OS

riscten

>the machine always makes a local copy of the g-code and the OS is closed source so idk what goes on there That's what people don't seem to understand. Even if it's open source, are you really going to sift through [all of this](https://github.com/Klipper3d/klipper/tree/master/klippy) just to make sure that nothing unexpected is going on, and check the diffs on every update? 3D printers software is not written for data privacy, nobody's will blink an eye if gcode is cached and makes the data retrievable remotely.

SnowImportant4517

I witnessed horror when my brother lost his seed when water spilled on the paper it was on, I'm about to go self custody and Im looking at ways to store the seed safely from the elements, my 3D printer forces me to upload to the cloud if I want to use wifi, I can try to use it air-gapped with a pendrive but the machine always makes a local copy of the g-code and the OS is closed source so idk what goes on there, though I still think it's a good idea to 3d print the seed, maybe use an old printer with no internet and firmware that you trust.

gnomer-shrimpson

Q-day? Is a ways away no OS or program on the planet runs as quantum and when they transpile binary to qubits its slower. Remember when you take the cat out of the quantum box its no longer in a quantum state. Computers have the same problem will take a while to solve.

OkWhereas4898

B4OS es una excelente oportunidad para empezar a contribuir en proyectos de Bitcoin FOSS

Ok_Muscle_2819

Fala galera,  Agradeco de coração todos os comentarios e conselhos que voces disseram!! Fiquei surpreendido! Só quero 2 min de voces. Mas vamos la, vou ser mais clado o meu ponto de vista e voces passam a otica de voces beleza!? Eu prentendo investir os 10k euros no bear market de 2026 ( supostamento)  ou quando o BTC cair >50%, e comecei o DCA essa semana com 50€/semana.  *O valor do empréstimo eu ja o pago a anos ( comprei uma mt 07 ) e vou vende-la quitar o credito automovel e fazer um novo empréstimo pessoal de 10k * NAO PRETENDO VENDER OS BTC!  Acredito mt na fala e argumentos do 38tao, e estou tentsndo sair da classe baixa para a classe media alta daqui anos, acredito que o BTC valerá muitos milhoes 25/20 anos e com isso estou me preparando tanto profissionalmente ( estudando programação e ir trabalhar para suica quando sair a nacionalidade creio que em 1 ano), oico e leio muito olavo de carvalho.. enfim , acredito plenamente que o BTC sera oprtunidade unica de mudança de vida. Essa é a minha visao, se puderem dar a vossa opniao vai ajudar demais!! Minha honra!

crunchyeyeball

Yes, you were scammed. The domain was anonymously registered just a couple of months ago, and the website has more red flags than I can be bothered to list. In addition to whatever money you gave them, you also gave them everything they need to steal your identity, so they may also be taking out loans in your name. You also gave them direct access to your PC, so they may also have installed malware and additional remote access tools. In short, this is a bit of a mess. In your position, I would change *every* password, and reinstall the entire OS on that PC. I would also ask the credit card company / bank to flag my accounts as a "fraud risk" - I was a victim of identity theft years ago, after a theft of *physical* mail. Flagging your account just means they'll require extra checks before giving out a loan or CC in your name. In future, stick to the trusted platforms listed in the sidebar here or over on /r/BitcoinBeginners or you'll just get scammed again. Also, ignore DMs. Anyone offering to help with recovery is yet another scammer. Any advice they won't share publicly where it's open to scrutiny is bad advice.

jfitie

Run Tails OS live from a USB drive, import private key into Electrum, use the sign message option

DreamingTooLong

It’s easy to generate paper wallets using built-in electrum inside off-line Tails OS You don’t have to worry about paper wallets getting permanently lost when you have a backup recovery phrase for all paper wallets.

whatwilly0ubuild

You ran malware that stole your seed phrases or private keys from your computer. Once malware has access to your system it can read anything stored locally including wallet data, browser extensions, and clipboard contents. Browser-based wallets with 2FA don't solve this problem. If the malware is on your machine it can intercept transactions before they even get to the 2FA step or just steal your keys directly from local storage. Trust Wallet running on an infected computer is just as vulnerable as Phantom or MetaMask. The real answer is hardware wallets like Ledger or Trezor. Your private keys never leave the device so even if your computer is completely compromised the malware can't access them. You sign transactions on the hardware wallet itself and only the signed transaction goes to your computer. Our clients who handle serious crypto learned this after similar incidents, there's no software-only solution that protects against malware on your machine. For smaller amounts you can use mobile wallets on a phone that's never had sketchy apps installed and keep it separate from your main phone. Mobile OS sandboxing provides some protection but it's still way riskier than hardware. The protection methods are pretty simple but people skip them because they're inconvenient. Never download and run random programs especially anything related to crypto or gaming. Don't keep seed phrases in text files, password managers, or anywhere digital. Use dedicated hardware wallets for anything you can't afford to lose. Keep a clean machine just for crypto that you never use for downloads or browsing sketchy sites. Your funds are gone and there's no way to recover them. The transaction is irreversible and whoever stole them has already moved the crypto through mixers. File a police report if the amount is significant but realistically nothing will come of it. Going forward treat any computer you've used for regular browsing as compromised for crypto purposes. Get a hardware wallet, set it up on a clean machine or use the mobile app, and never enter your seed phrase on a computer again.

SnNDay

Why tho? I2P, Tor, DNSCrypt, Monero, Hardened Firefox, SearXNG, Tails OS, Graphene OS (Android), uBlock Origin JS spoof, ProtonMail, Clash VPN, Via Browser (Android) I strongly disagree brother, or we would already know who Satoshi Nakamoto was (or were) in real life

nycteris91

I basically set up an old phone with Lineage OS that is all the time offline, they know the PIN to unlock. Inside there is Electrum.

Romanizer

15 years means you are financially free to do anything you want and live your dreams. I wouldn't call that nothing. For me personally, financial freedom means more than some OS, mobile gadget or shitty car.

TheShenanegous

Not terribly insane when you consider the material, real world impact many of the companies started/ran by those 8 have had over the past few decades. I'm as much in awe of Satoshi's story as any other person with an interest in crypto, but to say that Bitcoin has influenced much of any noteworthy global event is a bit premature. It's still not utilized as a currency like Satoshi envisioned, it's still only loosely realistic to rely on as a store of value in many parts of the world, and it still has large scale centralization issues standing at odds with the ethos of the project itself. Anything you can use bitcoin to do, you can also use fiat or other currencies to do. All it represents is a system for moving things immutably from one place to another, and all it will ever gain in its evolution is hardening into that purpose with additional reinforcements. Compare that to, say, Microsoft. Everybody's favorite Austin Powers villain, Mr. Billy G constructed an empire over the course of two decades, building an OS and then a full-blown cloud platform that could be sold as a service to the *entire* working planet. While there may be other OS's and comparable cloud technologies offered by other companies/projects (honorable mentions to Linux and Mac), Windows has remained the default OS for the vast majority of use cases across almost all industries. While their leadership and ethics have been rightfully questioned over the years, it's not hard to understand that the value Microsoft represents to the world is in being a body that can be relied on when asked to deliver a functional tool for virtually anything we deem useful. This is exactly why they're scraping so much user data lately with things like Copilot; they want to understand what we want built without us ever needing to articulate the requirements. Is it invasive and likely to lead to erroneous development? Absolutely. But it's also reasonable to imagine that they might learn something of value to all parties involved in that process. Microsoft *will* provide you genuine help if it's also in the interest of helping themselves. Bitcoin will never help you. People might help you by speculating on the price of bitcoin and making your holdings grow in value, but Bitcoin isn't going to allow you to do anything more than you could previously while holding it. All it will ever do for you is be sent to you or from you, hopefully in an up-and-up fashion. Point is: love them or hate them, the world would likely be a radically different place if the various companies that give those 8 their net worth never existed. Frankly, Bitcoin itself probably wouldn't exist if even a handful of them had failed. The world would not be much different if Bitcoin had never been created. Considerably less interesting, certainly, but I can't honestly think of a single thing that bitcoin itself has allowed me to do despite almost 15 years of exploring its uses.

prguitarman

Your thinking is right. They’re still on-chain and on OS. Reddit is removing some ways to display them, but they’ll still be pfps and you can still mash them(for now). Even if Reddit removes them from Reddit you’ll still have them in your wallet in OS. I will say that a lot of RCA collectors don’t fully understand how it works and they’ve interpreted the announcement as “they’ll be deleted forever” when that isn’t the case. To anybody unsure what the next steps are, If you have some RCA be sure to grab your vault secret phrase because your vault IS your wallet. Also do not share that secret phrase with anybody

DomDomPop

Hot take, but most of you probably don’t have enough money to care. No, your $300 in savings is not at risk (much like some random’s Reddit account isn’t some goldmine of data). For the people who are working with bigger numbers, yes, absolutely it’s a problem. Now, some banks are better than others for sure, and they’ll reach out and help you swiftly, but yeah, they can be scummy. Especially when you start getting into sending/receiving money internationally and you’ve got multi-day holds on large sums, telling you how much you can take out at once, “protections” against “money laundering”, things of that nature. That’s to say nothing of how tightly integrated banks are with the government, and how easy it makes it for them to take something from you when they’re told to or hand over information on your finances. Yeah, big retail exchanges are getting there, but there are still a ton of avenues in crypto for people who don’t want the government all up in their business all the time. I had a Bank of America investment account that my grandfather had set up for me as a baby and basically left untouched as he put money in, which was supposed to be in mutual funds. He didn’t speak English well enough to do anything else, he just left the bank to handle it. Come to find out some account manager, at the height of the financial crisis, decided to sell everything in the account and buy back BoA stock, a terrible move. How many “you manage it for me” accounts did they do this to, perhaps hoping to bevy their falling stock price, thinking number would go up and everyone would be happy afterward? Who tf knows, but it didn’t work, the price fell, and something something he doesn’t work here anymore we’re not sure what happened blah blah blah. One of the biggest parts of crypto is that people are (if they’re doing it right) taking control of their own investments, taking control of their own money, and if you win, you win, if you lose, you lose, but at least YOU did it instead of some faceless money manager who’s using your money to do what’s best for the bank and not for you. It’s just like when Windows buried all the good Control Panel shit or Mac OS hid the Library folder: yes, for a lot of people they shouldn’t be touching stuff they don’t understand without learning about it first, but if you ARE willing to learn and mitigate the risk of making mistakes by being smart about things and acting carefully, you can do a lot better. If the convenience is worth more to you, then yeah, nothing wrong with keeping your $500 with the bank, nobody’s gonna stop ya.

bag_douche

I think you're right. I never thought of it like that. The physical tools used to create it could be wiped - in fact, because it was created in Tails OS, I think they were.

SpendHefty6066

Treat Bitcoin as your long term savings account. Put funds you save and do not need immediate access to. Think 10 years or more. Keep your seed phrase secure. After you buy Bitcoin, move it to a secure wallet such as Electrum or Sparrow. A signing device is too expensive, for now, compared to your savings, so I recommend you store your private keys, which gives you access to your Bitcoin, on Electrum or Sparrow, both are open source and battle tested wallets. This is known as a "hot wallet" because your keys are stored encrypted on your computer or mobile. When the value of your Bitcoin is greater than USD $2,000 then you can invest in a signing device like Trezor or ColdCard. You can also try a DIY project like SeedSigner, in which case you can look into this when your stack is USD $1,000 or more. You must take precautions that your machine is not compromised. Best to use Linux if possible, then Mac OS, a distant third is MSFT Windows. If you are on mobile only, try Blue Wallet. Learning about Bitcoin is a major journey, and absolutely worthwhile. It will provide you with financial freedom in the long term. Consider running a node if you have an available computer.

bag_douche

>If you lose the key, you lose your coins. I would lose only one factor of a multi-sig wallet. >You're still vulnerable to a remote attack I would use an airgapped PC running Tails OS. >If you lose your program, (IE the drive it's on is damaged or lost) you'd have to rewrite the program with the same cyrptographic algorithm before you can access your keys. This is the difficult bit. I need to learn how to reliably make and re-create an AES-256 enciphering program, to ensure the same inputs create an identical output. Thank you for your comment, I appreciate it.

xDeviam

I’ve been running multiple Raspberry Pi 4 / 5 (8GB) devices with Bitcoin Core for several years. Installed via Nito.org on Raspberry Pi OS. No third-party software, and not a single crash.

SmoothGoing

Check if you get the same address type in blue, legacy vs segwit. Connect your coldcard with a cable and create a new wallet in Sparrow telling it to use your coldcard. Tails is not a cryptographic secrets management OS but it makes you feel better you can use it. Hardware wallet does 99% of the security for you anyway.

SmoothGoing

Kali Linux is a testing tool. An OS for hacking stuff basically. It is not for managing cryptographic secrets. You need to use something simpler and learn how to mount drives in linux to avoid losing data.

CrazyAppel

If the malware is a binary file and asks for UAC elevation and you give it, it can even infuse itself on a driver level so nothing will work on this list. In 2025, procmon or process monitor doesn't suffice anymore and it's dangerous to assume you are safe just because there isn't any persistent exe or service running. Best to just wipe and reinstall OS imo.

DreamingTooLong

Download Tails OS It has electrum built it

BelgianGinger80

Thx. So you can store your btc on it and no-one else can see your 'wallet' (node)? This OS software can be placed on a USB stick and stored away?

NoStress42069

Yes obviously if you leave the wallet unlocked and inprotected.. Personally I’d use an iPhone , no sim , fresh OS install no garbage apps Easier to hide in your home in a fire/water proof container Seedkeeper or steel plates for seed phrase Coins are on the blockchain remember the device isn’t the key to your coins Seed phrase is most important

Troo_Geek

Don't know if you're still after this but I was in a situation where I needed this as well. So I bought a Bitcoin off a friend for $50 NZD in 2013 when he was into mining and I was sure I had lost my wallet when I got a new phone and the backup of the phone OS when carried over didn't migrate my Bitcoin wallet (a rookie mistake I have beaten myself up for ever since believe me). As you can imagine when Bitcoin value shot up over the years it really started to grate to the point it became a regular story that got rolled out at dinner parties etc. Then fast forward twelve years and I accidentally stumble upon an email containing my backed up keys that I don't even remember sending to myself. Of course it was password protected and after going through every possible iteration of password I might have used back in 2013 I think I found the correct one. However it seems the current version of the app can't open it so I need the original version that I used to save my keys, same as you I presume. Anyway after much research and head bashing I did eventually find the base code of the release I need on GitHub. The version I found was 3.28 and I'm about to compile it into an APK with Android Studio and then throw that into an emulator to see if I can get my keys. Upshot is if this works I can send you the APK if you want to have a crack at the same.

TheM0nkB0ughtLunch

DOVU is one of the best low cap opportunity in crypto right now. Fully diluted, token vital to business, huge deals signed and more on the way, expanding to India, expanding into regular RWA (outside carbon credits), multinational corporations are asking for demos of their OS. These are to name a few. Plus their staking is single sided. Future is bright with DOVU.

solomonsatoshi

If you have moderate computer skills try Electrum. If possible only use Linux OS when doing any serious value Bitcoin work. Electrum enables you to create secure long term cold storage free of any third party HW vendors. [https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html](https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html)

unthocks

So now the definition of ‘computer’ magically changes depending on your feelings? A hardware wallet literally has a CPU, memory, OS, firmware, and does cryptographic operations. That’s more ‘modern computer’ than your calculator. Stop coping, and buy more bitcoin instead of being loud idiot.

riscten

A PC can be used for other stuff. If you're only hodling, you don't necessarily need a dedicated device. What you need is something to convert raw seeds (like you'd get from rolling dice) into mnemonics, derive xpubs, possibly generate multisig wallets and occasionally sign transactions. This can be done by booting from a clean OS with radios removed from the computer (or disabled) and doing what needs to be done. Once you're done, just boot back into the regular OS and use the PC. In other words, it's not $50 hw wallet vs $500 PC, it's $50 hw wallet vs free PC. Also PCs are general purpose devices, and their hardware is far less likely to be targeted by a supply chain attack. That's not to say that hw wallets are not useful, they are, they're just not essential. OPs post is basically promoting self-reliance over consumerism.

normnormno

Love how everyone is also missing the fact that you can run a live Linux OS on a USB that remembers nothing you do.

riscten

Bitcoin is nothing like a Mac. Bitcoin is open source, interoperable, powerful and with a steep learning curve. If Bitcoin was an OS, it would be Linux.

brendan904

Ser5 Beelink off Amazon. Get an upgraded SSD, I went with 4TB also off Amazon. Install the new SSD (super easy) and then download latest Umbrel OS off GitHub. They have a page for instructions how to flash it to USB and you boot it up. Pretty quick and easy. All in, you get a solid Mini PC that’s future proofed chain wise and a solid Linux based OS with pre-installed apps you just download and run. I’m not technical at all which is why I went down the sort-of-DIY route. Node runs all the time, I’m supporting and feel good about it, didn’t cost me a lot of money (also running my BitAxes off my mini pc too)

AgitatedDragonfly769

OS since it launched its V2 has gone so downhill.

OnlyBTCs

Nice job brother. Welcome to the good side! Also happy you got it working with Umbrel OS and Raspberry Pi5, I had some issues with it personally and ended up just loading Ubuntu Server onto my Minecraft server hardware and running my node, mining pool, and MC server off of it as an all in one home server. May be a good upgrade later down the line. May repurpose the pi5 to be a VPN server for my network.

poppemon

I run a full node on an RPi 4 with Umbrel OS, using two Bitaxes and one Avalon Nano 3S. It works perfectly.

whatwilly0ubuild

I work at an engineering consultancy and we see this data sourcing problem constantly with our clients building trading platforms and portfolio tools. Most of the smaller crypto data sites are just reselling CoinGecko or CMC feeds, which is why they all have the same quirks and delays. For actual independent data aggregation, you want to look at platforms that pull directly from exchange APIs. CoinMetrics is probably your best bet for BTC-only data. They aggregate from like 100+ exchanges directly and do their own calculations for things like volume-weighted prices. Their methodology is way more transparent than the big consumer sites. Messari also pulls their own data but they're more focused on broader market analytics. If you want to go full nerd mode, Glassnode has insane BTC-specific metrics that you won't find anywhere else. They're pulling blockchain data directly plus exchange feeds. More expensive but the data quality is solid. For something simpler, a lot of our customers just hit exchange APIs directly. Binance, Coinbase Pro, Kraken all have solid REST and WebSocket APIs. You can build a simple aggregator that pulls from 5-6 major exchanges and calculates your own average. Takes maybe a day to set up if you know what you're doing. The widget thing is probably Android's aggressive battery management fucking with background updates. Try adding CoinGecko to your "never sleeping apps" list if your phone has that setting. Samsung and OnePlus are notorious for killing background processes even when you think you've disabled battery optimization. Honestly though, most crypto apps have shit widget implementations because Android keeps changing how background updates work. The difference between teams who engineer these features properly versus those who just wing it shows up immediately when OS updates hit. If you're serious about reliable BTC price feeds, building something custom with exchange APIs is way more reliable than depending on third-party widgets that break every few months.

xte2

Yes, at certain levels we are forced to show our hand, so for example, there aren't Gaddafi's billions disappearing from Belgian and Luxembourgish banks with no one (except very few) knowing anything; there isn't fractional reserve banking with which banks milk private wealth by creating money through loans. It's freer, but it's also tied to an IT infrastructure that is concretely less and less free: today the motherboard's EFI phone home, the CPU runs a small internal OS, and this is on PCs. If we extend to mobile, we have, shall we say, theoretical "freedom" on an OS that isn't free (because even Android isn't AOSP), so it's an "institutional" freedom but at the population level it's always illusory. Only if we impose universal open hardware and FLOSS, making it forbidden to sell non-open hardware, non-free and public software from the first commit to allow a community to form and oversee every project of interest, we can have substantial freedom. Today, Big Tech is clearly visible in cars. We buy a car, we are formal owners, but it can be blocked, its software, or nervous system, modified (updated) remotely behind our backs, and we don't have superior, more privileged access than the vendor. The car isn't truly ours. This, for me, must be very clear to everyone to avoid going from bad to worse.

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Billkr

Yes. The Umbrel OS is kind of bitcoin centric. It has a lot of available, easy to install modules.

CaptainSugarWeasel

No video sorry, but cold storage means "offline". No need for a hardware wallet to achieve cold storage. If you write down your seed phrase and then delete your wallet, you now have your btc in cold storage (your private keys hopefully no longer exist on an internet-connected machine). Your wallet was online at some point so there is still a risk, and the data could be recoverable from your hard drive unless you use software to wipe the free space. A step better is using a dedicated device (like an old laptop) with a fresh install of the operating system and disabled from being able to connect to the internet. My preferred method for long term cold storage would be to install Tails OS on a USB (Tails comes with Electrum pre-installed, it's a Linux system that boots from USB and runs only in RAM). Create your wallet, make your seed backups, export a public master key, shut down. Boot up Tails again to check that you can successfully restore your wallet from your seed. You can use the public master key to receive btc to your wallet and keep track of your balances (watch-only wallet safe to keep on your normal PC).

Virtual-Sand9073

Reinstall your OS, computer is likely compromised

Substantial_Shop_171

Those Lucky Miners run 25 watts, so you could run 32 of them for 800 watts, meaning they're over 32 times more efficient. But even then, those Lucky Miners aren't too efficient themselves at 25 J/Th, which is not currently profitable unless your electric rate is way below average. But even if free, 1Th/s will take a decade to pay off the $160 purchase price at today's mining rate (difficulty and BTC price). Better off buying a used S19 Jpro (around $400-500) and using an aftermarket OS to boost efficiency (I've gotten my J pros to around 21 J/Th with settings around 1800 watts and 80-90 Th/s depending on silicon lottery), but even then, they're not currently profitable unless your electric rate is very cheap (mine is only average, so my s19 gen miners are collecting dust ATM).

Tripartist1

Nobody here reads or? You will still be able to buy sell and trade on OS, and will still be able to import claim and use avatars you own and purchase in the future. Theyre just removing vault and closing the creator program. Basically this means that the avatars that exist now are all that will ever exist, and they will become increasingly hard to get and likely go up in price over time assuming they keep the avatar functionality going forward.

DryMyBottom

will they be wearable in here if we buy them on OS?

DryMyBottom

will be they still wearable in here if bought on OS?

Which_Independent371

It was from OS Gear. He’s a gymbro so I think the purchase of these “pharmaceuticals” were suspicious.

codingwithcoffee

Trouble with this strategy is… The tax you pay on the $2,500 profit - depending on your tax residency - can be as much as half. So now you are only up $1,250. Spend that at $95K - IF you can - and you get 0.0658 BTC - which is 0.0158 more than you had before meaning $9,868 value at $150K, halving your future projected gains etc. The MUCH bigger problem is timing it! This is Bitcoin. Let’s say you’ve decided that when it hits $150K you will sell 0.05BTC and buy back at $95K… Bitcoin hits $145K and hovers around there for weeks. Then it drops to $140K and seems to be heading down fast. Maybe this was the “top”. Should you sell now so you can still scalp some profit in this “cycle”? $139K… $137K… $138K… It gets to $135K, and then… Turns back up again. $140K… $145k… $147K… $149K… Bitcoin hits $150K. You sell! You congratulate yourself for your nerves of steel and sticking to your plan. Bitcoin keeps climbing. It hits $160K. Damn you missed scalping some extra profit. It hits $180K. Wow you really missed some extra profit! Then it drops. $170K… $160K… $150K… 140K… $130k… you’re patting yourself on the back at your smart scalping strategy. It hits $120K… $110K… ok - get ready to buy back in. $105K… $104K… and it sits there for a week bouncing around between $104K and $108K… And then it starts heading back up… $110K… $120K… $125K… and it seems to be accelerating. Apple announces they are adding bitcoin payment rails into the next iPhone OS update and their board are voting to hold 2-5% of their cash reserves as Bitcoin. America announces they are revaluing their gold reserves and using this to make a budget neutral purchase of 800,000 BTC. Now you have a decision to make… Are you going to keep waiting for $95K? Or do you buy back in now, locking in at $25K above your average buy price - REDUCING your stack from what it was previously? $127K… $130K… $138K… seems to be speeding up… Still waiting…? Because if so you have far more conviction in this strategy than I would have! Two things that haven’t really been a factor in earlier cycles (which were much more retail / speculation driven): * the growing corporate treasury and sovereign wealth fund interest and exposure through index funds, endowment funds, retirement funds and pension plans * the decreasing impact on supply each new halving has How will these impact the “4 year cycle” that these trading strategies rely on? I reckon Bitcoin has enough ups and downs on its own for me without adding the extra excitement that trying to time the tops and bottoms from inside the rollercoaster! Stay humble. Stack sats.

_TheWolfOfWalmart_

I'm going to start compiling wallets for MS-DOS. What's safer than an OS with no concept of networking and only outgoing connections?

metamorphosis

No worries. Good luck. It's highly unlikely your 3 layers of security got compromised or some sophisticated attack to take ownership of your OS/ machine is also highly unlikely....so it must have been exchange/bots/API related.

Relevant_Economics86

The claim that "60% of statistics are made up" is a humorous and often-repeated saying, not a factual statistic itself. It is an anonymous quote that serves as a cynical commentary on the misuse or misrepresentation of statistics. The phrase itself highlights the potential for statistics to be misleading, a concept also captured by the famous saying, "[Lies, damned lies, and statistics](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=bd4826c8ba41a3de&cs=1&sxsrf=AE3TifNpq4rF1Q7fbsXFpnq0kJsjnVg8vQ%3A1756115152686&q=Lies%2C+damned+lies%2C+and+statistics&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZlNHe1qWPAxUyyzgGHSB0G3YQxccNegQIBRAB&mstk=AUtExfCq7TS4gcbMAMugKHCMHyK7WMKsOJ9skV18rm3ccxMmTbEh6Opibc0u6l-v5WKguf9zlC2B2XvT1xffzfJD5GaouBzIZ0bswJf-QZjbiomYeJRSs3nbwIuCiC9n7s0zP2KCfKumuu9rR9H7Ka-OS-YetiOeRFWcP8Iek-p6-esua1oyFUrrjyvvXl5tTgs6tYY4fvlrTO7RA0y-8tk6hmRVtvMnwYfu0XA5MkZkSP1ZGc1kqOaBdNK4lWle6MZuozuFyawtB2dAhBmhDj7gptV0zUpvCchDonn3Kh9d_7L9uQ&csui=3)". 

TheMissingNTLDR

Backup your imp files. Whatever your device is it needs formatting or resetting to original OS or factory reset. I would not carry out any financial activity on that device anymore. BTW inform that contractor that their emails are compromised.

Nefiji

Most cryptocurrencies are based on the secure hash algorithm, specifically SHA-256 or higher, which is still incredibly secure as of todays standards. Maybe quantum computers will make it obsolete one day, but blockchains will also be able to upgrade their protocols in time, too. So worrying about this now is like worrying about how your current computer OS will be outdated in 10 years from today. Duh, that's why we upgrade stuff.

rupsdb

Install Tails OS on an USB drive, boot from there, enable admin and persistence, install sparrow-waller, generate new wallet, and just export the public Descriptors With that you can open a view only account on your PC. With the seed phrase or the private key, you can use this account to view and receive. You cannot transact. So even if there's malware on your PC, your btc is safe

Substantial_Bear5153

Here is an extra paranoid analysis. Points of failure: your phone might be compromised. Also, which wallet app? That's important. It might also be compromised to produce weak seeds. See what happened with Trust wallet. I would recommend [https://iancoleman.io/bip39/](https://iancoleman.io/bip39/) (the first result on Google for "generate bip39"). Press save as, and store the .html file. Disconnect the PC from the internet. Boot a live Ubuntu USB stick (live, without installing). Open the saved web page. Generate and write down the phrase. Shut down Ubuntu live. Why this is better: \- Ian Coleman's seed generation implementation is a trusted one. \- By booting another live OS (Ubuntu), we minimize the risk that your Windows installation is compromised. \- By keeping the PC offline while Ubuntu live is booted, we airgap it during the key generation. \- When Ubuntu live is shut down, it leaves no traces on your PC. It's like your variant deleting the wallet app of your phone, but way more thorough. Possible attack vectors: practically none. Perhaps if somehow the BIOS/EFI firmware of your PC was compromised, but that would be a state-actor level of sophistication.

Smooth_Talk

There's a way to do it In a Linux OS. I would recommend starting here. https://hashcat.net/forum/thread-8878.html Also backup your wallet.dat file immediately and store it as securely as possible. If you have an idea of what the password might be it can be A LOT easier to crack it, if you have no clue brute forcing it can be impossible or take a LONG amount of time. If you want to try it and dont know anyone with Linux skills it's going to take a lot of research and time. I suggest you do it yourself if possible to avoid having someone take it from you or paying a bounty.

HedgehogGlad9505

The answer is a Tails USB drive with pre installed electrum. There are several good desktop wallets, but they are equally insecure on a Windows OS connected to the internet and heavily used for browsing etc.

Ok-Change3498

Non Google phone OS is the only way

RefrigeratorLow1259

Doesn't take much power as it is centralised! Only has 23 nodes all run by big corporations - The hardware requirements are massive! The hardware requirements for Hedera nodes are quite specific and depend on whether you are running a consensus node or a mirror node. It's important to note that you can't just run a consensus node; they are currently permissioned and operated by the Hedera Governing Council members. However, anyone can run a mirror node. Consensus Node Requirements The requirements for a consensus node are very high-end and are designed for enterprise-grade performance and security. These are not for a typical home setup. * CPU: A high-performance, multi-core processor (e.g., Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC) with a minimum of 24 cores/48 threads is required. There are also specific performance benchmarks (Geekbench, Passmark) that must be met. * Memory (RAM): A large amount of ECC Registered DDR4 RAM is needed, with a minimum of 256GB and a recommendation of 320GB or more. * Storage: A substantial and very fast storage solution is essential. The requirements include at least 5TB of usable NVMe SSD storage with high sequential and random read/write speeds (e.g., 2,000-6,200 MB/s sequential read). The use of RAID arrays (e.g., RAID 1 for the OS, RAID 0 or 10 for data) is recommended for redundancy and performance. * Network: A sustained, unmetered 1 Gbps internet connection is required to handle the high volume of traffic. The node must also be deployed in an isolated DMZ network with specific ports open.

icehot54321

Probably true, but I'm also one of these people. I have a bitcoin hardrive from 2012, but I accidentally reinstalled windows over the original OS, and then stopped immediately after the reinstall when I realized what I did. Now it's in a box with 50 other hard drives (unlabeled). Not even sure if it's worth the effort to try and figure out which one it is or whether the wallet file can be recovered. Suggestions for recovery software are appreciated though.

waldito

I have a laptop computer. I don't trust the OS it runs; I don't want the OS to be there while I'm dealing with my private key. So instead, I use a different OS, called Tails. It's an operating system based on Linux, and it's designed to be 'frozen'. By frozen, I mean it 'forgets' everything you did with it, leaving no trace after you switch it off. Tails is designed to be installed and run from a USB drive, so the idea is you download it, load it into a USB using a small software (there's a tutorial on the Tails website on how to do it), and then you boot your computer from it. It's fairly straightforward, and once you are on it, Tails has the wallet Electrum within. With that, you can create your seed, generate wallets, yadda yadda. Here, this is a good tutorial [https://blog.areabitcoin.co/tails-and-electrum/](https://blog.areabitcoin.co/tails-and-electrum/) of if you like it in video, here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e6IDTP3g5o&ab\_channel=AdamSoltys](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e6IDTP3g5o&ab_channel=AdamSoltys)

Timstertimster

why are commenters so ignorant in this thread?! the point of the law is to scan messages BEFORE they're sent to any app. this means it doesn't matter if you use a VPN or download an indie app or anything. the only way your messages stay private is if you fully jailbreak the device. here is hoping that some well funded geekball genius company quickly builds an open source smartphone OS that can compete with apple and android so we can all divest ourselves from this duopoly.

SurpriseDickPunch

I have moved crazy amounts of crypto on OS X

Charming-Designer944

By using a trusted OS where you know there is a good randomness source. And provide a bit of your own entrypy. Uniqueness is guaranteed by the randomness. The likelyhood of two seeds colliding is 1/(2\^128) which is an extremely small number, on the level that it can never happen.

xpresstuning

You can use Tails OS and Electrum to safely generate your private key offline. You can use that USB setup to sign transactions as well. You can safely generate your private key in any software wallet, provided you: - Do it offline. - Delete everything after. Hardware "wallets" do the same shit, but they're specialized to do that, and you can sign transactions with these things.

sukaibontaru

It's a good analogy actually. I would argue that concrete don't last either - but that's nitpicking. Maybe some proper examples... Y2K. It never happened - because everyone scrambled to fix it (especially the banks). Bitcoin will have the Y2106 timestamp problem. Last block to mine will be Y2140. That's really far off in the future - but someone will be there to fix that. Then there's also the operating systems that bitcoin nodes will be running on. OS's will never stagnate. Compute architectures will change. Bitcoin will need to be maintained with the same cadence. Those are just a couple of examples at the top of my head. I'm pretty sure some PhD level folks can come up with something more. (I should ask ChatGPT).

lightbulb-7

If you have an old computer or a RPi, downloading Start9 OS and setting it up is fairly easy to do. There is little that can go wrong. Umbrel has also a very friendly UI and UX, but I like Start9 more

JuxtaposeLife

Make sure your bootloader is locked on whatever hardware you're loading that OS from. Phones and computers have vulnerability at the bios level as well. It's just not worth it. Spent $70 and get a clean cold wallet solution... So you know 100% nothing else has ever seen your words except you.

Ill-Economics-5512

Use a live booting system like Tails or use Quebes. (less secure still better than VM) you could set up a second encrypted! partition. That is never connected to the internet. Maybe even switch the router off, while setting it up. Then you need a fresh USB Stick to transfer the software wallet to the offline partition. Here malware could jump ship. Still if the OS has no means to connect to the internet you should be save. From here you can prepare and sign transactions, so that a wallet that uses only the viewkey on your online system can broadcast this transaction. Problem might be: if the malware that has jumped ship changes the target address before signing (on the offline machine) then you would send your funds to the wrong receiver. But i assume that hardware wallets face the same problem? You have to double checkt the addresses there as well. Otherwise the transaction is gone.

Majestic_Volume_4326

Hey, I'm a beginner with wallets. I was thinking of doing this too. I'm not sure if it's entirely feasible though judging by the other comments, but it sounds doable to me. I thought of using my work laptop for the View-only Electrum wallet and a completely offline air-gapped Pi for key generation. Just need to reconfigure the OS to disable bluetooth, wifi, etc. before booting it on the Pi. And I'll only need to generate the master public key from And once I have the seed, just like you, I'm thinking of wiping everything clean from Pi and using my laptop for receiving crypto. So the online device will only get the master public key. I just know that I'll need to restore the offline electrum in the Pi whenever I need to send crypto, which can be done through the seed. And I won't be doing any sending for years. Does this sound like the way you're thinking? This has multiple steps, but it's super cheap at least where I'm from, much more affordable than hardware wallets for me, and I don't mind setting up everything. Any thoughts on this?

-_YT7_-

if you choose to do this then it must be on an airgapped computer that must never be connected to the Internet or even local network. perhaps a raspberry pi or a cheap mini PC using Tails OS.

metamorphosis

You can dual boot if you want a really separate OS-es, rather than forking money for a new rig. Someone suggested VMs too but I wouldn't recommend as VM image files can get corrupted. As long as the new account is encrypted, you should be fine even if your main account gets compromised by malware

siasl_kopika

>However I'm not sure if that's any better. still closed source so not really any better. The security game is linux or losses. > .still no to the passphrase? Generally speaking, the passphrase as used by most people makes the system wildly less secure. And when used properly by an opsec expert, makes it only slightly less secure only due to being more complex. The bonus word cannot improve anything. They are only good for make-believe situations that can never happen. > May I ask how you store your crypto? If you have only small amounts to secure, all you need is electrum on a linux. That will be 99.9% of what anyone would ever need, and donig more is overkill for most people. Coinbase published a guide called the "glacier protocol" which i think is a half decent starters guide if you have very large amounts. It has a few flaws, such as using USB drives instead of using SD cards, but its a decent overall description. >.should I just buy into an ETF? not your keys not your coins >grift is the name of the game in 2025. Not at all, not with bitcoin at least. What we are seeing is an awakening to personal security. For over 40 years, people have accepted insecure personal computing practices, purely idiotic password policy, social media violations of their privacy, and many other opsec failings are normal and acceptable. In reality, the concept of your computer catching a virus should sound as silly as your car catching cold. Closed source software should be laughed out of the room. Windows OS should have never existed. Security is honestly easy to do right. We just dont have a culture of people doing what is right, so the average person has no privacy and no opsec. And the average person thinks doing things right is too hard, even when its really not. And that will cause pain until it changes.

siasl_kopika

remember that the hardware wallet is an easy way for someone to get your key; every single one on the market has been shown to have a backdoor way to get the key out with physical access to the device. One way to deal with that weakness is to always blank/clear/factory reset the wallet when its not being used. Never leave it loaded. (some hw wallets dont handle this well, check your docs) Also, a hardware wallet is not a substitute for a secure computer. Whether you are trying to get a address to send money to, or to transmit an address to receive money from someone, if your computer is running a closed source OS like windows, it can silently replace the address and you will have no way to detect it until its too late. The hardware wallet cannot help in this case. I recommend always using a hardware wallet with linux to prevent this attack. Good luck!

siasl_kopika

* running windows OS * altcoins * metal backups * hardware wallets * trading

Vonsoo

If your PC is hacked, they can do man in the middle attack (hacked app displays you the address you want, but sends different one to your wallet to sign), unless you really verify every letter of the "to" address on the tiny screen of your Ledger or Trezor. It's really better to have $20 additional drive with separate OS just for sending crypto. Boot the system, send, shutdown, boot your normal Windows.

_pm_me_a_happy_thing

I understand your concerns, but I have a few things to mention: 1. The SeedSigner is purely a signing device, it is not a wallet. 2. The open source OS is a specialised version of the Buildroot Linux OS, it's very barebones, this is to keep it lightweight and reduce any possibility of attack surfaces. 3. Only two things touch the SD card: transaction files, public key for watch-only. Private keys and seed phrase stay purely offline. 4. The signing device is stateless, when powered off it does not retain any memory. 5. The hardware itself has no WiFi, radio, Bluetooth modules - and comes from a reputable UK based company. 6. Everything used in the setup is open source, Sparrow (wallet), SeedSigner (air gapped signing device). If you're more security inclined, have Sparrow be on a Linux Laptop running on TailsOS, running your own bitcoin node, and link it to Sparrow via TOR, and only ever use that device for BTC. I much prefer this open source setup than trust a commercialised company.

buffalo_bill27

Very few devices are truly safe for key generation and crypto wallets. Windows allows low level access to the kernel for sht like anti-cheat and God knows what else gets installed. Defender, cloud platforms and browser extensions further add potential for data loss. You need a hardware wallet via a Linux based OS with all unnecessary packages uninstalled, or a paper wallet generated on an equally secure system. You should know how to, and verify application installers as well. I'm not going to victim blame but if you can't do the above in future, buy shares in an ETF with BTC exposure (on the ASX in Australia) and you'll be a lot safer.

foleyloss

hahaa, that is fair. The HD had resting encryption before deletion and a new OS installed after formatting corrupting the encryption headers. We did try

riscten

2-of-3 multisig with the mnemonics stored in 3 different locations. Get rid of the Ledger and get yourself a good stateless, airgapped hardware wallet: Coldcard, Jade, Seedsigner, or even just a PC with a live OS and its radios removed. Don't mess around trying to reinvent the wheel. Encrypting mnemonics is a fool's errand.

Douche-Rogue

After a few days Bitcoin Knot node loses connection and I have to restart manually to re-sync. Anyone know why this is happening? Currently solo mining BTC to own node. FYI. Umbrel OS running Knot and DATUM.

riscten

If all you're doing is DCA and hodl, honestly you don't even need a hardware wallet. Wallets were specifically made to make spending more convenient. All you need is to temporarily airgap a PC with a fresh OS, generate your mnemonics, then enter your xpubs in a phone. Stamp the mnenonics on steel and you're set. You'll be able to receive funds, and if you ever need to spend frequently, then you can get yourself a hw wallet.

Soft-Stress-4827

browser based seed phrase generator !! then how did the laptop have no internet access? LOLLLLLLLL yall know Tails OS comes pre loaded with a bitcoin wallet right ? -,-

NivekIyak

If it’s for longterm, you need to look at some very important things that a lot of people seem to ignore or fail to mention: Inflation. Invest in projects / crypto that are low or deflationary. Bnb=> utility token of the biggest crypto exchange in the world. It’s a more defensive coin because its not that extreme. If the market goes up, itll go up, if the market goes down itll go down but always less heavy then others in both ways. This in combo with a good burning mechanism makes this a deflationary crypto, so in the longrun it’ll go up anyways. => good crypto for your core Btc=> low inflation, well known, benchmark for all crypto. Wether you like btc or not, it’s a must have. Eth=> same thing, low inflation, sometimes deflationary when there’s high usage. Eth = benchmark smartcontracts (see it like microsoft/apple OS). Iaw must have Some others you should check out: Link Aave Cardano Just stay away from memecoins unless you want to actively manage those positions every 5 seconds. They are useless, are insanely high inflationary, dependant on whales pumps and dumps. If the market crashes and stays down for some years, inflation would absolutely flood the market which makes it even worse. Also meme coins make you doubt, because they dont have utility, so they usually get sold at heavy losses.

xpresstuning

If long-term storage is what you want, you merely need to create the wallet with as many risk mitigating factors as possible; you do this once. you can either use a fresh USB with Tails OS + Electrum, or a factory-reset phone with no SIM. You back up your seed-phrase, passphrase, derivation path and public master key. You then delete/destroy everything. You export the master public key (xPub). You can then import that xPub anywhere as a "Watch-Only" wallet to receive Bitcoin. You don't need a signing device for that. I use a "Watch-Only" wallet that can generate receiving addresses. I can import my xPub anywhere, on any wallet, on any phone. Currently, I use Bluewallet. I can accumulate Bitcoin and monitor every single transaction. 5 years from now, when I'll inevitably replace my phone, I'll install Bluewallet and import my xPub again. A decade from now if Bluewallet isn't available, I'll use a different wallet and import my xPub there. I don't mean to argue, I'm just passionate about Bitcoin and witnessing how deceptive the marketing for these hardware "wallets" are, and the over-relience on this middle-man, people need to be aware that other options to preserve their multi-generational wealth exists. As long as your aware of that, do what you believe is right with your wealth.

Radiokot1

1. Your smartphone has various interfaces, radio and physical, through which it can be hacked 2. It is never offline. It is connected to cell towers even without a SIM card 3. You can't neither control nor verify the software running on your smartphone. Beside the main OS, it has proprietary closed-source code running in radio chips 4. If it is an old smartphone never connected to the Internet, it doesn't have the latest security updates for the operating system and could probably be hacked in 0 clicks by simply connecting it to a computer 5. All the cryptographic operations are done in a general purpose CPU On the other hand: 1. Hardware wallet is a bare minimum device designed specifically for signing transactions, it doesn't have unnecessary unsafe interfaces 2. You can verify the software running on it 3. A hardware wallet uses a dedicated secure chip to store the keys and do the signing

jawni

It's just two acronyms. EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) OS(operating system)

metinota

If I remember this right, 2011 was back in the era when you would mine bitcoin using your computer's CPU with what is now called the **Bitcoin Core** client. There should be a file called **wallet.dat** on that hard drive that contains the private keys needed to "move" or transfer the bitcoin. If you lose that file, you lose access to the bitcoin. Bitcoin Core from that era did *not* encrypt the wallet.dat file, but your friend's father may have encrypted it some other way to keep it safe. See if you can find the wallet.dat file by mounting the hard drive to a computer not connected to the internet. Better if it's a freshly installed OS that has never been connected to the internet. You don't want malware stealing a copy of that file. In parallel to this, install Bitcoin Core on your computer and it will set up a new, empty wallet. Learn how to buy bitcoin on an exchange and move the bitcoin into and out of this wallet. This becomes your learning platform where you can make mistakes and not lose big. When you've learned enough, you can then start working with the really valuable ancient wallet.dat file (on a fresh computer). When you open Bitcoin Core and have it use this file, it will show you the transaction history and bitcoin balance that it holds. Good luck and be patient!

riscten

There were no hardware wallets in 2012. You commented that you were using Wasabi Wallet, but that [first released in 2018](https://github.com/WalletWasabi/WalletWasabi/releases/tag/v0.7.0). Also a BSOD is not "a critical failure". It's just the OS informing you that something's wrong. >a computer that has since experienced a critical failure—specifically, a blue screen of death. ...is like saying "my car experienced a critical failure—specifically, an OBD-II code." Which brings me to the most important part: Those em dashes. This post *reeks* of ChatGPT. Idk what your end goal is OP, but you need to get better at this, because you've been shit at it so far.

Dhaupin

Ah thanks! There is a 6th level too, the actual libraries/protocols/OS used to run the wallet apps. Although this may not be as much of a concern due to OSS and whatnot. However, there could be fringe cases where library injection occurs, hijacking code or whatever. Another fun fact, private keys are public. The chances of finding a working key are slim, but the chance is there, just from guessing. Check out keys.lol, a centralized list of all btc keys.... Lol.

siasl_kopika

easy; bitcoin is the ideology of not blinding trusting other people. If you are okay with blind trust, you can just use fiat banks, and trust them to act in your interest. If you are okay with blind trust you can just use windows os; and trust that bill gates will keep your computer free of viruses and malware. Its pretty obvious that blind trust fails every time. The bitcoin ideology of not trusting, is also the open source ideology: Show me the code. \> diving into unknown waters A completely ignorant person at least has a chance of safety with linux. with windows you have zero chance of safety. You will be compromised. Its the same as just holding fiat savings and hoping the value will go up. A person who doesnt understand money is still better off with bitcoin than fiat. Windows, and similar closed source products, are a non-option for opsec. Its a non-starter to use them an expect any safety or privacy. It doesnt matter how hard you try, windows cannot be secured. A completely computer illiterate person has a reasonably good chance of safety on a linux, because it just lacks any easy way to be compromised. While a windows can be backdoored by clicking a single link in an email or on a website. picking up a cheapish laptop and installing a linux on it is super easy. then slap on electrum or wasabi wallet and you are in a good starting place. If you want a hardware wallet, get a coldcard or whatever brand is open source. There is even more you can do if you want higher levels of security; but the starting point is always the same: open source OS with open source wallet. Never compromise there or you will be building a house on a foundation of sand.

lovetradingcrypto

If your priority is true cold storage and long-term peace of mind, you’ll want to look deeper than just brand recognition. \- Trezor is widely known, but it’s USB-connected and not fully air-gapped a step removed from pure cold storage. \- Tangem is convenient, but it’s NFC-based and reliant on your smartphone. You’re still introducing a hot element into the flow. If you’re serious about Bitcoin security, look for, 100% offline signing (no Bluetooth, no USB, no NFC), EAL7-certified OS (the highest security certification in the world, No private key exposure, ever (even during setup) That’s where truly air-gapped, QR-based wallets like NGRAVE ZERO stand apart. Designed in Belgium. Manufactured in Europe. No attack surface, no compromises.. You want the Coldest.

Evening-Patience9801

what is OS repository?

Xxshark888xX

Why don't you open an OS repository and document it? That would definitely help a lot of people and increase trust. So no, thanks, I don't have time to waste reading your script.

PM_ME_A_STEAM_GIFT

Didn't those Covid apps require an official API to be released by Apple/Google specifically to enable the contact trace use case? I understand that something like this would be possible to implement on an OS level. I just suspect that this wouldn't fly if an app tried to do it.

RectalSpawn

"They are smart UPS units—programmable, updatable, and capable of communicating directly with the election system **via USB, serial port, or Ethernet.** ES&S systems, including central tabulators and Electionware servers, rely on Tripp Lite UPS devices. ES&S’s Electionware suite runs on Windows OS, which automatically trusts connected UPS hardware." Reading comprehension.

RectalSpawn

Can none of you read, at all? "They are smart UPS units—programmable, updatable, and capable of communicating directly with the election system *via USB, serial port, or Ethernet.* ES&S systems, including central tabulators and Electionware servers, rely on Tripp Lite UPS devices. ES&S’s Electionware suite runs on Windows OS, which automatically trusts connected UPS hardware." They're not communicating via a power cord. My god. The work is all done for you and you still can't grasp it.

xpresstuning

They're more secure than computers, but they're an unnecessary risk with a wide attack surface depending on the various apps you install, what sites you frequently visit, how up to date the OS is. If you're using a shitcoin software wallet on top, your risk just compounded two-fold, because they're prone to hacks, scams and deceptive tactics via shit like "contracts". The function of a hardware wallet is to keep your seed-phrase completely offline and only allow transactions to happen with the hardware wallet. Thus, mitigating the risk to 0.

x_lincoln_x

Anal OS. It's in the name.

fllthdcrb

I'm not sure if this has been emphasized enough: Whatever you do, **don't just delete the wallet with your seed phrase in it**. Otherwise, you will never be able to do anything with the bitcoin you receive. You need to have the seed phrase recorded in some form. Make sure it's stored in as secure a manner as possible, since if anyone finds it, they will be able to "restore" the wallet and steal your coins, and you most likely won't know they found the seed phrase until it's too late. And yeah, a hot wallet is potentially insecure. It's best to avoid generating the seed phrase on a system that is connected to the Internet, or even that *will* be connected to the Internet, in case some malware captures the sensitive data and uploads it somewhere later. > buying a cold wallet would cost me a lot "Cold wallet" is not the same as "hardware wallet". "Cold" just means not having an Internet connection. If you can't afford a hardware wallet, there may be other possible solutions. Not as good, probably, but maybe good enough for your purposes. If you have some sort of PC, you can use a "live operating system", which should reduce malware risks. 1. Take a bootable medium, like a USB drive, and put a live OS on it, with suitable wallet software installed. 2. Shut down. 3. For extra security, disable the network capabilities at as low a level as possible (if by chance you are connected solely through a wired connection, or you use wireless but the adapter is not built-in, just unplug it; if you're connect through wireless with a built-in adapter, though, disabling it would have to be at the BIOS/firmware level). 4. Boot the live OS. 5. Run the wallet software, and use it to create a new wallet. 6. Write down both the seed phrase and the xpub/zpub (used to generate the watch-only). 7. **Test that you can restore from the seed.** If this fails, generate a new wallet, and try again. 8. Write down the first one or two addresses in the wallet. 9. Shut down (and re-enable Internet if you disabled it before). 10. Create your watch-only based on the xpub/zpub. Check that the first one or two addresses match what you wrote down before. What is suitable wallet software? Well, a popular choice is [Electrum](https://electrum.org/). Do note, however, Electrum generates its own seeds that are incompatible with the BIP 39 standard most other wallets use. So only use it if you plan to use only it when you eventually need to spend the coins. You can still use many different applications for the watch-only. Another choice I can vouch for is [Sparrow](https://sparrowwallet.com/), which does fully support BIP 39, so you would be able to use most any other wallet for spending later. It's less popular, though, and is less likely to be installed in a live OS image. Expect to have to install it yourself, and maybe an appropriate Java VM as well; you could download it/them from within the live OS (but only if you haven't disabled Internet), or put the downloadables on the medium beforehand. The interface is also less straightforward, though there is documentation (you may ignore the parts about configuring a server for now).