People who don't use hardware wallets: Why not?

[Lucius]

To buy a hardware wallet, you need to make an official money transaction using fiat currency.

Are you speaking from personal experience or have you never visited any of the websites of well-known HW manufacturers and seen that they even accept Bitcoin as a means of payment?

Disclosing the purchase of a hardware wallet will also put your financial security in question.  In addition, your hardware wallet can be misused while being sent by mail.

You won't risk anything if you pay in Bitcoin and use a PO box, it's certainly one option that everyone should consider. Also, if you have an official seller in your country who has a physical store, you can buy HW for cash.

In addition, the very fact that you have a Ledger or Trezor indicates that you have a cryptocurrency.  This information can be used by attackers.

If you've used any of the methods listed above and you're not someone who brags about things you shouldn't, then you can consider yourself pretty safe. People really find all sorts of excuses not to spend $50+ on something, but when they lose their BTC they surely regret not doing it differently.

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[buwaytress]

In addition, the very fact that you have a Ledger or Trezor indicates that you have a cryptocurrency.  This information can be used by attackers.

You may very well already be advertising you likely own Bitcoin simply by: having a forum account, KYC'd at an online service, even Tweeted about Bitcoin.

A hardware wallet used properly already prevents wannabe attackers from accessing it online. I'd wager the number of people falling victim to Bitcoin theft from a hardware wallet wouldn't show up on a pie chart of ways people lost their Bitcoin to thieves.

[Ultegra134]

I am sure that the main reason is distrust, and rather even fear for one's own funds. Those who have not had experience in using this can, quite rightly, be worried.

Not that they didn't trust hardware wallet since this is much recommended to have for people which have huge money entered in cryptocurrency. But the problem for other user is they cannot afford to buy it since they only use small amount of money which they can afford to lose that's why we see so many people not using it because some of them think that its pricey to have and they think cloud wallets or apps is much user friendly wallets to have.

It's not only for people with larger amounts of money. Till recently, I also believed (without any prior research) that hardware wallets were expensive and limited to people with large portfolios. However, this couldn't be any further from the truth. They are actually quite affordable for the average investor, even starting at approximately $60 (Ledger and Trezor are the two largest competitors). I almost lost my money due to malware on my computer, and I'm not willing to take any more chances. If you're not able to have an airgapped wallet, hardware ones are the way to go.

[Apocollapse]

That’s true. Hardware wallets are mostly used by those who want to hold on to their coins for a long term. For traders, merchants and others who frequently buy and sell cryptocurrencies are better off using a hot wallet. But there are also people who are using both. Being a merchant, I accept crypto payments, so I have to convert or withdraw them quite often. This is why I have kept them in a hotwallet, Capitalwallet which is quite convenient. The coins which I want to hold for long term investment, I prefer to keep them in the cold wallet - ledger nano X. It all depends on the requirements.

Capitalwallet? I don't a project that mislead their users, it's not even a wallet, but an exchange. It's remind me with freewallet aka scam exchange.

If you're a trader, there's no choice since you need a liquidity so you need to hold it on the exchange, but make sure you only hold for small amount that need to trading purpose.

If you have a merchant, you can use Bitcoin payment processor like BTCPayserver, it will increase your security and privacy rather than just use a single wallet that generate one address.

[Maaz Sultan]

In my opinion it depends on how much they've invested in bitcoin. For example someone who has bought a couple of hundred dollars worth of bitcoin is never going to pay for a hardware wallet. It makes more sense for those who have large amounts of bitcoin.

Another thing to consider is how many times you are going to want to access your funds. A paper wallet is more suitable for "storage" that you don't want to touch while a hardware wallet is more suitable for those who want to regularly access the funds.
[/quote]

Yes I agree with your words lots of people didn't use hardware wallets because they don't feel to buy them. Lots of people save their funds in exchanges ( keeping your funds in exchange is not good idea ).So it totally depends upon you how you save your funds.

[Pezroly]

Why not hardware wallets ? See below

The main reason for which many people don’t use hardware wallets is due to the necessity of the users. Most of the time, users don’t have large amount of Bitcoins. They basically hold a couple hundred dollars worth Bitcoins. Now in order to store it, they aren’t gonna buy a 200$ worth of wallets. Moreover Desktop or paper wallet can also be a good and free alternatives to these wallets, and majority of the users use this for it’s flexibility.

[Lillominato89]

Just purely out of curiosity. 99% of people who don't know how to properly create an airgapped device should be using hardware wallets.

let's say that a hardware wallet is quite useful, but there are a few things to keep in mind

• if you need to store a few hundred dollars in crypto, you can do without it
• use open source devices and do not rely on companies that produce devices with closed source code
  

let's say these are the prerogatives that everyone must take into account, in my opinion there are more secure methods than hardware wallets, and many in this thread have already told you about it

[Hispo]

Added to what others have said about people not having "much money" on Bitcoin, etc.
I would like to mention that in many cases Bitcoin has found acceptance and harbor in countries where it has the utility to safeguard from inflation, economical crisis or economical instability; Venezuela, Argentina, Nigeria, etc.

People from those nations initially only get into Bitcoin with a few dollars, besides the price, it is more difficult for us to buy on internet at the official online shops.
In the end, many people stick to software wallets even though their holdings could increase, because they have gotten used to that wallet and believe it is unlikely their keys will get stolen, because it has not happened to them yet.

[Despairo]

Why not hardware wallets ? See below

The main reason for which many people don’t use hardware wallets is due to the necessity of the users. Most of the time, users don’t have large amount of Bitcoins. They basically hold a couple hundred dollars worth Bitcoins. Now in order to store it, they aren’t gonna buy a 200$ worth of wallets. Moreover Desktop or paper wallet can also be a good and free alternatives to these wallets, and majority of the users use this for it’s flexibility.

Of course it doesn't make sense if someone use almost all of his money to buy hardware wallet while they only hold small amount money, although I agree most people who hold Bitcoin aren't rich, but there's many cases where a rich people who invest around $10K on Bitcoin doesn't even understand what is wallet and decentralization. They will leave their funds on centralized exchange since they think it's safe with 2FA, KYC, etc. While actually it doesn't help you when the exchange got hacked and you lose all of your funds.

[BALIK]

Why not hardware wallets ? See below

The main reason for which many people don’t use hardware wallets is due to the necessity of the users. Most of the time, users don’t have large amount of Bitcoins. They basically hold a couple hundred dollars worth Bitcoins. Now in order to store it, they aren’t gonna buy a 200$ worth of wallets. Moreover Desktop or paper wallet can also be a good and free alternatives to these wallets, and majority of the users use this for it’s flexibility.

Of course it doesn't make sense if someone use almost all of his money to buy hardware wallet while they only hold small amount money, although I agree most people who hold Bitcoin aren't rich, but there's many cases where a rich people who invest around $10K on Bitcoin doesn't even understand what is wallet and decentralization. They will leave their funds on centralized exchange since they think it's safe with 2FA, KYC, etc. While actually it doesn't help you when the exchange got hacked and you lose all of your funds.

There are many reasons why many investors do not use hardware wallets, and one of the reasons you give is correct, I have encountered many such cases. Simply put, many people invest in bitcoin, they only care about how to make a profit, and they don't care about privacy or protecting their own assets. Like forex traders, they only need 2FA, a good security email, they consider it safe. Many investors still don't know the difference between bitcoin and other traditional investment models.

[Yatsan]

Why not hardware wallets ? See below

The main reason for which many people don’t use hardware wallets is due to the necessity of the users. Most of the time, users don’t have large amount of Bitcoins. They basically hold a couple hundred dollars worth Bitcoins. Now in order to store it, they aren’t gonna buy a 200$ worth of wallets. Moreover Desktop or paper wallet can also be a good and free alternatives to these wallets, and majority of the users use this for it’s flexibility.

Of course it doesn't make sense if someone use almost all of his money to buy hardware wallet while they only hold small amount money, although I agree most people who hold Bitcoin aren't rich, but there's many cases where a rich people who invest around $10K on Bitcoin doesn't even understand what is wallet and decentralization. They will leave their funds on centralized exchange since they think it's safe with 2FA, KYC, etc. While actually it doesn't help you when the exchange got hacked and you lose all of your funds.

There are many reasons why many investors do not use hardware wallets, and one of the reasons you give is correct, I have encountered many such cases. Simply put, many people invest in bitcoin, they only care about how to make a profit, and they don't care about privacy or protecting their own assets. Like forex traders, they only need 2FA, a good security email, they consider it safe. Many investors still don't know the difference between bitcoin and other traditional investment models.

I do have a hardware wallet but I still often use Online wallet for my movable assets or assets I used for investment and trading while my hardware wallet is for my assets for lomg term holding. My reason? For my lifestyle, online wallets are more and easily accessible even with my phone although I'm aware that it is more prone to 'hacking' problems. But I myself lost things easily so I decided not to carry my hardware wallet most of the time just to be sure. These are just my insights and might somehow support the side of investors who are not using hardware wallets. I also asked my friend to buy one but he's guilty of investing such amount especially if there is a cheaper alternative; online wallets. He's also aware of the risk by the way so maybe it is just a matter of picking your own poison.

[worle1bm]

3) most people do not trust hardware wallets.

As you can see it ranges from 150 to 300 dollars and that's the reason mostly people do not know about this.

I don't see any point why they will not trust hardware wallets when they are one of the safe mode to keep your coins and the main problem with them is they buy/sell over these exchanges and have trust on them for keeping your coins which is more dangerous and can loose their funds.

But as you said it's expensive or we can say many don't have idea about how it works so they are keeping up the flow with the same old traditional way of securing their funds.

[South Park]

3) most people do not trust hardware wallets.

As you can see it ranges from 150 to 300 dollars and that's the reason mostly people do not know about this.

I don't see any point why they will not trust hardware wallets when they are one of the safe mode to keep your coins and the main problem with them is they buy/sell over these exchanges and have trust on them for keeping your coins which is more dangerous and can loose their funds.

But as you said it's expensive or we can say many don't have idea about how it works so they are keeping up the flow with the same old traditional way of securing their funds.

Before the collapse of FTX it is likely that many people do not even considered the idea of using one because they thought, why spend hundreds of dollars in one when you can just store your coins at an exchange and secure your coins for free? But now those people have their answer, if an exchange does not want to give you your coins back then it is going to be very difficult to recover them, while on a hardware wallet this is not even an issue as you are the one in control.