Yeah I definitely want to invest my life savings in something I need to keep on a USB key.
Who told you to invest your entire life savings in crypto? That seems like a foolish strategy even to someone who is quite bullish on cryptocurrency in general (me).
As for "something you need to keep on a USB key", that's just silly. If you take responsibility for the security of your own funds it's really not difficult. Buy a hardware wallet and back up the keyphrase in a safety deposit box. There, you're done... now you'd have to both lose/break the wallet and have the bank's vault go up in smoke simultaneously to lose your funds.
There are good options to avoid leaving currency on exchanges.
Using a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor (which I assume is what you're referring to) is not like storing your currency on a USB.
The wallet facilitates access to your private key. If the wallet is damaged, access to your private key can be restored using a passphrase.
That's safe. Convenience depends on how often you need it (and so there's not one standard of convenience you can quantify without being the actual person who's using it.)
> That's safe.
It is quite safe, but still not as safe (World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, ...) as your money in an account with insurance. And much more inconvenient.
You can also replace "one" with an arbitrarily-large number, depending on how many locations you want to store the money in.
It's not. But compared to storing large amounts of dollars, pounds, or euros, it is easier.
> Yes, you can set up a system that is very resistant to failure. But my grandma doesn't understand the difference between minimizing a window and deleting her facebook account. I'm not excited about explaining SSS to her.
Your grandma won't need to know about any of that, because she'll probably continue to trust an organisation to look after her money for her.
Just because cryptocurrencies make it feasible for people to not trust other entities with their money doesn't mean that everyone will.
You can read books yourself but it's so much easier to just listen to the vicar reading them out instead.
People learn things that are helpful to them.
I'm not entirely convinced it isn't for some people. USBs can break, keys can be lost. Exchanges can be insured and put a lot more time and energy into keeping things secure.
There have definitely been a few tremendous failures, but there's an argument for keeping it in a trustworthy big exchange, if such a thing exists. Same reason banks hold money - you don't want your house burning down or burglary to pose a problem. If someone stumbles upon your recovery keys it's game over.
To protect myself from fire or flood, I have one of these: https://cryptosteel.com/ in a safe deposit box.
Hardware wallet sits in my desk and is protected by a pin.
Both the 24 security words and hardware wallet are protected by a password.
I can use a different password to access different wallets.
I can back up my account balance by simply saving a copy of the blockchain.
Banks suck. I can't wait for them to die.
And yeah, cryptosteel. What's the difference between that and a post-it? It seems like pretty much a really small movable type. Their site reads like a Franklin Mint commercial.
If bitcoin becomes currency like you hope, you're going to run into the same problems, security versus convenience.
Um, no. When I spend bitcoin, I'm not exposing myself to the risk of someone having complete access to my account. When I use a debit card I am. Huge difference.
> What's the difference between that and a post-it?
Post it notes burn. Also, cryptosteel is only for the security words. It still won't give access to my wallet's private key.
> If bitcoin becomes currency like you hope, you're going to run into the same problems, security versus convenience
First, it already is a currency. Second, the security model of bitcoin is infinitely better than that of a bank.
So it's a post-it that won't burn.
And if it doesn't give access to your wallet, how does it protect your wallet? If it can be used to gain access to your wallet, then how is writing it down safe?
Huh? I think this comment shows you don't know what a hardware wallet is. When I spend bitcoin, I spend it using my hardware wallet.
> If it can be used to gain access to your wallet, then how is writing it down safe?
You need a passphrase along with the security words to figure out the private key. Passphrase = something long that I can easily remember.
2) Your insurance only applies up to 250k. So keep 250k in your bank, and the rest in bitcoin since it's more secure.