Use the Wallet

The default: use an old Android phone as the signing device.

Keep a watch-only wallet on your everyday phone to receive coins and check the balance; only when you send coins do you need to enter the “seed words + passphrase” into the signing device.

If you already own a hardware wallet, keep using it — but do not use it to generate your seed words (don’t put your faith in the “true random number chip” or “multiple entropy sources” a vendor advertises; don’t outsource the most important first step), spend ten minutes generating the toughest seed with dice. And before you use the hardware wallet, read the hardware wallet rules of use and hold those lines.

If you don’t own a hardware wallet, an old Android phone can be the best signing device there is. Here is why:

1. Safe enough: keep the old phone offline; modern Android protects data no less well than a so-called “secure element”.
2. Private enough: news of hardware-wallet vendors leaking customer names and addresses keeps coming; a single delivery record can expose you to a $5 wrench attack. An old Android phone carries no such risk.
3. More eyes auditing it: even when a hardware wallet’s firmware is open source, its user base is small — how many people have actually read it? Put a battle-tested open-source wallet like Electrum on an old Android phone, and far more eyes may be watching it.

Whichever device signs: generate your seed words yourself with dice (Generate seed words), and store them per the four iron rules in Back Up Your Wallet.