this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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Privacy

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Best place to keep cripto (lemm.ee)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by rambos@lemm.ee to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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I have some Bitcoin and Ethereum on Coinbase since 2018. Coinbase never failed me, but they ask for more and more personal details. Last requests made me look for alternatives. I read wasabi is one of the best privacy focused wallets, but what do you use? Im not trying to hide anything from goverment or anything like that, I just want safe place for coins that doesnt feel like someone is tracking every single step I make

Edit: made sentence more clear

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[–] corvus@lemmy.ml 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The coins are on the blockchain, what you save in a wallet are the keys to access them.

Contrary to the common believe you don't need a hardware wallet to keep your keys safe, what you really need is a air gapped or cold storage and you can achieve this in many ways. I found that one of the best ways to do it is grabbing an old phone and following this guide

https://medium.com/@fbonomi/a-bitcoin-cold-wallet-based-on-qr-codes-e8c130b3181f

Tldr: install the wallet and never connect the phone to the internet again and use QR codes to sign transactions using the camera. Super practical, cheap, truly air gapped and doesn't attract attention like a hardware wallet. Additionally I would disable the wallet app when you don't use it, so the wallet will not be visible in case someone else grabs the phone (you can do this by installing the app as a system app using adb). And don't forget to save the seeds of the wallet in safe place and always use fully FOSS wallets like electrum.

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Thanks. This looks perfect and I have an old phone that I could use for that. But im bit worried if I dont use wallet for 5 years and then realize the old phone is not working anymore. I can still recover with seeds (12 word backup) right? I guess Im asking the question that has the answer already, but want to be sure

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[–] Turbo@lemmy.ml 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What is wrong with a paper wallet? An offline "cold storage" approach

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

Ive heard about paper wallet, but honestly I cant keep my papers safe enough to trust that approach.

[–] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A hardware wallet is a great option, so is cold storage which you can do with a cheap $50 laptop. Most important is keeping backups. Think about how you will access your coins when your laptop or hardware wallet dies. Think about ways to prevent loss due to natural disaster. Multi-sig and shamirs secret sharing scheme are two ways to store coins in such a way that you won't lose them if your house burns down without having to trust a single party to custody them.

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is it enough to keep 12 words safe? Is there any other way to backup? Not sure what you meant with multi-sig and shamirs

[–] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes, if you have your 12-word seed, that's all you need.

Note: If you have a self-custody Bitcoin lightning wallet, you also need to backup your wallet "state". You also need to let your wallet access the internet every once and a while to monitor channel states to prevent theft of funds by somebody closing a channel and broadcasting an old state. Lightning is not designed for long-term storage, so don't use it for that purpose. Every wallet handles backup differently. Phoenix makes this automatic, it's awesome. Or you can just consider your lightning wallet your everyday spending money, not keep big amounts in it, not worry about backing it up. That's what I do. I figure the $25 I have on my phone is the least of my concerns if my house burns down.

Multi-sig is a type of wallet where in order to spend money from it, multiple other wallets need to sign off on the transaction. These wallets can be your friends/family, your bank, or other trusted custodian. You can set a threshold: 2 of 3 wallets, all wallets (bad idea! You lose all your funds if you lose a single wallet). It's a great way to custody funds long-term safely while eliminating single points of failure.

Shamir's secret sharing scheme can split your seed phrase into multiple parts. You can give those parts to other people, the key can't be re-assembled without the requisite number of parts (threshold) which is set by you. If somebody's part gets lost or stolen, no problem, nobody can do anything unless they have enough parts.

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

Thank you a lot for detailed answer

[–] chevy9294@monero.town 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

From worst to best places to store your crypto:

  1. Online KYC exchange
  2. Online non KYC exchange
  3. Offline on your computer/phone
  4. Offline on a USB key/SD card
  5. Offline on a cold storage like Ledger or Trezor
[–] rambos@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What non KYC exchange exist today do you know? I guess I could use one in the future when I decide to exchange from crypto to crypto or from crypto to $

[–] chevy9294@monero.town 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I use MEXC and CoinEx. They have KYC, but it's optional.

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

Thank you <3

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

Ok I see Coinbase is 1, but it used to be 2 AFAIK. Ill probably use my old phone, will try it these days.

Thank you for the list, its much more clear now

[–] zzzzz 3 points 9 months ago

Trezor is a solid choice. https://trezor.io

[–] pythia@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

how high are the fees on coinbase these days?

[–] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

If you want low fees for buying and selling BTC, strike is awesome, supports more countries, and supports Bitcoin lighting which makes tx fees crazy low for sending money to other people or your other wallets. Coinbase doesn't, so getting BTC off coinbase is expensive as you have to pay main chain fees. Those can be $1-$12 depending on the day.

BISQ is also great, self-custody, and decentralized for making trades, but more complex. Look into it if you trade regularly.

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Quite low, but dont know exactly. I transfered from coinbase to revolut and then to my bank account and it cost me ~15€ for 2k€ transaction

[–] pythia@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 months ago

Thanks for answering. I had 30% 2 months ago.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 months ago

Away from any bloodtos, don't want any beef.