Recently, FTX suffered a thunderstorm, and more than 1 million encrypted users suffered a tragic loss. It is said that there are more users in Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore. Affected by this incident, the encrypted assets of many exchanges are being quickly withdrawn by institutions and retail investors. It is estimated that several exchanges will go bankrupt in this bear market.
Today, I will focus on how normal people make their own cold wallets. When it comes to cold wallets, many people feel psychological fear, thinking that it is very complicated and difficult to master, or that cold wallets are those hardware wallets sold by merchants in the market.
actually not.
Let’s talk about the hardware wallets sold on the market first. Although Kong Ge has been using hardware wallets for more than 3 years, he has not lost any coins so far. France’s Legder and Li Qiyuan’s ballet wallets are both in use. However, there is a problem with hardware wallets. No matter which technical path he adopts, once we put too large assets in it, we will ask ourselves a question:
There will never be an answer to this question. Therefore, hardware wallets can only store part of them in a scattered manner. First, you must choose an old brand that you can trust, and second, you cannot store all of them.
Today I will talk about how to make your own Bitcoin cold wallet and Ethereum cold wallet.
Make a bitcoin cold wallet at zero cost In fact, saving Bitcoin is essentially saving the private key address of Bitcoin. After saving the private key address, there is also saving Bitcoin.
How to make it so that only you know your private key address in the whole world? In fact, just follow the steps below, and there is no need to buy an external hardware wallet.
Use a new computer or a computer that has reinstalled the system, or a computer that you can ensure that there is no poisoning and Trojan horses. If you want to be safer, it is best to use an Apple computer. If you just want to learn the production process, you don't have to pay attention to it, just any computer will do.
Open the open source website: bitaddress.org. After the web page is loaded, disconnect from the network, and must disconnect from the network .
Randomly slide the mouse until the page prompts that the randomness collection progress is 100%. On the "SingleWallet" page, you can see the generated private key and the corresponding address. The left side is the bitcoin address, and the right side is the bitcoin private key.
Copy the Bitcoin private key by hand on the two notebooks with a black-core fountain pen, and repeatedly confirm that it is correct. If conditions permit, two safes can be placed separately and kept in different places.
Copy the Bitcoin address, and the QR code can also be saved. This address is your receiving address.
Close the browser, clear the cache , or even reinstall the computer system directly. Make sure that the private key generated offline is only known to you.
Next, you can transfer to your own receiving address: 0.000001 Btc, and you don’t need to use the private key to check whether the bitcoin has arrived. Bitcoin's ledger, or blockchain, is completely public. Use any Bitcoin block browser to query, as follows:
https://blockchair.com/zh/bitcoin
Use any Bitcoin block browser, enter the receiving address, and you can view all the transfer history of the address, as well as the current balance and other information. Remember: Bitcoin's ledger (aka blockchain) is completely public.
How to transfer out? If you have been hoarding coins for several years and want to take a profit in the bull market, or for other reasons, you want to transfer the bitcoins in the address to others, or mention the exchange to realize cash, then you need to use bitcoin wallet software. Download the software wallet, import the private key, and initiate the transfer. Note that since the cold wallet has not been used for several years, when it is moved, the safest and most recognized wallet software must be selected to operate the transfer.
We could choose to follow Satoshi Nakamoto's suggestion of only using each bitcoin address once. The so-called one-time use does not mean that you cannot collect coins multiple times, but that you do not need to transfer money multiple times. An address, either does not move, or withdraws all cash.
If you sell half and keep half, you can withdraw half to the exchange and transfer half to another new cold wallet address.
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet?step=5&platform=windows
Some people say that if the private key address is wrongly copied, then my coins for several years will not be in vain?
If you are not at ease, you can download the Bitcoin wallet, either the mobile version or the computer version, disconnect the network, and import the private key. If the import is successful and the assets are the same as what you transferred in, it means that the private key is saved correctly.
Delete the software, restore the factory settings of the phone, or reinstall the system on the computer.
Use an old mobile phone, restore factory settings, or use a new mobile phone directly. If you want to be safer, it is best to use an Apple mobile phone.
Download a mainstream software Ethereum wallet, such as Little Fox or Imtoken.
The mobile phone is disconnected from the network, turns off Bluetooth, wifi, etc., so that the mobile phone is completely disconnected from the network and offline.
Back up the secret recovery phase and private key, and remember the wallet password. You can try to use the secret recovery phase and private key to import the wallet to make sure the transcription is correct.
Do not take screenshots or copy the mnemonic phrase and private key. They must be copied into a notebook by hand. You can try to import the secret recovery phase and private key into the wallet to ensure that the transcription is correct.
Save the receiving address and the receiving QR code. In the future, this address can only be entered but not transferred.
When the bull market needs to be realized, transfer money online; if you are worried that the software wallet you downloaded before will do evil, save your private key in the app, and steal coins after connecting to the Internet, there is also a solution; when you are ready to realize the bull market, download the wallet you think is now The most secure software wallet, import the secret recovery phase, and then convert the currency to the exchange for cash.
The above two methods are very low-cost methods for normal people to make cold wallets. Everyone can do it, and it is not difficult. In the current bear market, it is just time to practice and learn. In the bear market, you can deposit coins with peace of mind, and when the bull market is fomo, you can sell them for cash.
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Twitter: @Seanchong98