In this case how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

[m2017]

Imagine you are living a big family house because you have no choice and you got to invest some money in Bitcoin and store them in a hardware wallet, then you have a safe beside your bed where every can pass by how will you make sure no one goes near out?

I recognize the need for secure crypto asset storage measures, but if you live in a house where you have to hide the HW device in a safe to protect your funds from relatives, then it seems to me it’s time for you to move out and stay away from such relatives.

Okay, let’s say you keep the hardware wallet in a safe, but what about the seed phrase? Do you keep that in the safe too? If so, what is the point of this HW device?

In reality, without the pin code, even your relatives wouldn't be able to access the hardware wallet's contents. They wouldn't be able to access the contents of the safe either, since they wouldn't know the password (or have the key to the lock).

A friend said he had to set up an alarm system in the locked safe so that he can be notified on phone when someone opens his safe where he kept his hardware wallet.

I must admit, this is a very useful thing. I would add this as well.

I don't know if this is a good idea but I will like people's opinion about this, if you are living in a crowdy house basically a family house how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

Essentially, you are doing the right thing by keeping the hardware wallet in a safe. You should also add a safe alarm that sends notifications to your phone, along with a camera pointed at the safe so you can see who is trying to access it. You could also make access to the room itself more difficult (e.g., by installing a lock). That leaves the question of how to store the seed phrase safely and discreetly - either within the house, on the property, or perhaps at an entirely different location.

However, don't overlook the most vulnerable point: yourself. If your relatives were to conspire to gain access to your assets, they would target you directly. If you perceive a potential threat (and possess significant assets) it might be best to simply move to a different location.

At the same time, by ramping up security measures (safe, alarm, camera, room lock), you will inevitably arouse the curiosity of your neighbors; they will become very interested in what exactly you are hiding and just how much of it there is.

[atookz]

A passphrase (BIP39 25th word) – this is the most important one, if the device is found or stolen, it cannot be used without the passphrase which is meant to be stored in your head.

When people want to and actually add a passphrase to their wallet, they must learn about it very well, master how to to that, know about risk of losing the wallet, their bitcoins if they lost their wallet passphrase as without it, they will never be able to recover their wallet.

No Bitcoin wallet recovery tools or services can help them to recover their wallet if the wallet passphrase was lost, and if it is a very strong passphrase.

Agreed. Precisely because no recovery tool or service is able to recover a lost passphrase, anyone who wants to use one must fully understand the risk involved, make a thorough test of it (not just memorizing the passphrase for a short period of time, but using it to restore it) before putting significant funds at risk. A passphrase eliminates the "forgot password?" button altogether, so the security is directly related to how responsibly you can remember a passphrase.

[Gozie51]

I don't know if this is a good idea but I will like people's opinion about this, if you are living in a crowdy house basically a family house how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

It is a No for me. In such a crowdy place, you don't know who is watching your activities surreptitiously without your knowledge. Such person may want to know what you are really hiding and if they get to know it, they may go behind your back to do what you don't expect since you won't get a clue they are the perpetrator. But the exception is except you keep your passphrase separate. So you have to take precautions, anything concerning wallet is suppose to be secret exclusively for you or someone you can trust. In a family house, you must have a "Judas" and that is the need to be careful.

[#CapsLOck]

I believe users are focusing on securing the hardware wallet, instead of securing the entire process. If the PIN and the recovery backup are secure, the person who finds the device doesn't immediately gain access to the Bitcoin. The real question in a congested home is where to store the recovery information and who may come upon it. I would also try to not make the display so apparent that everyone knows there is something inside that is valuable. If security measures minimize digital as well as physical threats, you should also have a secure way to recover the wallet in case it is lost or damaged.

[laijsica]

Imagine you are living a big family house because you have no choice and you got to invest some money in Bitcoin and store them in a hardware wallet, then you have a safe beside your bed where every can pass by how will you make sure no one goes near out?

A friend said he had to set up an alarm system in the locked safe so that he can be notified on phone when someone opens his safe where he kept his hardware wallet.

I don't know if this is a good idea but I will like people's opinion about this, if you are living in a crowdy house basically a family house how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

This is serious. Move the hardware wallet to a location where you feel safe. If you have a garden near your home, consider keeping it underground. Consider keeping it in a secure desk in a crowded house. I think a separate room would be the safest place to keep it.
If you can't find a secure location for your hardware wallet, you might consider keeping your Bitcoin holdings in a non-custodial wallet on your phone. Write down your Bitcoin wallet's security key and seed phrase on paper and keep them to a few different places. You might want to consider one of the alternative strategies for holding valuable Bitcoin.

[Nothingtodo]

Having a large family means that the number of family members is large and if there are special family members, the number of strangers from the outside environment will increase. In this case I do not consider your hardware wallet safe in any way. Where there are more people, how can you be sure that no one is following you.
If you store your hardware wallet in some place and if an outsider sees you storing it there, then there is a possibility that it will be stolen in your absence. No matter how much you install the device on your phone or the device in the hardware wallet, if you go a long distance, it is not difficult to steal it.

[Myleschetty]

how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

For someone living in a big family house, your first threat are the people around you and their curiosity, and opportunism.
 To avoid being physically attacked, never disclose to anyone that you own or have invested in Bitcoin.
It's never a good idea to use the safe next to your bed because people already know it's obvious that you'll store valuables there, and leaving your hardware wallet there will likely draw the wrong person's attention.
The most crucial thing you need to do is use a passphrase with your hardware wallet, safeguard is your wallet seeds, and the passphrase.

[hmbdofficial]

~snip

I think the alarm idea is a good one but, I won’t depend on the safe alone. Surly in a crowded family house setting, you have to assume that some could open or access it,but one thing that is the main point to note here is that even if some  gets your hardware wallet, that will still not be able to spend your bitcoins unless they have your seed phrase. Basically keeping your seed phrase somewhere completely different from the hardware wallet is a good idea. and if you also use passphrase, you should also keep that too separate from the hardware wallet.

For me in this case, the I think the goal would not be to making the safe impossible to open, making it not just enough to steal the bitcoin even after it’s opened. However, the alarm can war you when someone opens it, but it may also derive some unwanted attention towards your bitcoin holdings and that what most bitcoin holders dont like.

[Peanutswar]

Well if you are with your family in a house and they often invade your privacy of your room I guess better to store the hardware wallet to the place you are the only one knows where you hide it but again.. considered the factor not only the hardware wallet but also store your seed phrase at the same time even you have the hardware wallet but you dont have the seed phrase beside you getting hidden of it becomes useless. Well if you have a family not much care about your crypto its good because you dont get a conflict with your family about this matter. Always have your backup, do expect the unexpected.

[Tamaperdana]

Imagine you are living a big family house because you have no choice and you got to invest some money in Bitcoin and store them in a hardware wallet, then you have a safe beside your bed where every can pass by how will you make sure no one goes near out?

A friend said he had to set up an alarm system in the locked safe so that he can be notified on phone when someone opens his safe where he kept his hardware wallet.

I don't know if this is a good idea but I will like people's opinion about this, if you are living in a crowdy house basically a family house how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

Personally, I prefer to keep it in a non-custodial wallet, then write the wallet phrase on paper and store it in a place that is difficult to guess. So I wouldn't keep it in a safe, because it would definitely be very conspicuous. Besides, everyone would definitely think that there are valuables in the safe. So that's why I would keep the wallet phrase that I have in a completely unexpected place. Because I think it's safer. But if you trust your extended family, I don't think there's any harm in keeping it in a safe as well. So maybe setting an alarm or something could be a good option too. But if I were in your position, I would prefer to keep the wallet phrase in an unexpected place. But yes, this is just a suggestion,, so the choice is still yours. And the point is, don't be too afraid, because it's your own family.

[Hatchy]

I don't know if this is a good idea but I will like people's opinion about this, if you are living in a crowdy house basically a family house how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

The decision has to be yours. Most of us probably grew up in homes with many family members, so we know what such environments can be like. But if you live in a place where everyone's privacy is respected, then finding a safe place to keep your seed phrase or hardware wallet shouldn't be a big issue. You just need to make sure people don't get any hint that you own a crypto wallet. On top of that, you should add an extra layer of security to your wallet. As many people have mentioned, you can add a passphrase to your seed phrase. That way, even if someone finds your seed phrase one day, they still wont be able to access your funds without the passphrase.

[iBaba]

Imagine you are living a big family house because you have no choice and you got to invest some money in Bitcoin and store them in a hardware wallet, then you have a safe beside your bed where every can pass by how will you make sure no one goes near out?

A friend said he had to set up an alarm system in the locked safe so that he can be notified on phone when someone opens his safe where he kept his hardware wallet.

I don't know if this is a good idea but I will like people's opinion about this, if you are living in a crowdy house basically a family house how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

The idea of alarm is not bad if the safe is somewhere other people can easily see it, but I don’t think it’s fully okay to rely on only alarm, you  should make sure nobody even knows that you have bitcoin or where you keep hardware wallet.

So personally I will just avoid keeping hardware wallet and seed phrase in the same place. The hardware wallet will not even be useful for someone that cannot unlock it, while seed phrase is what really needs to be protected very well and I would also make the safe looks like something that is not too valuable. I will advise keeping it in a more hidden place instead of your bed side, sometimes being discreet is better security than you adding more alarms

[ImGenius]

Personally, I prefer to keep it in a non-custodial wallet, then write the wallet phrase on paper and store it in a place that is difficult to guess.

This is not about custodial or non-custodial since the OP is talking about a hardware wallet, it is a non-custodial wallet. Yes you're right that wallet's seed phrase must definitely be stored somewhere that no one can guess. You also have to keep in mind that it should not be stored somewhere where the seed phrase could be burned in a fire since you are storing it on paper.

Again most important thing is seed phrase if you have this safe, it will be possible to recover the funds even if the hardware wallet is lost.

[Stalker22]

-snip-

COLD STORAGE.
Not sure i really need to explain that.

Unattended hardware is vulnerable hardware.  Anyone with physical access can steal or clone the drive, extract the data, or infect it with malware via USB or install hardware keylogger.  Offline does not mean untouchable.  Real cold storage requires physical security as well as air-gapped isolation.

[PX-Z]

Separate your backup for several pieces, maybe 2. first half on paper and the other half is saved online.

And for the hardware wallet, i'd better to keep it always with me if that's the case in that house. Or since it has pin and only several attempt at least 3 to open it and will be factory reset itself if all failed..

[Silverstonez]

What that is most important is to protect your seed phrase.

I want to know the reason why you said the most important thing is to protect is the seed phrase? I thought both the hardware wallet and the seed phrase are imported and both deserve to be protected by all means. I’m curious to know why you said so, because I might be missing something very interesting.

[Charles-Tim]

I want to know the reason why you said the most important thing is to protect is the seed phrase? I thought both the hardware wallet and the seed phrase are imported and both deserve to be protected by all means. I’m curious to know why you said so, because I might be missing something very interesting.

Did you read everything that I posted? This is my full post:

What that is most important is to protect your seed phrase. It will be good if you also use passphrase with it and store it in different locations from your seed phrase.

You can have some coins but of little amount on the wallet without seed phrase.

Be careful while using your hardware wallet because you may not know that someone is trying means to know your pin.

Although, I prefer wallet on an airgapped device instead, for privacy.

What that is most important about the hardware wallet itself is to protect the hardware wallet pin that he is using to access it and which I also mentioned on my post.

[MisFoxie]

I don't know if this is a good idea but I will like people's opinion about this, if you are living in a crowdy house basically a family house how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

In my opinion, keeping it in a bank vault would be the best option. Otherwise, you can generate a seed phrase with a hardware wallet, write it down, and then verify it again by looking at what you wrote to make sure the address is correct.

Then remove the wallet from the hardware wallet and keep the seed phrase somewhere that no one can access.

Whenever you need to make a transaction, you can access the hardware wallet using the seed phrase and send from there.

[Zaguru12]

Otherwise, you can generate a seed phrase with a hardware wallet, write it down, and then verify it again by looking at what you wrote to make sure the address is correct.

Then remove the wallet from the hardware wallet and keep the seed phrase somewhere that no one can access.

Whenever you need to make a transaction, you can access the hardware wallet using the seed phrase and send from there.

I think you’re going in circles here. The hardware wallet you asked OP to create a new wallet on where should the OP back up his seed phrase in and to make it safe away from other of people in the house.

Personally I think most of the advices have been given out already and my best advice is to keep the talk of having bitcoin away from most members of the house most especially those you don’t think you trust that much.

Then as for the seed phrase back up, a person in this situation most certainly extend the seed phrase with a strong passphrase and all three (hardware wallet, seed phrase and passphrase) must all be Kept safe in different locations.

Even if it’s family house then you must have at least a safe place or trusted person like a parent to help hide one of this for you

[Chinesebaby]

Imagine you are living a big family house because you have no choice and you got to invest some money in Bitcoin and store them in a hardware wallet, then you have a safe beside your bed where every can pass by how will you make sure no one goes near out?

A friend said he had to set up an alarm system in the locked safe so that he can be notified on phone when someone opens his safe where he kept his hardware wallet.

I don't know if this is a good idea but I will like people's opinion about this, if you are living in a crowdy house basically a family house how do you keep your Bitcoin wallet safe?

In a situation like this whereby an individual happens to find his or herself in a family house that is crowded with lots of people, keeping your hardware wallet beside your bed is the worst mistake you can make, since the possibility of any member of the family having access to it is very high, unlike if that same hardware Bitcoin wallet was been kept in your personal save or bag where only you have access to it.  Because for that fact that a house is crowded doesn't mean such individual will not have a place of privacy in that house, and that place of privacy is always the best place where you can keep your valuable assets such as your Bitcoin wallet hardware.  And secondly, avoiding to tell people that you own bitcoin is another way to staying safe.