Safest way of long term holding

[zasad@]

I will also vote Trezor and Ledger. You can use a separate computer or store coins on a paper wallet,
but there is a risk of losing coins when you download a jailbroken wallet or your private key is stolen.
A hardware wallet does not require the user to enter private keys on a computer.
And the price of the hardware wallet is small, but it is better to buy with a discount on Black Friday.

[Lucius]

A hardware wallet does not require the user to enter private keys on a computer.

In practice, you don't have to enter your private key manually when it comes to desktop or mobile crypto wallets - private keys can be protected anyway if such a wallet is password protected. Of course, it is safer to have a special device that keeps private keys in an isolated environment, but even then there are risks that something could go wrong. An inexperienced user may fall victim to clipboard malware or fake Trezor/Ledger software/site.

And the price of the hardware wallet is small, but it is better to buy with a discount on Black Friday.

It makes sense, I bought my HW just then and I can’t say it didn’t pay off. However, older models are quite cheap, and there are still opportunities during the year when discounts appear - so you just need to be informed and not miss the right opportunity.

[Karartma1]

There's no perfect way of long term holding and I've come across this conclusion after years of crazy thoughts around cold storage airgapped holding solutions. In the end, it's about everyone's use case:
. do you want your heirs to be able to access those funds? then most paranoid solutions won't work;
. do you want that your coins will die with you? then go for it
. do you want to wake up one day, having forgotten how to retrieve your keys and being unable to access your wealth? that would be a nightmare!
Sharing is caring with your loved ones, that's what I did.

[witcher_sense]

There is no safest way to store your crypto in the first place. Safety depends on many factors: things that are suitable for me can be absolutely inappropriate in your case. In most cases, however, people tend to keep long-term bitcoin and short-term bitcoin separately. You usually don't want your long-term investment, your billions in bitcoin to move back and forth. You'd rather keep your keys on an indestructible metallic thingy or something like that than on your smartphone that will die should a nuclear explosion happens. You don't need a hardware wallet as a long-term solution because your plan is never move coins anyway and there is still a backup of your keys that should be kept safely. However, you can utilize your hardware wallet as a safe generator for your seed, the secret set of words that can later be stamped on a metal plate. Also, a hardware wallet is probably a perfect newbie-friendly solution for short-term transactions.

[Sanugarid]

I am considering holding Bitcoin for the long term. I have learned a few basics about the blockchain and BTC mechanisms, but still unable to find a complete guide on how to safely store bitcoin.

1) How to generate a private key safely? Online tools are obviously undesirable as they might keep a back door on all keys generated. Similar reason for any library or packages even they operate offline (I cannot check if these keys generated are in fact following some predetermined sequence).

I can use a random number generator on an offline PC. But I am not a real 'hacker' and have concerns on whether any programming language can produce truly random numbers that cannot be reproduced (or say predicted) on another PC. They might all rely on some external factors (such as time) which greatly reduce the possible key generated and make brutal force algorithms possible.

Currently, I can only think of throwing dice for key generating but that cannot scale.

2) I do not want to use any 3rd party software as a wallet. Suppose I just store my private key on a piece of paper and later transfer coins into it using exchanges. Would that be a valid transaction and allows me later to spend these coins? Is there anything else I need to store together with the private key (like the hashed transaction number in transaction_input in the blockchain? ScriptSig?) I really want to avoid 3rd party software because it might be obsolete in the future and data can be degraded. (Say if I use some sophisticated cold wallet, I may experience hardware degradation in  10 yrs, no one at that time used this software, programmers 10 yrs ago cannot be reached, and any trick in coding or encoding in the original version becomes obsolete. I would be a consumer rather than an investor of BTC...)
 
Any advice?

It would be best to buy a hardware wallet for your cryptocurrency assets so that you've full control over your assets. However, it doesn't mean you have a hardware wallet you're not prone to getting hacked or losing assets. It still depends on how you handle your assets well and how cautious person you are when it comes to transactions but ofc having a hardware wallet is the best thing to do for me.

[Dabs]

Another protocol for you to follow, my suggestion or recommendation, is to not simply store in cold storage and forget about it for 10 years, unless you are incapacitated or unconscious, is to simply look up and research the current events and keep updated.

The core website, any of the major bitcoin / crypto news websites. To keep up with news about any soft forks, hard forks, new address formats, ... I mean, it would be a good idea to switch from legacy to nested segwit, or skip directly to native segwit... and in the future there might be a new format for taproot and schnorr as that is being proposed right now.

Once a year, review your coins, and study how to transfer them to a new address safely.

Ideally, you would be contributing to your stash often enough that you can include this as part of your strategy for long term holding.

There are people out there who buy for their retirement every month. Once a year isn't too much huh?

This is in addition to doing anything to make sure the wallets are indeed cold storage, the computers or hardware you use have an air gap and all the other stuff mentioned by everyone else.

Always good knowledge coming from you, if at least one noob will start dealing with bitcoin the right way after your post, you're to be thanked!
Buy, forget and store securely your bitcoin has long proven to be the most effective wealth advice for new bitcoin holders. I wish I'd have been given that advice in 2010

Thank you, much appreciated for the kind words.

I don't think too many OG who got any advice in 2010 or 2011 have kept their coins if they got any back then. I would be safely retired by now if I had kept any coins I got back then, or invested in some random site and kept the profits instead of spending them. But some of us have to buy that first pizza, or that miner, or that sock, or test it out on some platform ... And some of us actually lived on bitcoin earnings ...

My current best long term storage for bitcoin involves using Electrum and making backups of the seeds and keeping it all offline and cold. If I ever get around to having more than a few million dollars worth, it will all be migrated to multi-sig (still using Electrum) and several separate physical devices.

Version 22 of Core wallet came out recently, but I would wait some time before upgrading the main node. If you have back up nodes or wallets for testing purposes, you can probably upgrade that immediately and see for yourself if all works okay.

[uneps]

I see there are some of the best ways to securely store bitcoins.
In my opinion online wallets are no more secure and faster in transactions. Online wallets are also known as "hot" wallets. A hot wallet is a wallet that runs on an internet-connected device such as a computer, cell phone or tablet. This way of storing can create vulnerabilities because these wallets generate private keys to your coins on these internet-connected devices. While hot wallets can be very convenient in how you quickly access and transact with your assets, they also don't have maximum security.

[Ridi]

I totally agree that long term holding is safest way it can be secure future with long term investing because near future price will go high and it has solid safety and security in digital assets. For safest side using a hardware wallet also known as cold storage it is most secure method for storing cryptocurrency.

[rozak]

I totally agree that long term holding is safest way it can be secure future with long term investing because near future price will go high and it has solid safety and security in digital assets. For safest side using a hardware wallet also known as cold storage it is most secure method for storing cryptocurrency.

but it all also depends on the assets you save. holding long-term for a new project is a gamble. because the project could run for a long time according to our plans. it could also be that the project will stop its development due to a problem.
maybe it would be more appropriate to hold long term with the right assets sure to be profitable in the future. because we do not know the market conditions in the future. can also we come back when the market in the mouth of the bears.

[ethereumhunter]

I totally agree that long term holding is safest way it can be secure future with long term investing because near future price will go high and it has solid safety and security in digital assets. For safest side using a hardware wallet also known as cold storage it is most secure method for storing cryptocurrency.

but it all also depends on the assets you save. holding long-term for a new project is a gamble. because the project could run for a long time according to our plans. it could also be that the project will stop its development due to a problem.
maybe it would be more appropriate to hold long term with the right assets sure to be profitable in the future. because we do not know the market conditions in the future. can also we come back when the market in the mouth of the bears.

Indeed. If he has many potential coins, his waiting time will be worth it in the future as he will make a lot of money or a big profit. But most people do not know how to pick the right coin to invest with their money and only follow other people's suggestions. People are disappointed holding their coins for a long time because they do not see the price increase after some time and that is because they do not research before they buy the coin. But suppose he only invests in bitcoin and uses separate wallets such as hardware wallets. In that case, he will not have to worry about his investment value because, in the future, the bitcoin price will be more expensive than today.

[AicecreaME]

I think the safest way to store your holdings in btc is by keeping them in cold storage. In this way, hackers won't be able to make their way to compromise your funds in traditional means of hacking just like what most of them do. It's better to put your assets in an offline computer, flash drive, or hard drive to secure it won't be stolen. While this proves to be one of the most efficient ways to secure your cryptocurrencies, securing in cold storage has its advantages as well such as deteriorating of your chosen cold storage over time (e.g. computer), so you should do your best to maintain it well in the duration you plan to hold and store it.

[kojektea]

Forget about it for a long time. Because if we keep it in mind that it's our asset, we will be brought in a lot by the media who want to damage the price of what we invest.

[SoeNan89]

I use Trezor, Trezor One supports various types of digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Dash, Dogecoin, Zcash, Litecoin, Ethereum, and others. Of course this flexibility is widely used by users who trade more than one digital currency. The security form of Trezor One continues to be upgraded by collaborating with third parties namely Electrum and Copay. Please note that this Trezor One is not a software, application, or a Bitcoin Wallet wallet site, but is an electronic hardware.

[Pom_bensin]

if you want to be safe in the long run and you don't want to use a 3rd party wallet you can choose another option. there are nano ledger and trezor as hardware wallets that are able to secure your assets in the long term. in 3rd party online wallets there are still risks even if you have kept your password or private key correctly and safely. So, in my opinion, the most important thing is how you keep the password or private key for your assets, it's your own policy choice