What hardware wallet do you need? It depends on your situation and purposes.

[Gorilla22]

Hi,

Here are my own ideas about strategy/theory of choosing a hardware wallet.
It is not an advice for users, it is not to teach somebody and it is not an article like "how to....".
I am a newbie, I am asking questions and I am reading a lot what Big Smart Guys on this forum tell and I think about it. I am also doing  my own researches.
So this topic is theoretical, I wrote it in order to share conclusions I could draw based on what I know about hardware wallets today.

And  you guys please write what you think and feel free to critisize my post in order to update this strategy.

The strategy (or theory) of choosing a wallet depending on purposes and user's situation.

Situation 1.

You have amount of btc (or other crypto) which is close to the price of a hardware wallet. Like 50$ - 100$ current value.
May be you don't need a hardware wallet at all if you are not going to receive more coins.
Then a good software wallet would be may be the best choice.
But if you plan to get more coins in the nearest future then probably you should go to situation (3) and buy a hardware wallet anyway. To have it ready to accept coins!

Situation 2.

You have some Capital for trading and for short-term (max 1 month) investments into altcoins, new coins, not reliable coins, shitcoins (LOL) etc. May be for transferring forks after you claimed them if you didn't sell them immediately after having got them.
In this situation you need a convenient hardware wallet which enables you to do everything you need to do very quickly and very easy way (in order not to mess up with something and to be able to buy and sell instantly).
You should choose the most convenient, quick and easy operated hardware wallet, preferably with large touch screen, and it is OK if it is closed source. This wallet is not for holding your savings and not for long-term investments and not for holding bitcoins.
Convenient, quick, easy - these are the requirements. For example SecuX (probably).

Situation 3.

You use bitcoins in your life. Receiving them, sending them, paying with bitcoins for goods and services.
Then best choice is a reliable, well known, well tested open source hardware wallet like Trezor or Bitbox.

Situation 4.

Your consider your btc a short-term investment. You are waiting for bitcoin exchange rate to raise to some level and then you are intending to exchange your btc for ordinary currency like USD or EUR or your local currency if it is other than those .
You definitely need a well tested open source hardware wallet like Trezor or Bitbox.
May be even 2 wallets. If 1 get damaged or broken you can instantly switch to another one. Or one wallet is for investment and another one for everyday use (if situation 3 is also actual).
But I am not sure about necessity to have 2 wallets in such a situation when it is possible to order and get a new wallet quickly.

Situation 5.

The amount of bitcoins you own and the cost of living in your country make it possible for you to live completely on your bitcoins.
So you exchange some bitcoins for ordinary  currency from time to time and you spend this money for living.

You definitely need a reliable, secure, well tested wallet like Trezor or Bitbox.
May be even 2 hardware wallets. To switch between them quickly if one of them get broken/damaged/ out of order. Though I am not sure if it is really necessary to have the second one in such situation when you can order and receive a new one quickly.

Situation 6.

Your bitcoins is a long term investment. You are not going to sell it this year, next year, 5 or 10 or 20 years more. And you don't care about its current exchange rate.
Then you don't need any hardware wallet at all to hold you bitcoins. Though you need one for set up.
Set up a hardware wallet, transfer you investment there, make good safe secure  backups of your seed and passphrase (if you use passphrase). Then wipe/reset your hardware wallet. The backups (on SD, paper, metal or all of them) is the best way to hold long term investment. Without hardware wallet.



For now those are all situations and purposes that I can imagine. Of course there can be more different situations and more different purposes.
But I am an unexperienced newbie, so this  strategy (or theory) of choosing hardware wallets is limited by those purposes and situations which I can imagine.

I think it is always good to know "Why? What for?" if you buy something.

What do you think?
Can you add more situations/purposes/solutions?
Also please feel free to critisize and disagree and write about this!
Your experienced opinion is extremely valuable!

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[hosseinimr93]

Take note that you don't have to use a hardware wallet even if you hold million dollars worth of bitcoin and you want 100% security.
A good hardware wallet guarantees that your keys are kept offline and there is no way to get hacked. In the case you generate the keys on an airgapped device, your keys can be completely secure even without a hardware wallet.

In the case you can't use an airgapped device for generating your keys, then using a hardware wallet is the best solution, especially if you hold huge amount of funds.

[Charles-Tim]

A good hardware wallet guarantees that your keys are kept offline and there is no way to get hacked.

The keys are kept offline, but hardware wallet users should still be careful of clipboard malware. They should also still be careful of malware generally. But you are right, hardware wallets are very resistant to malware.

[Gorilla22]

hosseinimr93, Charles-Tim,

Here is why I think it is reasonable to wipe/reset hardware wallet in Situation 6, long term investment.

In this situation you are not going to use your bitcoins for a very long time. For many years.
Which means that you are not going to use your wallet for a very long time, for many years.
But you still need to take care  about:

either
Both your wallet AND your backups.
or
Your backups only (if you wipe/reset your wallet).

And it is more simple, safe and convenient take care about backups only. Just fewer physical things to take care about. Which increases safety, security and convenience.

[joniboini]

And it is more simple, safe and convenient take care about backups only. Just fewer physical things to take care about. Which increases safety, security and convenience.

As long as you regularly check it and make sure your backup is not damaged in any way. Honestly, I don't think you need to buy an HW either for this purpose (your post mentioned HW for key generation). As others have mentioned, a secure air-gapped device should be enough for this. Even a phone or something similar is okay as long as you can guarantee it is safe from malware etc before you use it to generate a new address.

[bitmover]

What do you think?
Can you add more situations/purposes/solutions?
Also please feel free to critisize and disagree and write about this!
Your experienced opinion is extremely valuable!

I believe you are overthinking.

Get a good hardware wallet if you want to have more than 1000 usd in crypto. That's it.

Personally,  I like to have some coins in my mobile wallet, just in case I need some money in a travel or something like that. Just a few bucks, from 20-300 usd. I have a multicurrency wallet in my mobile. It is not very safe, but I don't hold much h money there.

If you have more than 1000, for trade or for hold, just put it in a hardware wallet, trezor or ledger or some other good one.

[Lucius]

O believe you are overthinking.

Considering the number of threads that the OP made in this board, he is slowly turning into jerry, although no one will surpass him so easily. Each hardware wallet has its primary purpose, which is to create a seed (wallets&backup) in a secure environment, and to enable sending transactions in a way that protects against clipboard malware.

We can discuss everything else ad infinitum, but we won't be any smarter to answer the question posed by the OP.

[Gorilla22]

Lucius,

Who is jerry?
I am posting less than I'd like to. Seriously.
I have much more questions than I ask.
I understand that some of my posts (may be many) are naive and may be some of them may look even stupid.
But I think that it is better if I express my ignorance, and get advices and answers. This way I am getting knowledge. I want to know as much as possible about everything related to cryptocurrencies.
And I also am afraid to do something wrong or mess up with something, that's why I am checking with Big Smart Guys on this forum to make sure that I understand things  correct.
So I have no evil intentions to abuse the forum.

[n0nce]

Lucius,

Who is jerry?

I think you will learn that quickly when browsing this forum and looking for.. let's say.. odd topics / questions. Odd in the way that the answer to his questions is either given in the first result of anyone's favourite search engine, or it is easily answered by common sense.

I am posting less than I'd like to. Seriously.
I have much more questions than I ask.
I understand that some of my posts (may be many) are naive and may be some of them may look even stupid.

Have you ever used StackOverflow?
If not, check their guidelines for 'asking a good question'; it's easy to understand the principles and apply them to Bitcointalk forum topics.

This is just a small quote, I recommend reading all of it. Replace 'StackOverflow' with 'Bitcointalk' in your mind and use TryNinja's https://ninjastic.space/search engine.

Before posting a question, we strongly recommend that you spend a reasonable amount of time researching the problem and searching for existing questions on this site that may provide an answer. (Stack Overflow has been around for a long time now, so many common questions have already been answered.)

But I think that it is better if I express my ignorance, and get advices and answers. This way I am getting knowledge. I want to know as much as possible about everything related to cryptocurrencies.
And I also am afraid to do something wrong or mess up with something, that's why I am checking with Big Smart Guys on this forum to make sure that I understand things  correct.
So I have no evil intentions to abuse the forum.

No doubt! But it will get annoying and you may start getting less replies if you overdo it with the simple / common-sense / already answered previously / answered through search engine - type questions.

[Pmalek]

Situation 1.

You have amount of btc (or other crypto) which is close to the price of a hardware wallet. Like 50$ - 100$ current value.
May be you don't need a hardware wallet at all if you are not going to receive more coins.

But consider the following. Bitcoin is not a stable asset. That $100 worth of BTC today can in a bull run go to $200, $500, $1.000...etc. So that magical threshold you have in your head could be crossed before you know it.

Situation 2.

You have some Capital for trading and for short-term (max 1 month) investments into altcoins, new coins, not reliable coins, shitcoins (LOL) etc. May be for transferring forks after you claimed them if you didn't sell them immediately after having got them.
In this situation you need a convenient hardware wallet which enables you to do everything you need to do very quickly and very easy way (in order not to mess up with something and to be able to buy and sell instantly).
...
For example SecuX (probably).

I would never purchase a random hardware wallet for such a purpose. If you are going to invest in one, buy one you feel completely comfortable with using and not just one to hold forks. There are software wallets you can use for such purposes.

Situation 4.
...
But I am not sure about necessity to have 2 wallets in such a situation when it is possible to order and get a new wallet quickly.

If it's a good deal, like some of the Black Friday deals we had in the past where you get your HWs for 50% off, why not. Take into account that HW prices tend to increase, especially now during times of inflation and chip shortage. You might be required to pay more one year from now and wait longer, like what happened during COVID-19 times when they made the world stop spinning. 

[Lucius]

I am posting less than I'd like to. Seriously.
I have much more questions than I ask.

Then you turn into jerry, and the fact that you ask who it is about only says that you are not paying attention to the board where you made 9 or 10 threads, and everything that interested you could have been summarized in max 3 threads, or you could have found out in already existing threads. @n0nce explained some things to you, and it's up to you to understand that the forum is not a social network like Telegram or similar, where you open a new topic for every question that comes to your mind.