Oddbean

I'm back to square one on my bitcoin self-custody solution search. I watched Coldcard "how to" videos, but I'm still scared I'm going to screw that up somewhere. Like, really scared. I promise, I can follow directions (I write them for a living), but often the directions I'm looking at do not match the current workflow exactly and my intuitive choices in those moments can mess up a process. This is not something I want to chance. I opted for a Bitkey because I could buy it and have it transferred there in one step, *not two*. When it arrived today, I couldn't set up the app. Turns out my up-to-date phone does not support NFC. 😔 (It's less than a year old, I never use the NFC function on the phone, and I thought it just came "standard" like an option in a car, so I didn't think about it.) How do you buy bitcoin and have it go directly into a cold-storage wallet in one transaction? Ideally, that's the setup I'm looking for. #asknostr

https://changelly.com/buy Have a look at this, it looks like you can submit a bitcoin address to pay to and then make the payment for a 1 step purchase to cold wallet. The only pre-step would be to get an address to send to. Is that the part you're scared of?

No, getting the address to send it to is easy. You just need one. What is intimidating and what I'm scared of messing up is first buying it somewhere, then sending it to Sparrow. To do that, I have to makes sure I first configured that the correct way. Once the bitcoin is in that wallet, then I now have to do bunch of steps to send it to a cold storage which (in coldcard's case) equals exporting the wallet to a file, popping out a microSD card, plugging it in to the computer, getting Sparrow to recognize it properly, doing a bunch of stuff, copy something, copy something else(?) and then pop the SD card out again and then plug it back into coldcard and do something else and something else. If all of that went OK, then I have to deal with something called uxtos. Compare that to with what I saw with Bitkey: 👉 Set it up. Buy bitcoin. It appears in wallet.

Hmm, technically the BitKey is much more complex behind the scenes but I know what you mean. The "setup" is done for you and you get a wallet on your phone without dealing with keys, seed words, xpubs etc. This is the benefit of using an opinionated product: you don't need to make decisions... but most Bitcoiners appreciate optionality because the whole space is constantly changing and we want to test and play with it all. But then again, here is how I see your situation: the order of steps in your description was not ideal so here's my take: 1. Set up the ColdCard (as you have done already). 2. Go to export your wallet and choose the QR Code option instead of export to file. (See https://coldcard.com/docs/q-quick/#export-wallet) 3. On Sparrow, click File > Import Wallet 4. Click the Scan button near ColdCard 5. Present the ColdCard device to the webcam. 6. Follow instructions to complete setup on Sparrow. By now you have linked the device and Sparrow without using SD Cards and making too many decisions like "did I pick the right file?". Now you can generate an address, copy it and paste into the site I linked above and buy Bitcoin. -------- FYI even BitKey uses third party services to buy Bitcoin, it lets you choose between Coinbase and Moonpay if I recall and you need to register with whichever one you choose. If this doesn't simplify it enough for you, you need the BitKey, I don't know any other product in the market that is opinionated like that. I think in the past they existed, but they were either unpopular or hard to maintain technically. Maybe it was also to do with the changing landscape of regulations. Now apps try to stick to being wallets, and tried to be less opinionated about subjective things like "which company should I buy Bitcoin from?"

Oh -- so Sparrow is basically acting like a UI for the Coldcard at that point, right? Because the Coldcard is obviously not a web browser. If my understanding is correct then Sparrow, in that respect, is DISPLAYING the same information from the Coldcard as if the information from the Coldcard was a mobile or laptop with a UI enabling it to interact with the outside world via the internet. I thought the steps with Sparrow included the requirement to send all the bitcoin to a NEW & DIFFERENT address within Sparrow first before you sent it Coldcard, making two transactions rather than the one. The information displaying from Sparrow, in what you described, is all the same stuff on the Coldcard making it one transaction, it just isn't exposing the key to Sparrow and thus not to the outside world. Do I have that right?

I’m sorry you are still looking for a col storage solution that works for you. I would recommend a Blockstream Jade. As for your question, all Bitcoin wallets (cold or hot) provide you with receiving addresses that you send the bitcoin to directly - in one step. This process usually means that your hardware wallet is connected to an app, and that app will hold all the public keys for you. If you have any questions or additional help, I’m more than happy to jump in a nostr nest 🪺 and guide you as much as I can.

If youbwant to set up a multisig, they have great guide shown to don't hat with sparrow or specter. Also somehow, the wallet itself will confirm that it's part of that multisig. I haven't tried that out yet but was thinking about it. Other than that they are really easy to use, and I would think they have all the feature one would need. The price is 150usd, maybe that is the reason?

I don't think the prices was the issue. The price of the Bitkey was the same. I think it's more about the steps involved. As another user pointed out, I may need to force myself to learn with small amounts and count it as the cost of learning now for greater piece of mind later.

The guy math-hew kratter mentioned about the bitkey the flaw of having no display, therefore being vulnerable to certain attack vectors..... I also liked the bitkey. But if you write it down 1 key in a hot wallet 1 key in a cold wallet with no display 1 key in someone else's hands... All together the solution is kind of good but it feels still a bit awkward....

> How do you buy bitcoin and have it go directly into a cold-storage wallet in one transaction? That's not a good idea which is why it's not easy to do. Mostly because of trust issues and it's more vulnerable to intercepts like man in the middle attacks. It's super easy to replace a Bitcoin address you copy to your clipboard with another address belonging to someone else. For your own security, do the transfers to cold storage yourself. Fees are very cheap at the moment so, now is the time to learn. Do a few transfers of tiny amounts of Bitcoin to cold storage until you become comfortable with how to do it safety. A couple of dollars spent now on Bitcoin fees for peace of mind is a bargain.

I love cold card “q” paired with sparrow and ur own node (multisig is even better)…but this is not a simple/convenient set up and clearly not for everyone. An alternative (esp for convenience and simplicity) is “nunchuck” (it can be used via free phone app and has concierge (for a fee) customer service available). It’s very simple and can be easily paired with multiple different cold wallets (cold card, jade, foundation passport/envoy etc). Most importantly if ur seeking easy/convenient control of self custodied BTC it can quickly be paired with any of the above and/or Coin kite tapsigners. The Tapsigners are very intuitive and (if ur interested) make multisig a breeze. The only negative for you with the Tapsigners is they will require nfc on ur phone…but for the “simplicity” it may be worth getting a new phone🤷🏽‍♂️. Also another thought is the Coldcard “q” which is much simpler and intuitive than the old cold card mark IV and has built in NFC Another great thing about nunchuck with Tapsigners and multisig is they make distribution of keys among ur heirs very easy (one for each heir and the last required for full multisig signing given to a trusted independent actor) while u maintain the majority of keys. For example u have 3 heirs and a trusted friend/associate and create a 4 out of 9 multisignature wallet. You keep 5 keys safely and preferably geographically separate and ur heirs and associate have the cumulative power to sign if something happens to you. For ease of more regular use you can keep a small amount of BTC in a single signature account/wallet also on the same nunchuck app to transfer small amounts on chain or top off lightning/ecash accts. By the way nunchuck itself is a watch only app which doesn’t see ur private keys. This prevents “nunchuck”, ur phone provider/OS and cellular service company from having access to ur funds. Srry…I know I rambled on there but I hope this helps

To be honest I did not research it at all. I followed recommendation. Trezor itself is pretty simple to use, depending on type is writing a pin more or less painful :D But it works for me as a lame person in way not more complicated than an old bank authorization device and standard app on PC.