Help for the paranoid - how to transfer from Ledger to Seedsigner?

[ContourCool]

I'd like to get off Ledger, and onto Seedsigner/Sparrow. Based on my research, this seems reasonable.

What are some things to watch out for? Can anyone point me to a guide, or list of gotchas, things to avoid?

Here's my steps so far:

- create new 12 word seed phrase in seed signer, using photo for entropy. (12 words because based on my research, that's plenty safe and less complex)
- back up the 12 word seed phrase somewhere safe, off-site preferably
- load xpub for this from Seedsigner to Sparrow
- Get address for new seed from Sparrow. Validate they're identical to what's on SeedSigner. On SeedSigner I can only see and validate the first and last 6 or so characters, not the middle ones, hope that's enough?
- Use ledger to transfer bitcoin to the new Seedsigner created private key. Do a small transaction first. For each transaction, do following:
    - make sure it shows up in Sparrow
    -
- Done?

What am I missing here? Don't want to be too paranoid, but self-custody is unforgiving.

Thanks for feedback.

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[DireWolfM14]

I would make sure you're able to restore the same wallet from the seed phrase before you send any bitcoin.  After you load your xpub in Sparrow, clear the seed from the seedsigner, then use your seed phrase to restore the wallet in seed signer.  If you have the same set of addresses that you see in the Sparrow wallet, you're good to go.  If not, start the process from scratch.

Once you're confident that you can restore the wallet, there's no need to send the bitcoin in small batches.  If the pucker factor is too extreme for you, send a few sats first to make sure they show up in Sparrow, but after the first transaction completes successfully you can send the whole wad.

[BitMaxz]

It's not the best practice restoring seed phrases generated from another wallet is not safe.

If you still have control of the Ledger wallet I suggest create a new wallet on Sparrow offline for safety and send all funds from the Ledger wallet to Sparrow.

[decodx]

What am I missing here? Don't want to be too paranoid, but self-custody is unforgiving.

In addition to what DireWolfM14 mentioned, I would recommend creating a test transaction with the Seedsigner/Sparrow combination after the first deposit, just to cover all the bases.
Everything else seems OK to me, although I have to admit that I've never used Seedsigner. From what I've read, it works like any other hardware wallet.

It's not the best practice restoring seed phrases generated from another wallet is not safe.

You may have failed to understand some of his steps. The OP never said that he wanted to restore a seed from another wallet.

[satscraper]

I

What am I missing here? Don't want to be too paranoid, but self-custody is unforgiving.

Install bitcoin node (either BitcoinCore or Electrs/Fulcrum/ElectrumX which is better) and make sure that  Sparrow connects to your node  rather than to public servers which would harm your privacy,

When creating wallet proceed to multisig one. Here you will find  the step-by-step instruction how to do this using Sparrow and virtually any hardware wallet.

[ContourCool]

It's not the best practice restoring seed phrases generated from another wallet is not safe.

If you still have control of the Ledger wallet I suggest create a new wallet on Sparrow offline for safety and send all funds from the Ledger wallet to Sparrow.

Would you mind telling me why restoring a seed phrase generated from another wallet is not safe? What would be the risk?

[satscraper]

It's not the best practice restoring seed phrases generated from another wallet is not safe.

If you still have control of the Ledger wallet I suggest create a new wallet on Sparrow offline for safety and send all funds from the Ledger wallet to Sparrow.

Would you mind telling me why restoring a seed phrase generated from another wallet is not safe? What would be the risk?

It is not safe because you can not be 100% sure that seed phrase from another wallet is not compromised. Thus you will put your new wallet under the risk.

Look, you wanna move from Ledger to new wallet. It costs you nothing to create new  SEED for new wallet  to save yourself the trouble  the old SEED could impose.

[Pmalek]

It's not the best practice restoring seed phrases generated from another wallet is not safe.

If you still have control of the Ledger wallet I suggest create a new wallet on Sparrow offline for safety and send all funds from the Ledger wallet to Sparrow.

But that's not what OP intends to do. The first post explains that he generated a new seed with Seedsigner, which is a cold bitcoin signing device. He is then going to move the coins from his Ledger wallet to the Seedsigner by using Sparrow wallet to broadcast the transaction to the network.

From what I've read, it works like any other hardware wallet.

With the difference being that it's airgapped and works with PSBTs. Plus it doesn't store the seeds in its memory, so every time you load it up, you have to re-enter the seed or scan the seed QR code.

When we are at it, @ContourCool you can also generate your seed as a QR code. When you need to load it into the Seedsigner with the next boot up, you don't have to re-enter all 12/24 words. You just scan the code and verify the fingerprint is the same as the one you hopefully backed up. 

- Use ledger to transfer bitcoin to the new Seedsigner created private key.

Just a small correction here. You are not entering any private keys during the transaction creation process or transferring to a private key. I am sure you know that and it's just a typo.

[ContourCool]

- Use ledger to transfer bitcoin to the new Seedsigner created private key.

Just a small correction here. You are not entering any private keys during the transaction creation process or transferring to a private key. I am sure you know that and it's just a typo.
[/quote]

Thanks. I guess it would be more accurate to say "transfer bitcoin to an address associated with the new Seedsigner created private key"?

Summarizing what people have said, I got these steps to potentially add:

- Use my own node.
- "I would recommend creating a test transaction with the Seedsigner/Sparrow combination after the first deposit, just to cover all the bases."
(when you say "test transaction", do you mean just a small transaction, or is this something else?)

I don't think the thing that DireWolf mentioned ("I would make sure you're able to restore the same wallet from the seed phrase before you send any bitcoin") really applies, right, since in SeedSigner I'm ALWAYS restoring the wallet from the seed phrase (Seed QR). It's not stored on the device.

Thanks!

[DireWolfM14]

I don't think the thing that DireWolf mentioned ("I would make sure you're able to restore the same wallet from the seed phrase before you send any bitcoin") really applies, right, since in SeedSigner I'm ALWAYS restoring the wallet from the seed phrase (Seed QR). It's not stored on the device.

It does apply!  If you made a mistake when writing down the seed on paper this will be the only way that you'll find out about it.  You only have to restore the seed once to confirm that no mistake was made.

[dkbit98]

Use ledger to transfer bitcoin to the new Seedsigner created private key.

As far as I know seedsigner is generating seed phrase from entropy and not private keys, it's a big difference.
And you are sending coins to newly generated public addresses, not to private keys.
Seedsigner is cool and I like the project, but it's simply not for everyone and you shouldn't expect much from small team of developers.
Code can have bugs and I didn't see any serious security audit of their source code, so I wouldn't use it for managing life saving money.

[Pmalek]

Thanks. I guess it would be more accurate to say "transfer bitcoin to an address associated with the new Seedsigner created private key"?

Or you can get rid of the mention of private keys altogether. It's redundant. You will be transferring bitcoin to an address you have confirmed on both the Seedsigner and the software wallet that holds your master public key.

when you say "test transaction", do you mean just a small transaction, or is this something else?

Transfer a small amount to the Seedsigner and then move those same coins to somewhere else. Cut the power to the Seedsigner before moving the bitcoin from it so that it wipes the seed. You will then have to restore it from seed or QR seed backup. It's a good way to test if the restoration process works as it should.

When your seed is loaded into the Seedsigner, you can also scan a receiving address to confirm it's associated with the loaded seed (aka your Seedsigner bitcoin wallet). If it is, good. If it isn't, you have either recovered the wrong seed, you are trying to send coins to an address not associated with your seed, or you might have a clipboard malware that has changed your address to that of a hacker/scammer.