Quote from: m2017 on Today at 04:36:39 PM

Quote from: Edwardard on Today at 06:28:34 AM

Quote from: Ghepetto on Today at 04:20:34 AM

Strange question but but here goes.

Its not a strange question, but yeah it looks weird when such questions come from a sr. member.

Especially when the account was created in 2013.

Quote from: Edwardard on Today at 06:28:34 AM

Quote from: Ghepetto on Today at 04:20:34 AM

Will I still be able to access all my crypto? If so how?

Any hardware wallet company doesnt have access to your coins, in any case if you are not able to spend from that hardware wallet itself (for any reason), you can import your seed in any other compatible wallet and spend your crypto from there. For e.g. if you got dogecoin and 14 other cryptos, and you want to send doge, just import the seed it in any self custodial dogecoin wallet and you're done. Do the same for rest of the crypto coins, i.e., import the same seed in their respective compatible wallets.

Simple trick: Buy another hardware wallet and restore all your coins easily (with the seedphrase ofc)

Even if all hardware wallet in the world are destroyed for one reason or another, you can always enter a seed-phrase in electrum, for example. Fortunately, this wallet has no physical execution and can be installed on any computer.

I'd be more worried that your fifteen random cryptos you store on hardware wallet didn't turn out to be shitcoins (this is much more common.) and become nothing than expecting HW company is gone forever.

Shitcoins will be shitcoins, I agree. However trading shitcoins based off hype cycles and pumps can be very very lucrative if you ignore the fiat value (without using fiat or stablecoins to purchase the shitcoins) and just stay focused on increasing your Bitcoin holdings. But I wouldn't expect and account that was created November 09, 2017, 07:06:34 PM to understand that. Also, yes I also agree it is much more likely for a shitcoin to go DNS vs a HW company failing in some fashion.

Quote from: Pmalek on Today at 01:19:44 PM

Quote from: Ghepetto on Today at 10:22:48 AM

My question was aimed at the "not able to spend from that hardware wallet itself" as I heard about an instance where one alt was DNS for a few days from a known issue, with the software, for the hardware wallet which was fixed later by the company. So this is more of a case where none of the hardware wallets from that company would work due to a software issue.

Oh, I see. Maybe I can even guess which altcoin you are talking about but it's not important for this discussion.

In case hardware wallet #1 has an issue with a particular coin, how do you know that wallets #2 and #3 don't have the same problems? If the coin changed something on a protocol level, an update or a fix needs to be released by the wallets that support that coin to continue interacting with it in an uninterrupted manner. Some wallets could fix the code in a day, others might need a bit more time. Patience is a virtue in that case. Maybe there is a temporary workaround that you can use until your client fixes its main software. Like you said yourself, they fixed it in a few days.

If you were impatient and hurried to buy a different HW, you would have just wasted money. Chances are that the fix would be released before you new device is even shipped to your home.

If I had to guess it was probably Litecoin, which is an alt but in my humble opinion it's not a complete shitcoin. Yes impatience in crypto is probably the worst quality. In fact, procrastination can sometimes be your ally, other times it could be ones downfall.

Quote from: Husires on Today at 01:39:27 PM

Quote from: Ghepetto on Today at 10:22:48 AM

However, could this be an attack vector? AKA a government shuts down all the companies? Confiscates/corrupts all the software?

Manufacturers of hardware wallets assume that the device generates private keys in a secure way that is not connected and will not connected to the Internet. They also use a standard to generate seeds. These standards are not tied to a specific vendor, so you can import the private key using any other wallet, or even ask a programmer to write a wallet compatible with that standard.

If the hardware wallet uses their own standard or there is no way to know how to generate the private key, then there is no difference between them and closed source wallets, and therefore your money is at risk and it is better to avoid them.

This applies to some altcoins that do not have an active developing.
for those altcoins keeping in in HW or CEX is the same.

Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on Today at 11:15:35 AM

Quote from: Ghepetto on Today at 10:22:48 AM

My question was aimed at the "not able to spend from that hardware wallet itself" as I heard about an instance where one alt was DNS for a few days from a known issue, with the software, for the hardware wallet which was fixed later by the company. So this is more of a case where none of the hardware wallets from that company would work due to a software issue. Buying a new piece of hardware would not have fixed this issue after importing seeds.

Then you can buy a hardware wallet from a different company which uses different software which is not bugged. Or if all hardware wallets are affected, you can use a new hardware wallet to transfer your 14 other coins to a brand new wallet, and then import your old seed phrase which now only contains that particular bugged altcoin in to the software of that particular altcoin in order to spend it.

Or a better option is not to buy shitcoins which are so buggy you can't even spend them. Wink

Quote from: Ghepetto on Today at 10:22:48 AM

However, could this be an attack vector? AKA a government shuts down all the companies? Confiscates/corrupts all the software?

Not really. Even if they shut down all existing hardware wallet manufacturers, then nothing changes about the devices already produced. You might not be able to use the proprietary software such as Ledger Live or Trezor Suite in order to interact with your device, but it has always been preferable to use open source alternatives, preferably pointed at your own node, so as not to compromise your privacy. Just link your hardware wallet to Electrum instead.

The responses above address the more specific question I asked later after I realized my initial inquiry was too broad. My initial question seems to have confused some. I was not asking how to use a recovery phrase for a hardware wallet or if the coins were gone.

I was trying to ask how to use a seed phrase without a hardware wallet, and could this be exploited by governments to attack HW's.

o_e_l_e_o - great idea to get a new HW and tx anything to it and leave the bugged coin on it's own seed before importing it into anything that's hot.

Again, thank you all for the info!