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#Bitcoin key security levels:

Level 0: Not your keys.

Level 1: Hot wallet (keys on online device).

Level 2: Single-sig cold wallet (keys on eternally quarantined hardware)

Level 3: Single-sig cold wallet w/ passphrase

Level 4: Multisig

Level 5: Multi-vendor multisig

Level 6: Multi-vendor multisig w/ passphrases

Level 7: Multi-vendor multisig w/ passphrases, geographically distributed

Each level increases your security against particular vulnerabilities, but complicates your setup. Find the highest level you can confidently operate.
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ᴄʏʙᴇʀɢᴜʏ 👽 2y ago

Paper wallet? HD wallet? Which level they fit?

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jimbocoin 🃏 2y ago

All of these are assumed to be hierarchical-deterministic (HD) wallets.

Depends on what you mean by paper wallet. If you just mean that the seed words are written in paper, then all of the above are basically that.

If you mean a printed private key / address QR code pair, this is worse than single-sig hardware. Level 0.5 basically. To print the paper wallet, you expose yourself to vulnerabilities in the printer firmware (which is notorious for being vulnerable).

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ᴄʏʙᴇʀɢᴜʏ 👽 2y ago

Yes, paper wallet was an "escape" way before the hard fork between BTC and BCH (and others...). This contained the private key (as I remember HD wallets haven't exist those days). I think this is the zero level. But if you close this paper to a safe it could be Level 0.5 😁

Thanks for the reply!