[INFO] SAFEST WAY TO SWEEP YOUR COINS? PLEASE SHARE YOUR WAY AS WELL

[krogothmanhattan]

                Posting this thread here as I have been asked again and again on the safest or the best way to peel and sweep a loaded item. I also noticed newbies asking whats the best way.

 It all depends on how safe you want to be or how fast you want to sweep.

         A few years back I wrote a thread on how to sweep a paper wallet withour ever exposing your private key onto the internet.

This is the SAFEST way that I know of that I would recommend for high value items such as Cas coins or Bitbills.

        https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5303860.msg55941150#msg55941150

   For low value items I have used hot wallets such as Mycellium or Coinomi, as I was willing to take a chance with a lower amount of BTC.

    But anytime you expose your private keys to a hot wallet, then you also take a chance that your BTC can be at risk. If your computer is infected with

malware or viruses, then it is a race against time to see who sweeps the BTC first.

    Well by doing it as follows, you will never expose your private keys. I am also posting a visual diagram I made to explain the steps and the full thread

link is below it in case you want to fully dive into that rabbit hole on the full explanation!

 

    I am sure others have their way of sweeping and I recommend they share their way and experiences....so please do so and share with the rest of us.

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[krogothmanhattan]

            For anytime that I use a hot wallet to sweep low amount of BTC in any wallet, I have a dedicated old phone that is only used thru wifi.

  In other words it’s a dead phone…cleaned out with only the operating software and in my example Mycellium wallet.

  I activate only when I want to use the mycelium hot wallet thru my home wifi, so its totally free of any malware or viruses and not used for anything else but this.

[NeuroticFish]

I've never used the actual sweep feature.

When I had to sweep coins from an old school paper wallet I just restored it into an Electrum on a live OS (on USB stick) without internet. Pretty much the easiest cold storage setup.
A second USB stick I've used for getting the signed tx onto an online system where I've broadcasted it.

[ChiBitCTy]

I should use this method. Coinomi is just so easy. Ballet is as well.

Lets say my phone is compromised. Sim swapped perhaps. In order to send out the coins on the wallet to the next address I’ve got to type in a password not stored on the phone.  Am I missing some potential vulnerabilities?

[MoparMiningLLC]

I will look but I think we have several threads explaining a myriad of ways to do this.

[krogothmanhattan]

I should use this method. Coinomi is just so easy. Ballet is as well.

Lets say my phone is compromised. Sim swapped perhaps. In order to send out the coins on the wallet to the next address I’ve got to type in a password not stored on the phone.  Am I missing some potential vulnerabilities?

    I think with sim swapping your online exchange that uses the text as a two factor authentication would be vulnerable and not your app wallet on your phone.

    The one thing that would be vulnerable on your hot wallet is if its compromised via a virus or malware...also there is the potential the public address you are sending your coins to can be swapped at the last second and the coins sent to a different address.

   By using the electrum way there is no way your wallet can be compromised at all.

[krogothmanhattan]

I've never used the actual sweep feature.

When I had to sweep coins from an old school paper wallet I just restored it into an Electrum on a live OS (on USB stick) without internet. Pretty much the easiest cold storage setup.
A second USB stick I've used for getting the signed tx onto an online system where I've broadcasted it.

    That's an interesting way of doing it. Just curious how would the electrum wallet know what the balance of the public key was if it is not connected to the internet in some way? I tried doing that in the past and I could not sign of on a tx as the electrum was not able to determine the balance on the public key without connecting to the internet in some way.

   That's why the way I posted you use two seperate electrums, one as a hot wallet and the other in cold storage....the hot wallet one will tell the cold storage one the bitcoin balance without the cold storage one ever being exposed on the internet.

[NeuroticFish]

   That's an interesting way of doing it. Just curious how would the electrum wallet know what the balance of the public key was if it is not connected to the internet in some way? I tried doing that in the past and I could not sign of on a tx as the electrum was not able to determine the balance on the public key without connecting to the internet in some way.

   That's why the way I posted you use two seperate electrums, one as a hot wallet and the other in cold storage....the hot wallet one will tell the cold storage one the bitcoin balance without the cold storage one ever being exposed on the internet.

I also use two wallets (but I guess that something is wrong with me and I forgot that part of the steps, sorry about that).
The online wallet is re-created from the address (hence watch only wallet), the transport stick got the unsigned tx to one direction (tx created and saved from the online wallet) and the signed tx (from the cold wallet) to the other direction.

The difference is that in "my" setup the daily use computer + 2 USB sticks (or even one if you know how to partition it) can do the job. While I can always find around me 1-2 USB sticks, all the dead phones I have are.. too dead.

I will look but I think we have several threads explaining a myriad of ways to do this.

That's correct. Maybe those threads are old (or more related to cold storage than collectibles), but they are there. Still, it's not a too common topic, hence one more, after so much time, doesn't hurt.

I am sure I did explain the steps at least once in the past much better/clearer myself...

[stillherehodling]

            For anytime that I use a hot wallet to sweep low amount of BTC in any wallet, I have a dedicated old phone that is only used thru wifi.

  In other words it’s a dead phone…cleaned out with only the operating software and in my example Mycellium wallet.

  I activate only when I want to use the mycelium hot wallet thru my home wifi, so its totally free of any malware or viruses and not used for anything else but this.

I use an old android phone, thats been freshly re-installed. I then make sure im updated to latest OS build, then install a Coinomi apk, and use that to sweep.
I just think, if a fresh device can in some way be corrupted (less a dodgy Coinomi apk), with a smart stealer, within the first and only 5 minutes of internet awareness....we'd all have many more problems to stress over. Feels 'safe' for me.

[krogothmanhattan]

   That's an interesting way of doing it. Just curious how would the electrum wallet know what the balance of the public key was if it is not connected to the internet in some way? I tried doing that in the past and I could not sign of on a tx as the electrum was not able to determine the balance on the public key without connecting to the internet in some way.

   That's why the way I posted you use two seperate electrums, one as a hot wallet and the other in cold storage....the hot wallet one will tell the cold storage one the bitcoin balance without the cold storage one ever being exposed on the internet.

I also use two wallets (but I guess that something is wrong with me and I forgot that part of the steps, sorry about that).
The online wallet is re-created from the address (hence watch only wallet), the transport stick got the unsigned tx to one direction (tx created and saved from the online wallet) and the signed tx (from the cold wallet) to the other direction.

The difference is that in "my" setup the daily use computer + 2 USB sticks (or even one if you know how to partition it) can do the job. While I can always find around me 1-2 USB sticks, all the dead phones I have are.. too dead.

That's correct. Maybe those threads are old (or more related to cold storage than collectibles), but they are there. Still, it's not a too common topic, hence one more, after so much time, doesn't hurt.

     Ahh that clears it up.....cause in order for the air gapped electrum to be able to sign the raw transaction it would need somehow access to the corresponding public bitcoin address that it is tied to...then and only then can the transaction be signed.

    Thanks for clearing the air on that one....its a novel way of doing it with the USB sticks for me.  Cheers!

[MoparMiningLLC]

That's correct. Maybe those threads are old (or more related to cold storage than collectibles), but they are there. Still, it's not a too common topic, hence one more, after so much time, doesn't hurt.

the one I refer to was maybe last year but was about how to sweep funds from paper wallets into other wallets - one being a ballet, then a few others were listed.

pretty sure there are some other older ones as well.

Doesnt really matter though. 

I will add this, do not import keys into freewallet - I did that and then logged out. I no longer had the original pk because I though importing the pk into freewallet would keep it in freewallet - that is not true. I lost access to over 100 XCP/Bitcoin NFT's.

[krogothmanhattan]

That's correct. Maybe those threads are old (or more related to cold storage than collectibles), but they are there. Still, it's not a too common topic, hence one more, after so much time, doesn't hurt.

the one I refer to was maybe last year but was about how to sweep funds from paper wallets into other wallets - one being a ballet, then a few others were listed.

pretty sure there are some other older ones as well.

Doesnt really matter though. 

I will add this, do not import keys into freewallet - I did that and then logged out. I no longer had the original pk because I though importing the pk into freewallet would keep it in freewallet - that is not true. I lost access to over 100 XCP/Bitcoin NFT's.

   Damn sorry to hear that...so did you use their website to do this or thru the app? I am not familiar with free wallet to be honest.

   So after you swept onto the wallet, you discarded the Private key?

   I mean when you did sweep didn't it indicate it had the balance or no? I figure once you did sweep it would indicate the balance and then you throw away the private key? If not how did this go down?

   Thanks for sharing your experience by the way...hopefully other do not use it either after reading your thread.