jakiro
Author: Yue Xiaoyu; Source: @yuxiaoyu111
In 2022, in the first month of entering the currency circle, I bought a hardware wallet.
Although I didn’t have much money to put in the currency circle at that time, before I entered the currency circle, I read a lot of books on blockchain and established my own basic knowledge system.
therefore,From the first day, I deeply realized that the other side of the “decentralization” and “self-custodial” of the currency circle is security issues..
More importantly, IFrom the beginning, I believed that I would deepen my career in this industry and would stock up on Bitcoin for a long time. So after I really entered the currency circle and started working, I bought a hardware wallet and have been investing in Bitcoin regularly..
The first hardware wallet I bought was Ledger, and I bought it from the official website of Ledger and then mailed it directly to the country from my French headquarters.
Because when I was studying hardware wallets, I found that there were many brands of hardware wallets on the market and I really didn’t know which one to choose. So in the end, for the sake of insurance, I chose Ledger, which was the largest and most well-known in the world at that time.
Now three years have passed, and I have been deeply engaged in the wallet track, made my own wallet, and I have also used many brands of hardware wallets in the middle. I have some experiences in using wallets. Here I will share with you:
1. Should I use a hardware wallet?
It must be, even if your capital is small, it is worth buying a hardware wallet.
Many people will say that for many novices, it is safer to put them in an exchange account.
But the trend of our industry is to move from off-chain to up-chain, and there are too many opportunities on-chain:
From the previous Meme coin boom to the current on-chain contract trading boom, every cycle of innovation is always on the chain, and every round of wealth password is also on the chain.
If you only know how to trade coins on exchanges, it will become the last stick to provide exit liquidity for others.
soThe longer you are in this industry, the more frequent the operations on the chain will be. Then using hardware wallets from the beginning will reduce many detours in the future..
2. How should hardware wallet be used?
The security risks on the chain are mainly divided into two categories: signature authorization risks and private key leakage risks.
The former refers to the fact that after a user signs a malicious signature or authorization, the assets in his wallet may be transferred away.
The latter means that many users actually do not have sufficient security awareness and do not keep their private keys (or mnemonics), which leads to leaking the private keys to others and thus the wallet is stolen.
When you walk by the river often, you can’t help your shoes. We often hear news. Even many industry bigwigs will suffer from wallet stolen.
What should we do at this time?
In addition to carefully signing and checking risky authorization, it is actually the most important thing to do a good job of asset isolation. You can use the three-layer wallet strategy of cold and warmth to divide your wallet into three categories.:
(1) Hot wallet: wallets that are often used for interaction, do not store a large amount of assets, generally just put assets that meet Gas needs.
This wallet can be used to play new projects frequently.Even if you are really fished, it will cause some losses, at least it will not hurt your muscles or bones.
(2) Warm wallet: In fact, it is an isolated hot wallet. Assets with relatively few interaction frequency can be placed in warm wallets.
This wallet is suitable for placing liquid pledged assets, because many projects are now pledged projects. It will be dangerous if these assets are placed in hot wallets for a long time, so a hot wallet can be isolated as a warm wallet.
The assets of this wallet can also be used at any time, but the frequency of interaction is much lower than that of hot wallets, and the risk is much lower.
(3) Cold wallet: It is best to store large assets in hardware wallets coldly, and it is best not to interact at all.
So we can see that hardware wallets need to be used with various types of wallets. After the asset is isolated, the risks will be isolated and the security of assets can be fully guaranteed.
3. How to choose a hardware wallet?
After years of actual user experience, I still recommend using hardware wallets of at least two brands at the same time.
Here is a horizontal comparison of the most well-known wallet brands on the market:
1. OneKey: Founded in 2019, it has invested in Binance&Coinbase and other investments, with a Chinese team, and has a very high recognition in the Chinese region.
The founder is Yi Shi and is also a very well-known KOL. I have always followed his blog. From the lines, you can see his integrity, frankness and humor.
2. KeyStone: formerly known as Cobo hardware wallet, it was launched in 2018 and later developed in the US market. It was a MetaMask partner and was the first to launch large-screen hardware devices.
The founder is Liu Lixin. I have heard of his interviews before. It can be said that he is very professional, knowing hardware, knowing going overseas, and knowing blockchain.
3. Ledger: Founded in 2014, it is a French brand, the world’s largest sales volume and the leader in hardware wallets.
My first hardware wallet was Ledger, but I have to say that the French’s product iteration speed is really not good, the product updates are slow, and some services that are not so decentralized, which has been criticized by the community.
4. Trezor: Founded in 2013, produced by Czech SatoshiLabs, this is the real first hardware wallet, focusing on open source.
After horizontal comparison, my most recommended hardware wallets are Ledger and OneKey.
Ledger is indeed not easy to use, but after all, it was founded early and has undergone a long period of verification, so the trust is still good.
OneKey can be said to be the light of domestic products. The Chinese team’s engineering capabilities and product application capabilities are really strong. In just a few years, the product experience is far beyond other products.
Moreover, OneKey is very in line with the usage habits of Chinese people, and can keep up with the development speed of the industry, and the popular ecosystem supports it quickly.
Onekey also has a very big advantage in terms of security chip + fully open source. You should know that Ledger’s core firmware is closed source, while Trezor does not have security chips. Therefore, OneKey is still ahead of the hardware security level.
4. Let’s summarize
If you want to live long enough in this industry, or be a true long-termist, a hardware wallet is essential.
Hardware wallets can be used with other types of wallets. The strategy I recommend is:Cold, warm and hot multi-layer wallet system to ensure asset isolation.
Regarding the recommended brands of hardware wallets, I suggest that you can use two hardware wallets together, and the one that is most popular is OneKey.
