Cold Crypto Storage: How To Never Lose Access to Your Money

Cryptocurrency prices may be highly volatile, but one thing for sure is that they are here to stay. They were only seen as an alternative to make efficient transactions across borders in the early days. However, governments’ arbitrary inflation of fiat currencies has seen Cryptocurrencies become a far more reliable store of value. But like every nascent industry, the storage of digital assets in the blockchain world has been bedeviled by specific challenges. The anonymity and instantaneous features of blockchain transactions mean that the industry is disproportionately susceptible to fraud. There are two broad ways that users can store their cryptocurrency assets. Hot-wallets (software wallets) can operate on the web or through internet-enabled devices, and Cold wallets, which are physical devices that can store crucial crypto access keys. So far in 2021, Overall losses of funds across decentralized ledgers have exceeded $12 billion. Fraud and theft accounted for 90% of that sum, while 10% was due to crucial user errors such as loss of private keys, transfer of funds to wrong addresses, etc. This indicates that software wallets and custodial wallets carry a significantly higher risk. With Cold storage, on the other hand, assets are stored offline, and consequently, the risk of loss due to hacks, fraud, and operational lapses is mitigated. Experts widely agree that cold wallets are the safest and most secure way to store ...