With something like a private key it is nice to have it ONLY on paper imo. I use trezor for everything non-omni, but I’m happy enough with air-gapped paper wallets for my omni assets. At least I know no digital form of my private key has ever been online anywhere. It feels as secure as my trezor given I still have to store my recovery seed for that on paper anyway. There’s no way around storing a bit of paper as far as I can see - other than SAFE’s more ‘memorable’ passwords. Trezor’s big advantage is that it is really friction-less to send coins and you don’t have to mess about making new private keys and swapping bits of paper when you do. I never touch my omni assets anyway, so I don’t mind keeping them on paper for now.
OK. You can just use a hardware wallet then. Unless you’re interested in a cryptosteel? I guess this, too, would go against your preferences?
I think hard copies have a valuable role to play. They are a very practical form of ‘out of stream’ backup. Out of stream meaning that it’s kept separate from the online networked area, which could be compromised.
Yes, I guess that’s true - however I inevitably lose bits of paper . .
If you lose the recovery seed you’re really screwed with any hardware wallet too. I’m on my second trezor, the first broke after 18 months. Keep your recovery seed very safe. I can’t lose mine, I’ve gone to pretty extreme lengths to secure it
Ah . . very nice! - no, this would not go against my preferences - I would be much less likely to lose that gadget . .
Thanks!
Yes, you are probably right . .
Definitely - CryptoSteel does look interesting in that regard . .
While we’re on the subject I’d like to remind people about the importance keeping more than one copy of a backup solution in geographically separate locations!
I had my windpipe tattooed with my recovery seed. I’ve got a tiny USB inspection camera which I can use to recover my recovery seed. The recovery seed on it’s own, however, is useless. In order to get the correct derivation path to access my private keys a BIP39 passphrase is necessary. The location of this passphrase I’ll leave you to guess at!
lol
I split my private keys into parts and store them across multiple locations. Someone would need access to all the locations to steal any full seed/key and each part is stored in an equally indestructible way but with less hassle than the cryptosteel thing (laminated, in fireproof wallet and waterproof ziplock). It felt like a huge hassle, but that cryptosteel looks like it would have been even more annoying than laminating and shoving into fire-wallets and bags. I have too many keys for it to be practical for me really.
A better compromise might be to split in three parts and keep two different parts at three locations. In case one location is inaccessible, you have a backup. Good luck
I have gone even further than that, although this is one time I don’t mind a bit of ‘security through obscurity’ so I won’t give any more detail