How do you separate your everyday Bitcoin setup from long-term storage?

[noorman0]

I don't actually have a dedicated wallet for daily spending, but if I had to, and considering P2P is still too expensive in terms of fees and the underlying price, my best option would probably be using a CEX keeping the weekly average under $50, since my country prohibits using cryptocurrency for transactions. (yep, this applies specifically to my situation).
For long-term storage, I still use a cold wallet, along with Electrum as a "watch-only" wallet.

[aoluain]

I dont do "daily spending" and hence I dont have a "hot wallet" because there is nowhere around me
where I can spend Bitcoin on incidentals. I am happy to use my FIAT for that and keep my Bitcoin
for long term. If something does come up where i need to spend Bitcoin its never urgent enough that
it has to happen instantaneously.

i think I have a simple system which is secure, and based on hardware wallet. My thinking is if I over
complicate things I will mess up at some point and leave my security possibly compromised.

[Peanutswar]

Likewise with yours but mine I do have a hardware wallet for a long term hodling if the funds are just use for next halving cycle of the bitcoin and next is I had my multiple hot wallets depends with the transaction such as having a Metamask for the Ethereum network, Electrum for the bitcoin wallet and even have the Phantom for the Solana network I do active into different crypto engagement so while in the bear market I had an opportunity to still earn even small amount.
Then have small amount in CEX for an swing trade for sniping new coins to make future trading so basically even long term still must need to diversity the assets.

[Outhue]

I do have hot wallet on my smartphone and that's for everyday spending not for holding Bitcoin.
Cold storages also defers, I hope you know this, ColdCard should be an example for you.

Actually, hot wallets have purpose of spending and only for small fund but it's not likely to do every day spending. I really don't think that we are at a phase of making cryptocurrency transactions for payments too often like daily.

If you use your hot wallets for swaps on DEX, perhaps you will make on chain transactions with your hot wallets more regularly. Otherwise, if hot wallets are only for spending, payment, I barely make transactions and daily is not what I usually do.

Better add some Passphrase to your recovery seed to make it even more stronger, it's a good idea to keep your crypto devices away from the internet

Be very careful with passphrase, if you don't know what to do, and don't backup your passphrase correctly and store it safely, you will lose your bitcoin because you will never be able to access your wallet later.

You can't just create passphrase and implement on your existing recovery seed, you will need to verify that it's actually working my writing down the new address, and they proceed to uninstall the wallet or format your hardware wallet, then import the recovery seed + passphrase to see what happens, you should get the same wallet address that you wrote down if you do things the right way.

Anyone who claimed to have lost their coins because of Passphrase did something wrong, they must have misplaced a word or something, even a space between two alphabet makes a difference, and I believe this is the point why passphrase is a good security enhancement on its own.

[jcojci]

We have different ways separating Bitcoin for regular use and long-term storage. You do a good thing separating your daily activities and not mix it so the chance to get scam could be reduce. I am also separate my regular use of Bitcoin and for long term saving. I don't touch that amount if the time is not comes. I rarely connect my wallet for long term saving very often to the Internet to prevent any bad thing occurs.

[Nathrixxx]

If you are being professional enough in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, you will understand why you should not have your crypto asset on a single wallet, many are taking extra steps to ensure that they are using more than two wallets for security safety, in case one of the wallet got compromised, not all their asset will be vanished away just like that without having a remedy to fall back at.

[Awaklara]

If you are being professional enough in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, you will understand why you should not have your crypto asset on a single wallet, many are taking extra steps to ensure that they are using more than two wallets for security safety, in case one of the wallet got compromised, not all their asset will be vanished away just like that without having a remedy to fall back at.

I think it's not a serious or professional matter to split owned Bitcoin into several wallets. It's more about awareness for anyone who wants to invest and try to be safer. OP seems to have tried ways to better secure the Bitcoin they own. But we have to keep in mind, it's not just about considering the possibility of hacking. We also have to think about the mistakes we could make, like losing access to our wallet or having our recovery seeds online.

[Monetarium]

My split is by device. The hardware wallet holds what I plan to keep. A phone wallet holds a small amount for everyday use. When I want to sell, I send a small amount at a time to a CEX, because the rate there is better and I keep the balance there low.

The reason I keep it that simple is 2019. I photographed my seed phrase and the photo synced to Google Photos along with everything else on that phone. Someone worked out my email address and my phone number through social engineering, got my mobile operator to issue a copy of my SIM, and used it to reset my Google password. I heard about the Google account first. By the time I checked the wallet it was already empty.

All of it went through one shortcut I never thought about. That is what comes to mind when people ask how much security is enough. The split above is everything I run now, and I have never felt the need for anything more elaborate.

[sunsilk]

The usual splitting of wallets, the hardware, desktop wallets and other ways of keeping our bitcoin should be enough. What is for long term is with hardware wallet and the ones that I might spend are on the desktop, it changes and which one is convenient.

The more that we're thinking of trying to be secured, it adds more pressure to our minds and probably could lead you into creating a mistake that you might have lapsed.

The reason I keep it that simple is 2019. I photographed my seed phrase and the photo synced to Google Photos along with everything else on that phone. Someone worked out my email address and my phone number through social engineering, got my mobile operator to issue a copy of my SIM, and used it to reset my Google password. I heard about the Google account first. By the time I checked the wallet it was already empty.

And this is one reason why we don't picture our seed phrases, android phones are synced with google accounts that you log in on the device. And that's why when it's compromised, everything is visible to the hacker.

[Zaka1221]

iancoleman tool is for advance people and it will just confuse newbies.

That's why I agree that Electrum is much smoother and simpler wallet to use by newbies. Because its easy to handle then, they can also generate their seed offline then can safely do sign transactions.

Addition option they could use is they can export the xpub for tracking purposes. Or try to use QR based PSBT when it comes on signing so that their offline device will not going to connect on anything. With that they can easily use their cold storage while making their security still strong.

Despite having enough time in this community, I understand a few things are always needed to be kept simple and secure. Just because of this, I always recommend Electrum wallet; it gives me good peace of mind while I always have a password and passphrase secure because these could be the most important things for having all under your control.
I remembered some years back one of my friends lost both his password and passphrase. This ruined his life because he lost 3 bitcoins, which he never recovered, and then he also lost many good things in life because this was his total savings for life. It's a big lesson for me to never compromise on a few things and never trust anyone about security. My computer is usually where I am keeping my savings, and I also want them to accumulate for a long time.

[Asuspawer09]

keep most BTC in cold storage and only a small amount in a hot wallet for regular use.

I mean thats great, used the cold storage for long-term investment in Bitcoin is just the safest option, but there are also some risks depending on what you are using, and then you could use other wallet for trading, something like that, usually I do on the Electrum wallet and then just put an amount on an exchange where I can freely trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, also I could easily exchange or withdraw my Bitcoin or crypto using the exchange so having the exchange could give me access to fast withdrawals just incase.

I think there was no need to overcomplicate it, I would just avoid putting it all on an exchange or a platform where you don't have a seed phrase or a private key. But I would recommend having a separate wallet, one wallet each for Bitcoin, other altcoins, and having an exchange account for trading or withdrawals. If you already have experience and have huge investment already from the start then go straight to cold wallets/hardware wallets.

[As-Soon-As]

How far do you guys separate everything before it starts becoming overkill?

Your bitcoin investment should be separated from the one you are holding for a short time and that can be easily exchanged when they need arises, your major investment can be on a non-custodial wallet, because this is your major portfolio you are holding unto as an asset, while for other emergency funds you may wanted to use Bitcoin in fixing tha aspect, you can easily make use of an exchange and always ensure that you don't have much fund on it.

Yes, you should keep your main investment in a strong wallet, but the main wallet should be very secure and its seed phrase should be kept very carefully. However, it is more risky to keep as much Bitcoin as you can as an emergency fund in an exchange wallet to meet your daily needs.
Because your exchange wallet has the power to control a third party, it is better to keep a large amount of Bitcoin there, but it is reasonable to keep as much as you need to meet your daily needs.

[Lillominato89]

keep most BTC in cold storage and only a small amount in a hot wallet for regular use.

For the online side, I also keep Bitcoin-related logins and sessions separate from my normal browsing. Sometimes I use separate browser profiles or an antidetect browser for that.

How far do you guys separate everything before it starts becoming overkill?

There are various guides here on the forum on how to store your Bitcoin securely. But security really depends on how you manage your wallets.
Personally, I use a hardware wallet to store my BTC and the Lightning Network for day-to-day use, though I’m only talking about a few dozen euros a day.
But that doesn’t mean I’m completely safe; the problem could arise for me too, either now or in the future, but so far it’s worked out fine.
As you’re new to the forum, I’d advise you to have a look at the various guides posted over time by various reliable users here on the forum, and then decide for yourself what to rely on.

[New Judgement]

I think that people should know that too much of everything is bad, a good security also depends on how easy and simple your setup is for you to manage.  It's a good thing that you're trying not to put or expose your coins, but when the layers of separation is too much it can actually complicate things and you might even end up forgetting things.

Personally, I make sure to have a clear system that can be easy for me to understand things and follow it regularly. Everybody setup doesn't have to be the same, your setup should depend on how much Bitcoin you're holding, how knowledgeable you are and how often make use of it.  If you're holding a huge amount of Bitcoin then adding more layers will definitely give you a good protection but things will be more harder to manage, so I think making things a little bit easy and simple will make more sense, instead of accidentally locking yourself out all in the name of security.

Locking yourself out you said haha, you shouldn’t just let everything be on your memory alone, as you are setting up those security measures for your wallet, you are expected to be documenting the important information you know you are likely to forget. If they are well documented in your diary, you can easily refer them when you want to access your wallet and you forget some informations. No matter how small our bitcoin is, we should always protect it, and there’s no amount of security that is too much for our bitcoin security. If you act nonchalantly towards your assets security because they are small now, you will also act the same way even if your assets holding increased in future.

[The Cryptovator]

keep most BTC in cold storage and only a small amount in a hot wallet for regular use.

Yes, that would be ideal for a Bitcoin investor. Holding must be cold storage or open source hardware wallet and you may keep some funds into non custodial hot wallet.

For the online side, I also keep Bitcoin-related logins and sessions separate from my normal browsing. Sometimes I use separate browser profiles or an antidetect browser for that.

How far do you guys separate everything before it starts becoming overkill?

As described above, I have been doing the same things. Whatever I have been earning, either from trading or crypto marketing, it’s been stored in a hot wallet first, and then from the hot wallet I have been moving it into a hardware wallet that I intend to hold. Remember, it’s important to secure your wallet credentials as well for all the wallets.

[ImGenius]

How far do you guys separate everything before it starts becoming overkill?

I don't know what others do, but I try to keep the wallet where I hold Bitcoin addresses on an offline device as much as possible. First, when I generate a seed with Electrum, I write it down in a good place and then enter that seed again to check whether it actually shows the same address. If it successfully shows, then from that device I only copy the address to the clipboard so that I can send Bitcoin to it. And for normal everyday transactions, I use my same device but in online which has wallets such as Electrum for Bitcoin and MetaMask for altcoins.

[Hyphen(-)]

keep most BTC in cold storage and only a small amount in a hot wallet for regular use.

For the online side, I also keep Bitcoin-related logins and sessions separate from my normal browsing. Sometimes I use separate browser profiles or an antidetect browser for that.

How far do you guys separate everything before it starts becoming overkill?

Having your most Bitcoin in your cold storage wallet is perfect, it is a very good idea to keep your Bitcoin for longer period and it will be out of internet space; that’s a good practice and good security measure you have taken to keep your Bitcoin safe.

On your other paragraph, I don’t know if you are trying to tell us that your seed phrase is saved in a device that can have access to the internet, if that’s true, then I think you should find alternative way to save your seed phrase offline, it will be batter if you can write them down on paper, or engrave your seed phrase in a metal for more security reasons because that device can have access to the internet and can be attacked by phishing attack you never expected and the scammers can have access to your seed phrase.

[tech30338]

keep most BTC in cold storage and only a small amount in a hot wallet for regular use.

For the online side, I also keep Bitcoin-related logins and sessions separate from my normal browsing. Sometimes I use separate browser profiles or an antidetect browser for that.

How far do you guys separate everything before it starts becoming overkill?

Always have something to use for buying or trading and always something that is for the future this kind of strategy will always be effective as long as no matter what happen you will not touch the bitcoin that is for the future sometimes they make two wallets then after a while, they will withdraw it, and forget what they are doing, there is no such thing as overkill if you are keeping bitcoin, you don't need to look how much it is, just continue the cycle and you will see that its worth it.