Quote from: Raj Sri on January 14, 2022, 07:42:10 PM

HI there, my journey to find and buy a hardware wallet which works for me.At the moment I am located in the EU (Malta) which brings me to the issue of shipping cost and customs.Whilst I was able to find a reasonable price to shipping the customs remain. At this point I am thinking about buying a ColdCard,Power-Only USB Cable, Power-Only USB Cable. The price comes to a little bellow 250 $ without customs which vary , so I am not even sure about the end price. However , I was thinking through the whole process and I still am not sure if I really need to spend that much on a hyped-up calculator. The setup I have in mind is using software like Sparrow , Electrum or Specter for the air gap transaction signing.The idea is to keep the funds private key as cold as possible but also usable on monthly bases if needed. Now I would love to hear suggestions and recommendations from a smart community like one here.

Hardware wallet is NOT mandatory device and it's not perfect by any means, but it has a good balance between security and simple easy usability.
That doesn't mean that every hardware wallet is made equal, and they all have their positive and negative sides compared to airgapped computer with opensource wallets.
If customs is what you are concerned, than I am sure you can find some official local resellers that sell them in Malta, and I would always choose open source device.
One option you have is to make your own signing device with Raspberry Pi Zero, and use it only for Bitcoin.

I made a list of most open source hardware wallets and signing devices, so you can check some of them below:

Open Source Hardware wallets:

DIY Open Source Hardware wallets (and signing devices) (for advanced users):

You want to keep your privacy and avoid leaks when you purchase hardware wallets online, so you better check out my guide How to buy a Hardware Wallet the right way:

Quote from: dkbit98 on November 10, 2020, 01:16:27 PM

- Buy hardware wallet only from official website or reseller store.
- Use Tor or VPN when registering to website and install ad blocking extension like uBlock.
- Use alternative or disposable e-mail address and new random password for registration.
- Use alternative prepaid phone number and not your real phone number for registration.
- Use crypto for payment, not connected with your real ID, or pay with cash in your local authorized reseller.
- Use alternative or fake name for registration.
- Use PO boxes or alternative address for delivery.
- Do your own research

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