The cryptocurrency space is all about owning your own money, and with that in mind it’s up to us to secure our funds. Users need to protect themselves against not just hackers, but also against their own mistakes as a simple mishap can see you lose your recovery phrases.
Many are unaware cryptocurrency wallets may not be enough to secure their funds. While they do keep your cryptocurrencies offline and away from hackers who may be trying to gain access to them, they’re also only a temporary solution. Their software may easily become outdated and lead to several potential problems. Users may forget the pin codes to access these, and natural disasters can completely destroy the wallets themselves.
Paper wallets are a cheaper solution, but paper wallets come with their own set of risks. As they are made of such a flimsy material, they can accidentally be thrown away, damaged, or lost. The solution to this kind of problem for many is in the form of metal seed storage devices, and CRYPTOTAG, a cryptocurrency firm, manufactures space graded titanium wallets on which to store cryptocurrencies.
These wallets can resist natural disasters, are definitely not going to be accidentally damaged or thrown away, and have no software. We conducted a short review using this wallet to see how what they are like to use, how they operate, and how it feels to have real value stored in them.
As soon as we open CRYPTOTAG’s Starter Kit, we’re greeted with a message sending us over to their tutorial page so we know what to do with what we’re being given. The page details the plates included in the box allows us to store first four letter of every word in a passphrase, in accordance with the protocol used by most hardware wallets.
These four letters are enough to recover a hardware wallet, so one plate – out of the two that come in the box – is enough to secure one cryptocurrency wallet. If additional plates are needed, they’re available on CRYPTOTAG’s website.
The box itself contains the items necessary to engrave the letters onto the titanium plates: a hammer, an anvil, punching letters, and a small box of matches to burn your old paper wallet when it’s no longer needed.
To engrave your passphrase onto the CRYPTOTAG plate you’ll need to use the hammer. It’s relatively heavy and the process may be a bit intensive but it certainly isn’t hard. To engrave the letters we just have to adjust the holder to get the letter into position.
A few firm, strong blows with the hammer are enough to engrave one letter. The process needs to be repeated a few times to get things done, but in the end it’s all worth it for the sake of security.
The plates also have boxes on the front that’ll allow us to engrave letters into them, so we can manage more than one wallet with ease. Before engraving anything make sure you’ll be doing it in a firm base. A good table should do it.
CRYPTOTAG’s Starter Kit also includes a couple of earplugs you may want to use while engraving the letters, as each hammer blow will make some noise.
Engraving the letters is a rigorous process, but once it’s done – that’s it. Your titanium cold storage wallet is now ready to help you hodl your cryptocurrency for years to come. The Starter Kit includes a box of matches you can use to burn your old paper wallet.
While some may think there’s no need to do that, burning it will avoid certain longshot scenarios, such as throwing it away or accidentally losing it and it ending up on the wrong hands.
According to CRYPTOTAG’s website, the titanium plates are bulletproof and can withstand temperatures of up to 1,660 ºC. Needless to say, the plates themselves will need to be stored in a secure place.