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boston wine 2y ago

Okay #plebchain I need some ideas

I just learned recently that a friend of mine has a not-insignificant amount of Bitcoin on Coinbase, but we haven’t had time to have the self custody talk (other than a brief exchange of texts this week).

I want him to get those sats somewhere safer. Perhaps in less time than it would take for a beginner-friendly hardware wallet to arrive. I also won’t be available to sit down with him and walk him through setup for at least a couple of weeks.

Options:

- Desktop wallet. Hot, so some risk, and still requires a beginner to dive in and take on a very new responsibility of key management, without time to do it thoughtfully

- Transfer to a different custody service. Obvious counterparty risk, but with customer support and onboarding. And if it’s someone like Casa or Unchained, then there’s the added bonus of early exposure to multi-sig

- Other ideas?

You never know when a centralized exchange will implode and I’d like to spare him from the experience either way…

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Discussion

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The Satokespeare 2y ago

Exodus is okay as a single key-pair wallet for a beginner. Multi sig wallets are awesome for max security

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boston wine 2y ago

Not sure if he also owns crypto but will strongly encouraging trading it all into Bitcoin before taking further action lol

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paulo 2y ago

Do you have an extra hardware wallet? If so, you could custody it for him then transfer ownership. Not ideal but…

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boston wine 2y ago

I was thinking about that. Send him the receive address and speak on the phone to verify it’s accurate. Not a bad idea. Once I move my first-ever stack off that ledger and onto the coldcard I haven’t unboxed yet… I’ll have an extra wallet. Lol

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paulo 2y ago

👍

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Rich Nost 2y ago

If you have a spare laptop, generate a wallet with Core or Electrum offline, and simply withdraw to it. You can export the xpub, and witness the transaction confirm from a watch-only wallet based on that xpub.

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boston wine 2y ago

Ooh. Interesting. I do have a spare laptop. If I download electrum and then disconnect from internet, it will still produce addresses… and remain offline…. I like that idea

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Rich Nost 2y ago

It is a poor-man's hardware wallet. If you have your choice of wallet software, I recommend Sparrow or Nunchuck. You can generate a bip39 compliant seed phrase and later restore the wallet on dedicated hardware, like a ColdCard, BitBox or Jade. Once ypuve confirmed the wallet has been properly restored to the hardware wallet, you can then just wipe the laptop

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Rich Nost 2y ago

Or just slam the seed phrase into steel, test the restore from the steel seed phrase, wipe the hardware, and keep it super super cold with no hardware wallet.

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Rich Nost 2y ago

Ypu can make a cheap steel seed phrase storage option with steel washers, a letter stamp kit, and a hammer. All these things can be acquired at a hardware store like Do It Best or Harbor Freight

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Rich Nost 2y ago

Get a bolt ans a wingnut to keep the washers together.

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𝖋𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖉𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖗 (¯`◕‿◕´¯) 2y ago

Use a HW wallet

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Rich Nost 2y ago

It all depends on budget, time, technical aptitude and appetite for risk

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𝖋𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖉𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖗 (¯`◕‿◕´¯) 2y ago

You don’t have a choice. You internet connected laptop is just another hot wallet. Infected with Any 0 day malware and all your funds is gone. Be careful

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boston wine 2y ago

Low likelihood but always possible

Probably lower risk of this than of Coinbase imploding though

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Rich Nost 2y ago

That is why you keep it offline before you generate the wallet and while it is holding keys. Rip out the network module, if you must.

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𝖋𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖉𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖗 (¯`◕‿◕´¯) 2y ago

It is hard For someone who has never done self custody

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boston wine 2y ago

Yeah, consider this individual as much of a beginner as someone who has bought a few ETFs on Schwab.com or something

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Rich Nost 2y ago

Wiping the stored WiFi settings is not hard.

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boston wine 2y ago

Ultimately yes 100%

But I’m looking for a near-immediate solution that doesn’t require ordering something online or having a more experienced user help walk through it (as we won’t be able to connect in person for a couple of weeks)

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𝖋𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖉𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖗 (¯`◕‿◕´¯) 2y ago

Send it to someone he can trust that has a cold wallet is the next safest bet. It is terrifying for Someone who doesn’t have any experience with self custody to handle a big stack of sats.

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boston wine 2y ago

I’ve thought about offering him an address on my hww until he gets his own set up

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𝖋𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖉𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖗 (¯`◕‿◕´¯) 2y ago

That’s the easiest way. Send him your fiat equivalent to hold just in case you rugged him. 😁

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boston wine 2y ago

In other words, a big fat kyc-free stack for meeeee

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𝖋𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖉𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖗 (¯`◕‿◕´¯) 2y ago

Well if it is from the exchange it is not KYC free 😆

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boston wine 2y ago

As soon as it’s mine it is 🤙 just easier to track down if government goonies come calling

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Pextar 2y ago

BlueWallet maybe?

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boston wine 2y ago

He could handle the tech easily enough. Don’t love the hot wallet but for a short time it might be ok.

Again private key management with minimal guidance but not that hard

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Pextar 2y ago

Yeah it’s tricky🤔

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Derek Ross 2y ago

Blue wallet is easy, but managing keys is not. I'd recommend Muun as a noob friendly easy temporary solution.

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Pextar 2y ago

Muun is a good idea!

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boston wine 2y ago

They do also provide more “backup” support than your standard wallet provider. That is a good idea

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Derek Ross 2y ago

An old Android phone with Muun is a cheap and easy solution if they have an extra old phone somewhere.

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matata 2y ago

👉Bluewallet mobile app👈

later you can help him w desktop electrum or sparrow on spare offline laptop.. he needs to verify that software through pgp and connect to own node/server (or any trusted friends' node/electrs server) if he wants to do it right anyways..

so, in this case, if it's a significant amount then Bluewallet is not any worse of an option, yet quicker and easier to follow without your help for now

imo

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boston wine 2y ago

If he goes mobile wallet I’m between Muun and blue.

Blue is very standard intro to Bitcoin keys. Muun has backup support. Both great for short term although more funds than I’m really comfortable with

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matata 2y ago

what's backup support?

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boston wine 2y ago

They have a whole thing where they can help you recover the wallet, I forget exactly how it works though and I never did the cloud backup