2 cold wallets for my crypto assets

[RaraAvis]

1. If your cold wallet is offline 99% of the time does that mean that if/when offline it cannot be hacked?

As said, it matters more to be offline than whether it's started or not.
I will add that in theory a hardware wallet should (absolutely) never send out the seed and just sign the transaction they should. Of course, in reality Ledger decided "heck with that", sadly.

2. Those who read this question please let me know which cold wallet you would choose if you were me with the knowledge you have today?

There are hardware wallets that work completely offline and transfer information only via images.
You should take a look at 55 Hardware Wallets, compared feature by feature
Getting those open source and 100% airgapped should be a good step forward.

Also, if you consider them expensive and are you sure you can generate a proper seed by throwing dices (but beware, it's not as easy as you'd think, please read the topics on the matter in this forum) you can add for example SeedSigner to your list.

3. Why open source cold wallet is better than none open source wallets?

Because if it's closed source there can be literally anything in that code, including, as Ledger has shown, the possibility to extract the seed. Or the seed generator can be flawed (intentionally or not) and the seed is from a narrow set and can be found by brute force. Or... really sky is the limit.

Thank you

[Stalker22]

I have few more questions if you don't mind:

1. If your cold wallet is offline 99% of the time does that mean that if/when offline it cannot be hacked?

There are many forms of so-called "cold" wallets. The term is generally used for a device or storage method that never goes online. If the device is online or connected to an internet-enabled device even just 1% of the time, then technically it is no longer a cold wallet. A piece of paper, for example, is a cold wallet (you only use it as a storage method for your private key). There are hardware wallets and electronic devices that are completely air-gapped, and can also be considered cold wallets. And finally, there are hardware devices that are sort of cold wallets, because you still have to occasionally connect them to an internet-enabled device (computer or mobile) to use them. But this does not mean that they can be hacked because they are designed in such a way that your private keys can never leak from the device's memory and are only used to sign transactions. This is true for some of them, it is hard to say for sure for non-open source devices.

2. Those who read this question please let me know which cold wallet you would choose if you were me with the knowledge you have today?

It depends on your use case. What do you want to do with your cold wallet?

3. Why open source cold wallet is better than none open source wallets?

Because they can be verified by independent experts. Same as all other open source software.

[RaraAvis]

1. If your cold wallet is offline 99% of the time does that mean that if/when offline it cannot be hacked?

There are many forms of so-called "cold" wallets. The term is generally used for a device or storage method that never goes online. If the device is online or connected to an internet-enabled device even just 1% of the time, then technically it is no longer a cold wallet. A piece of paper, for example, is a cold wallet (you only use it as a storage method for your private key). There are hardware wallets and electronic devices that are completely air-gapped, and can also be considered cold wallets. And finally, there are hardware devices that are sort of cold wallets, because you still have to occasionally connect them to an internet-enabled device (computer or mobile) to use them. But this does not mean that they can be hacked because they are designed in such a way that your private keys can never leak from the device's memory and are only used to sign transactions. This is true for some of them, it is hard to say for sure for non-open source devices.

2. Those who read this question please let me know which cold wallet you would choose if you were me with the knowledge you have today?

It depends on your use case. What do you want to do with your cold wallet?

3. Why open source cold wallet is better than none open source wallets?

Because they can be verified by independent experts. Same as all other open source software.

[/quote]

I see, thank you Stalker.

I need a cold wallet mainly for storing Bitcoin, the rest of my portfolio I will probably keep on the exchange because I plan to sell them in a month of so and buy others. Or the same ones when the price drops. Like everyone else. Short trades. It is Bitcoin investment that I want to move offline because I plan to buy more of it too at next significant dip.

[Faisal2202]

Could you please tell me, knowledgeable people, would it be possible to place my crypto assets on both devices at the same time and, if yes, then, if for example my Nano X would get hacked, Tangem will still have them? Or, if they are gone from one wallet they'd be gone from all cold wallets, because hacker would authorise transactions for me?

Your funds are basically not in your wallets, they are stored on your recovery keys, or seedphrases. So in simple words, if you have to keep the funds (same funds) in two different wallets, then you have to import the keys into another wallet as well. So, basically, funds are single units means they are not duplicated if you store them in two different wallets. haha If that could happen then everyone would have billions of money and wallet companies would be the top rich people. Let's take an example.

You kept funds in wallet 1 and to store/show them in wallet 2 you have to import wallet 2 with wallet 1 key and now the funds are in wallet 2 as well. If funds will be gone from wallet 1 then they are gone from 2 as well. because basically, the funds are in the seed phrase not in the wallet. The security that these HW provide is they are not connected to internet all the time so they keep your funds save from major hacks and downsides. Overall if you don't have the key your funds are gone.

You can enable double signature feature to enhance the security, which mean if second wallet will approve then the tx will be made otherwise not.

[The Cryptovator]

I am wondering if I should leave the Ledger Nano wallet due to its closed source. I have ordered a Trezor hardware wallet, and after receiving it, I will move all the funds into Trezor. The ledger will be used for small funds only. Though no incident has happened yet about the closed source of Ledger, I don't feel secure with Ledger anymore. However, if you don't feel secure with Ledger, then don't use it. Yet we aren't sure if they have private key access. Due to closed-source software, we can't see what data Ledger has been sharing with us. Just choose an open-source hardware wallet like Trezor.

[RaraAvis]

I am wondering if I should leave the Ledger Nano wallet due to its closed source. I have ordered a Trezor hardware wallet, and after receiving it, I will move all the funds into Trezor. The ledger will be used for small funds only. Though no incident has happened yet about the closed source of Ledger, I don't feel secure with Ledger anymore. However, if you don't feel secure with Ledger, then don't use it. Yet we aren't sure if they have private key access. Due to closed-source software, we can't see what data Ledger has been sharing with us. Just choose an open-source hardware wallet like Trezor.

which Trezor model would you recommend? I haven't purchased the Ledger alternative yet... I think I'll keep them both and do what you'll do, have ledger for small funds.