Quote from: illinest on December 07, 2017, 11:36:23 PM

Quote from: blickbox on December 07, 2017, 05:47:39 PM

Everybody talks about hardware wallets, but I can't understand what it solves. In my case (and probably for most people), you would want one wallet for "daily" use, and a wallet for long term storage (savings account).

Hardware wallets can actually function as both. Before the advent of hardware wallets, it made sense to keep a "hot wallet" and a "cold wallet" as you suggest for security purposes. Online PCs/servers can fall prey to malware and attacks in general, and your keys can be stolen. Cold storage and hardware wallets address this.

I haven't gotten one yet personally, so I still use a hot/cold system. I have a small spending wallet on my online PC for convenience and a cold wallet on an air-gapped PC that doesn't connect to the internet. When I need to move coins from cold storage, I create a transaction from a watch-only wallet and sign it from the air-gapped PC.

Quote from: blickbox on December 07, 2017, 05:47:39 PM

But what about the "savings account"? It doesn't make much sense for me to buy a hardware wallet? What problem does it solve? As far as I understand I would still need to save the passphrases on a paper anyway (in case of hardware failure), so why can't I just print the private key instead?

Hardware wallets are great for UX. They're easy for newbies. Sweeping paper wallets requires setting up cold storage again; hardware wallets can simply be used like a normal wallet.

I also prefer HD seeds to printed private keys because seeds are less obvious to third parties (thieves). You can store a seed in ways that obscure the order of the words (and the existence of the seed itself). They can also theoretically function as a brain wallet.

Best answer on here, a very good quick guide. I'd still champion paper wallets for long term cold storage because they are simple, cheap and foolproof. You never have to worry about upgrading them, you never have to check if either software or hardware still works / hasn't been compromised. When it comes to spending from them, you'd research the latest secure method. This is changing all the time.

I agree that HD seeds are easier to use & secure than private keys. But you can certainly store also store a private key in a way that it obscures its existence. You'd just have to be a bit more clever about it. Here's the Bitcoin Wiki's example private key (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key#An_example_private_key): E9873D79C6D87DC0FB6A5778633389 . I can think of many ways you'd deal with that securely without compromising.