Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on January 07, 2022, 12:27:14 PM

Quote from: Wind_FURY on January 07, 2022, 10:52:41 AM

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.

It didn't sound like shilling to me, but in the video linked by ChiBitCTy in the OP when Andreas suggested hardware wallets he did mention Cold Card by name. He was commenting that the Cold Card allows one to enter his own entropy when generating a seed. Again, it didn't sound like shilling, more like commenting that a particular hardware wallet offers a fairly unique feature.

Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on Today at 08:44:27 AM

I'd be taking a blowtorch to it.

"There are very few problems in this world that can't be solved with a gallon of diesel and a match."
- "Burner" (a retired Navy Seal I used to know.)

Quote from: n0nce on Today at 02:02:53 PM

Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on Today at 08:44:27 AM

If you like metal back ups, then use them, and I accept they have some significant advantages over paper. But metal back ups are still not 100% guaranteed to be readable or even still be there when you come back to them. Two separate paper back ups is more secure than a single metal back up.

How about 2 metal backups? Cheesy

I reckon the only advantage of paper vs metal is that it's cheaper, so you can make more of them. But 2 backups should suffice for most scenarios and the biggest investment is the letter stamps which you only need to buy once. I think you can do 2 washer backups for around 5€ / $5 with a 24-pack of washers (stamp a word on each side, so 12 washers per backup for 24 word seeds), two screws and two nuts.

Steel will make good backups, but not all steel washers are the same, you still need to chose the right materials. Washers, nuts, and bolts better be stainless (which is a bit more expensive) if you want them to survive fire or flooding. Galvanized (zinc) or other coatings (tin, nickel) often found on washers will melt long before the steel does in a house fire, and could fill all your stampings making them illegible. If your backups are exposed to caustic compounds during a flood, the coatings on your washers could corrode or oxidize, again leaving you with illegible stampings. Steel isn't the panacea that some want to make it, and could lead many to a false sense of security.