[2018-05-10]Extreme Hodling - $10 Billion Worth of Bitcoin in Underground Vaults

[tokenlion]

$10 Billion Worth of Bitcoin Stored in Underground Vaults

Numerous investors are storing their Bitcoin in underground vaults all over the world to prevent the assets from being stolen. This appears to be the most hardcore “hodling” ever recorded.

A company based in Hong Kong – Xapo – provides Bitcoin wallets and cold storage services. The company holds nearly $10 billion worth of Bitcoin in its vaults, Bloomberg states.

Taking a look at the numbers, it’s about 6% of the current market cap of Bitcoin, and it belongs to a single entity. This makes Xapo one of the biggest crypto storage services in the world.

Link to the article: http://tokenlion.net/blog/post/122/extreme-hodling---10-billion-worth-of-bitcoin-in-underground-vaults

[CryptoBry]

I heard of this cold storage before and Xapo is really doing a good job in protecting the said assets underground. I am sure that hackers are salivating at the possibility of accessing such an underground facility but am sure it will take an Ethan Hunt to be able to successfully break through the facility. Now, am sure this can be a good plot in the next Mission Impossible movie...what you say?

[tokenlion]

It must be a nightmare to break in! It's a good solution to those who keep looking at their portfolio every hour. Now you put your hodlings underground, and that's it, wait out a couple of years (hoping that the facility won't close down) and enjoy some good money.

Still, it's aimed towards big fish, institutional investors and overly paranoid people, haha.

Mission Impossible - Xapo Heist.

[Coin-Keeper]

Seems like hype to me.  If you individually place your BTC in known secure cold storage - paper, hardware, etc... its safe.  How about adding a BIP extended password to the thing as well?  This place seems reputable, but don't they all.  If it shuts down, just like a regular exchange, you are screwed.  I don't trust anyone as much as myself.

[Theb]

I don't think its in any way extreme as I see it necessary to what they are holding which is 10 billion dollars and it is not to be kept around online or desktop storages, you want that kind of money to be isolated in a secure place. Remember if anyone can be online and has access to what you are storing the chances are they can steal what you are storimg away. Protecting our valuables is practiced way before even this happened that is why we have metal doors and safety deposit boxes as we all know there is no such thing as extra security when it comes to our valuables.

[BitHodler]

I don't trust anyone as much as myself.

Same here. I stopped making use of hardware wallets as long term cold solution too because of how many times they have to patch potential vulnerabilities. I am full in paper wallets right now, and it feels amazing.

I don't depend on any piece of hardware and I don't depend on anything centralized. It's just me and my private keys, and that's the only thing that matters. I just need to find something more durable instead of paper.

I was thinking about a hard piece of platic having my private keys engraved. Or maybe precious metals for even more durability. I need to figure out what's the best option since I want to do it myself. I'm too paranoid to let an external party do it.

[Jating]

Seems like hype to me.  If you individually place your BTC in known secure cold storage - paper, hardware, etc... its safe.  How about adding a BIP extended password to the thing as well?  This place seems reputable, but don't they all.  If it shuts down, just like a regular exchange, you are screwed.  I don't trust anyone as much as myself.

I think hype is an understand. It looks like Xapo has really promoted their products and having underground to protect someone's assets was their selling point. That's why they were able to secure high value clients as well as their sale pitch is very good.

It must be a nightmare to break in! It's a good solution to those who keep looking at their portfolio every hour. Now you put your hodlings underground, and that's it, wait out a couple of years (hoping that the facility won't close down) and enjoy some good money.

Still, it's aimed towards big fish, institutional investors and overly paranoid people, haha.

Mission Impossible - Xapo Heist.

Yes, they are really targeting big fish here that's why it says that around 6%-10% of bitcoins is in their protection. Mission Impossible? I'm pretty sure that this article will be on the radar of some hackers group and maybe they are looking at how to break it. Lol.

[stompix]

This part from the original article:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-09/bunkers-for-the-wealthy-are-said-to-hoard-10-billion-of-bitcoin

“Everyone who isn’t keeping keys themselves is keeping them with Xapo,” said Ryan Radloff of CoinShares, which has more than $500 million of Bitcoin stored at Xapo. “You couldn’t pay me to keep it with a bank.”

really left me puzzled.
How is storing those coins with Xapo anything different from storing your money in a bank?

“It’s a subject we discuss a lot, and we believe Bitcoin won’t reach the mainstream if people have to hold their own private keys,” Rogers said. “It’s a pretty high hurdle technically to be your own bank with lots of security.”

Oh my god!! Really?
Every day I run into such news that I feel like this nightmare of bitcoin's continuous metamorphosis is getting out of hand. What's left? Print some coins?

[darkangel11]

Seems like hype to me.  If you individually place your BTC in known secure cold storage - paper, hardware, etc... its safe.  How about adding a BIP extended password to the thing as well?  This place seems reputable, but don't they all.  If it shuts down, just like a regular exchange, you are screwed.  I don't trust anyone as much as myself.

Exactly, although I had a similar idea back in the day but ended up with not enough funds. The idea was to create a secured data storage for people with the instructions as o when and to whom the data should be released. The problem with keeping your important data at home is that if you don't hide it well enough it can get damaged by natural disasters or found by family members and misused. On the other hand if you hide it well enough nobody will be able to find it if you die or lose your mind. The problem with those services is that you have to trust someone and I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't trust Xapo with all my money.

[Betwrong]

I don't think that storing Bitcoin in underground vaults is a good solution regarding safety. If billions of USD involved it's worth it to create a small army of equipped and trained commandos to break in. I agree with Coin-Keeper that this is more like a hype targeting regular people who can comprehend the idea that their funds are safer when kept in underground vaults with armed guards than when cryptographically protected.