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I don't use bitcoin, so I might be missing something, but don't you have to transfer funds from the cold wallet to your device at some point, and doesn't that m

by p49k 10y ago

I don't use bitcoin, so I might be missing something, but don't you have to transfer funds from the cold wallet to your device at some point, and doesn't that mean that any malware waiting on your device could just grab the whole thing at that exact moment? In any case, even if you could secure the wallet, it still doesn't address the fact that once the funds are sent, they're not recoverable; I think it's unreasonable to expect a payment system with no rollback mechanism to go mainstream.

maxerickson 10y ago
It should be possible to generate a transaction on a secure system and only move that to the networked system. The transaction data would only be useful for the specific transaction, it couldn't be used to move funds to addresses not in the transaction or to move additional funds between the addresses, etc. It'd be a glorious pain in the ass to do it, but it is possible.
- floatboth 9y ago
  IIRC Armory provides a user interface for doing this. Still, that's probably too paranoid for most typical transactions.
nicky0 10y ago
You do have to sign a transaction using your private key. However this signature can occur totally offline in a non-connected device. Only the resulting signature has to be transmitted to the network. Irrevocability of transfers can be seen as a benefit or a drawback of course.
jstanley 9y ago
> don't you have to transfer funds from the cold wallet to your device at some point You can use a hardware wallet. I do. All of the cryptography takes place on the hardware wallet device, and there is only a small, well-defined interface between the wallet device and the computer. I use a Trezor[1], and like it. A Ledger Nano S[2] is also good (a bit more button-clicking required on the device, but improved Ethereum support - it integrates with Mist with no additional setup required). [1] https://shop.trezor.io/ https://shop.trezor.io/ [2] https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/12-ledger-nano-s https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/12-ledger-nano-s

by p49k 10y ago

maxerickson 10y ago

It should be possible to generate a transaction on a secure system and only move that to the networked system. The transaction data would only be useful for the specific transaction, it couldn't be used to move funds to addresses not in the transaction or to move additional funds between the addresses, etc. It'd be a glorious pain in the ass to do it, but it is possible.

floatboth 9y ago
IIRC Armory provides a user interface for doing this. Still, that's probably too paranoid for most typical transactions.

nicky0 10y ago

You do have to sign a transaction using your private key. However this signature can occur totally offline in a non-connected device. Only the resulting signature has to be transmitted to the network. Irrevocability of transfers can be seen as a benefit or a drawback of course.

jstanley 9y ago

> don't you have to transfer funds from the cold wallet to your device at some point You can use a hardware wallet. I do. All of the cryptography takes place on the hardware wallet device, and there is only a small, well-defined interface between the wallet device and the computer. I use a Trezor[1], and like it. A Ledger Nano S[2] is also good (a bit more button-clicking required on the device, but improved Ethereum support - it integrates with Mist with no additional setup required). [1] https://shop.trezor.io/ https://shop.trezor.io/ [2] https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/12-ledger-nano-s https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/12-ledger-nano-s