Post
Topic
Board Wallet software
Re: [Sparrow Wallet] Use it to generate a BIP39 24 word seed in a safe environment.
by
virasog
on 21/01/2024, 19:40:42 UTC

Airgapped devices are also good if you know what you are doing. You can also use airgapped device for seed generation. As long as you format the device and reinstall its OS with the Bluetooth and WiFi card removed, then you have nothing to be worried about.

I wouldn't trust entirely airgapped devices.

Even airgapped  machines might be infected via BIOS/EIFE  (and or hardware drivers) malicious payloads.

You can not get completely airgapped device as  machine might be subjected to  pre-shipment inspection by manufacture that includes the checking its connectivity to Internet.

Well, if you can't trust the machines (PC) or the Android devices for the air gapped purpose, you can use the simple USB, install the tails OS software, never connect it to the Internet and you're good to go. Electrum becomes built-in in the tails OS but you will need to manually install the Sparrow wallet. I do not know if it is possible or not as I haven't experimented with the Sparrow wallet.

Sometimes hardware wallet is not necessary, especially if you need the wallet just for bitcoin. I have an old laptops that is now completely useless. That is how some people old laptops are and they can use it to setup airgapped device than wasting money on a hardware wallet.

When you buy a hardware wallet, still there are things that you need to be aware like buying it from a official store and then other stuff like updating the firmware etc. If we use the airgapped  USD with tails OS , it is a better, secure and cheap solution than a hardware wallet (although it requires a bit of technicality to perfectly setup and use it).