easy offline bitcoin storage guide
requirements: coldcard q, phone
This guide will get you setup with using bitcoin in a reasonably easy, affordable, and secure way. It is best to keep bitcoin keys offline and never connected to the internet. Someone would need physical access to steal money, similar to gold secured in a safe.
- buy a coldcard q, two steel plates, and a steel punch
- create pin
- click new seed words
- click 24 words
- the screen will show you 24 words
- backup your wallet by storing the secret backup words somewhere safe using the steel plate
a. this is called your seed
b. anyone with access to these words can spend your bitcoin
c. never enter them into your computer or phone
d. enter them directly into a coldcard when restoring from backup
e. if you have a second coldcard, practice the recovery process by recovering the seed words into the second coldcard, if you did the back up correctly both coldcards should show the same receive addresses - download bull wallet to your phone
- click create new wallet
a. this creates two online connected spending wallets, one for onchain, one for lightning
b. lightning is best for transfering to and from exchanges like strike, and for spending
c. backup these wallets as well: click settings button at the top right, click wallet backup, click start backup
d. now lets connect your offline wallet - click the settings button at the top right
- click bitcoin settings
- click import wallet
- click coldcard q
- follow instructions to link your device
- going forward you will setup receive and send transactions in the app, and then you will use qr codes to approve sends from your coldcard
- get comfortable with the process by sending small amounts between your online and offline wallets
note: the app has built in support for the bull bitcoin bitcoin brokerage service, it is not necessary to use that, you can easily use both your online and offline wallets with any exchange
