1) true. Its cold staking based on the bitcoin.core architecture. It is real minting pos and not forging pos based on nxt.core.

2) true. You need to use a so called merchantnode to make the offline staking for you. This node does not hold any coins. You can set up your own merchant node (guides are already released) or you ask a 3rd partymerchant and pay a little commission therefor.