risk of the exchange being hacked or going bust.

[CodyAlfaridzi]

Need some guidance about wallets. It seems from what I've been reading over couple of weeks now that hardware wallets are best for storing crypto. However, am a little confused since I had a look at ledge nano s and it seems it stores a limited amount of crypto

Yes, hardware wallets are currently the best, in terms of safety and ease of use, way to store your cryptocurrency. It does only support several kind of cryptocurrency because it's impossible to support all of them. Heck, even there is no web wallet that support all kind of cryptocurrency, let alone hardware wallet. But some hardware wallet already support almost all major cryptocurrency. Take Ledger Nano S for example, it could store BTC, LTC, ETH, Doge, Zcash, Dash, Stratis, Ripple, BTCCash, ETC, Komodo, and ARK.

has a limited space.

Not sure what you mean by this. AFAIK you can store any amount, even a million of BTC, in hardware wallets.

Now, I was planning to buy some top 10 coins but if I keep them on the exchange there is a problem that if the server gets hacked am robbed of my hard-earned money.

No, DO NOT ever store any coin on any exchange. Like you already said, it is a very bad idea. If the coin didn't have any supporting hardware wallet, just stick to conventional PC wallet or paper wallet.

But I think there are no paper wallets for all the top altcoins as well?  Also, am not sure how do I check if my money has been transferred to a piece of paper and how much that paper is worth...

The concept of paper wallet is very simple, it is not as complicated as hardware wallet. I'm sure every top altcoin already have a free service to easily generate paper wallet.

And no, you don't transfer the coins to the paper. You send the coins to a normal cryptocurrency address, which the address and privatekey are stored in that paper. So checking your paper wallet balance is the same as checking your usual address balance: by looking in the blockexplorer.

[sabbathhawk]

Hi all

Need some guidance about wallets. It seems from what I've been reading over couple of weeks now that hardware wallets are best for storing crypto. However, am a little confused since I had a look at ledge nano s and it seems it stores a limited amount of crypto and has a limited space. Now, I was planning to buy some top 10 coins but if I keep them on the exchange there is a problem that if the server gets hacked am robbed of my hard-earned money.

Paper wallets seems nice because they are free. But I don't know if I should use them or not. The positive for paper wallet seems that we can make multiple copies of it and store at different places and there seems to be no issue in them like hardware wallets of malfunctioning hardware etc. But I think there are no paper wallets for all the top altcoins as well?  Also, am not sure how do I check if my money has been transferred to a piece of paper and how much that paper is worth...


Kindly give some clarity and guidance on it plz. 

Hardware wallet must have! Even ledger nano s you can get 2 or even 3 if you'll need more space, the price of it is affordable. At the same time not all coins are able to be stored on ledger nano s or trezor/keepkey.
So, you need to check which coins you are able to store on hardware wallet and which not. 
Hint. Aslo, if you are going to hold for a long time and not to use often, you can simply delete coin app with coins from hardware wallet and later install it back when you'll need it. So you can use more coins with you hardware wallet

[dothebeats]

Hi all

Need some guidance about wallets. It seems from what I've been reading over couple of weeks now that hardware wallets are best for storing crypto. However, am a little confused since I had a look at ledge nano s and it seems it stores a limited amount of crypto and has a limited space. Now, I was planning to buy some top 10 coins but if I keep them on the exchange there is a problem that if the server gets hacked am robbed of my hard-earned money.

Paper wallets seems nice because they are free. But I don't know if I should use them or not. The positive for paper wallet seems that we can make multiple copies of it and store at different places and there seems to be no issue in them like hardware wallets of malfunctioning hardware etc. But I think there are no paper wallets for all the top altcoins as well?  Also, am not sure how do I check if my money has been transferred to a piece of paper and how much that paper is worth...


Kindly give some clarity and guidance on it plz. 

Your thinking about exchanges is good, considering that they are hot targets for hacks and are very, very rpone for an inside job. Keeping small amounts for trading is also good, and if you are a guy who actively trades huge amounts on an exchange, it's best to move your fund after you call it a day to prevent it from being hacked once your exchange goes nuts.

On the other hand hardware wallets are good tool for keeping your coins. Their software is constantly upgraded too to suit up the current security measures a wallet should take to ensure that nothing is compromised. No cons about it; an overall good tool to keep coins safe.

Paper wallets are free to generate, yes, but the trick is when you try to generate it. There are some instances that generating a new wallet is insecure, and that is when you are connected to the internet while generating your keys. Generating your new wallet offline is the best, and afterwards you can keep your paper wallet or frame it if you want. Just don't forget where you place it or you're doomed.

Also cons, you can't take small amounts from a paper wallet unlike trezor so this is really intended for a long safekeeping.

[Nalbo]

Hardware wallets are for regular use while paper wallets are for long term storage or special uses.

[24Kt]

it is really just a personal preference of one or the other or even both

[jamalnasir]

btw, is it possible that I encrypt a normal usb as use it as a wallet? and make 2-3 backups of the same. will be cheaper compared to buying any hardware wallet..

[vapourminer]

btw, is it possible that I encrypt a normal usb as use it as a wallet? and make 2-3 backups of the same. will be cheaper compared to buying any hardware wallet..

no, as you would have to unencrypt the data on the usb drive to use it and at that point if your computer is compromised you are toast.

with hardware wallets (at least on the trezor) you can us it on a computer thats infected beyond belief and still be safe as the private keys never leave the trezor.