Re: Andreas Antonopoulos says to stop using paper wallets, do you agree?
Everything is done OFFLINE, so it would be impossible for an attacker to gain access to your private keys generated.
The issue here is that having a completely air-gapped device is not necessarily a straightforward thing to achieve. There is a degree of technical knowledge required and should really require the physical removal of hardware. Many people don't do this though, and simply turn off their WiFi or Bluetooth, which isn't really airgapped but many people think it is. You should format the device and install a brand new clean and verified open source OS, but again, many people just use Windows and some don't even format it at all. There is a risk that you accidentally re-enable some piece of connectivity in the future and completely ruin your airgap.
Technical knowledge, or having none of it is not the debate is all about. It was the feasibility, and security of the method of digital back ups of keys generated from air-gapped computer hardware.
Plus it can be debated that HODLers, newbies or not, of self-sovereign money SHOULD learn many of the technical methods to store their wealth securely.
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Meanwhile, a piece of paper is a piece of paper. There is no middle ground and no room to compromise. It is always offline.
My USB back ups are always offline too.
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Tin-foil hats on. Andreas Antonopoulos is secretly being sponsored by a hardware wallet manufacturer to go around the world, do his talks about Bitcoin, and to tell newbies that “paper wallets bad, buy hardware wallets good”.
Genuine question: Has he ever recommended a specific brand of hardware wallet? I'm not aware that he has, and if not, then it would be an incredibly ineffective campaign for any specific hardware wallet manufacturer to promote users buying any hardware wallet.
I respect him, but tin-foil hats on, he will.
