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Card Wallet Review (2020) | Coinfinity’s COLDEST Version Of A Hardware Wallet!
In this Card Wallet Review, I am going to dive into why this wallet if built for the coldest of cold who like to HODL!
Outside of exchanges, few cryptocurrency markets are as thriving as safekeeping. At this stage in Bitcoin’s life expectancy, trading crypto as well as keeping crypto appear to be the most prominent use situations for crypto –– in that order. Consequently, a flourishing aftermarket for crypto storage services has sprung up, both custodial as well as non-custodial, hot and cold, on the internet as well as offline.
Card Wallet from Coinfinity is the most recent product to go into the fray, offering a protected method for keeping BTC as well as ETH offline.
As the risks of keeping funds on the internet in custodial purses as well as exchanges have been highlighted with a wide variety of hacks as well as departure frauds, the freezer company has grown. From hardware purses looking like elegant thumb drives to gadgets disguised as calculators as well as charge card, the variety of methods to self-custody digital possessions seems unlimited.
So, What Is Card Wallet?
The just named Card Wallet by Coinfinity does precisely what it sounds like. On the surface, this plastic card appears like an incredibly low-tech method to store bitcoin core or ether, however its unprepossessing exterior is misleading. Peer a little closer at the credit scores card-shaped wallet as well as you’ll discover some fascinating details. There are all type of anti-counterfeiting steps at play on the Card Wallet’s service, including microprinting as well as constant color gradient methods, providing it a look much more similar to money.
The banknote-based style makes sense once you discover that Coinfinity –– Austria’s first Bitcoin business — developed this device in conjunction with the Austrian State Printing House. They’re best known for printing passports, a skill they’ve refined over the course of 200 years, and thus know a thing or two about anti-counterfeiting. The notion of forgery sounds strange in a crypto context.
After all, bitcoins are impossible to falsify. The reason why the Austrian State Printing House has gone to town on the anti-forgery techniques they’ve used is to prevent fake cards from entering circulation and to provide guarantees that the private key, which was generated offline, remains offline. The private key for the cryptocurrency address printed on the card is concealed beneath a hologram on the back. It’s accompanied by a warning not to scratch this area –– not even a little, just to test it –– as to do so would be to risk the security of your funds.
The Card Wallet is basically a modern version of the Casascius physical bitcoins that have become collector’s items today. The code printed beneath the Card Wallet’s seal can be thought of as Schrödingers key: until the moment it is observed through scratching off the protective covering, it effectively doesn’t exist. The manufacturer has no record of it.
As a result, you can send funds to the address printed on the front of the card, but you can’t retrieve them until you reveal that seal, and doing so will essentially penalize you to the tune of the $67 the Card Wallet retails for. Think of it as an extremely high BTC network fee, and use it as an incentive not to dip into the funds stored on the card, save for an emergency.
Of course, technically nothing is stored on the card: it simply holds the secret code needed to send the bitcoin from the address in which it is currently locked on the BTC network to a new address on the network. To all intents and purposes, though, Card Wallet might as well physically hold those coins, since without it to hand, you’ll never be able to move those coins again.
How Is Card Wallet Different Than A Normal Hardware Wallet Like Trezor Or Ledger?
Unlike a hardware wallet, there’s nothing to power up or plug in here, but that doesn’t mean that testing the Card Wallet is an entirely analog experience. There is, after all, the QR code printed on the wallet, which, when scanned, reads the BTC address printed along the center. In testing, I scan the code using the Bitcoin.com Wallet and am prompted to select the amount of BTC I wish to send.
When I drag the slider, the funds are released and that’s it: the first satoshis prepare to wing their way to my Card Wallet. When the time comes to move or sell that bitcoin, I will remove the security seal and import the private key that’s revealed underneath into a noncustodial wallet such as Electrum.
In theory, you could continue to use the wallet address securely, even with the seal scratched off, provided you destroyed the exposed private key. There would be little advantage to doing so, however, and it makes sense to view the wallet as compromised once the key has been revealed.
Is The Card Wallet Secure?
On the reverse of the card, there’s another QR code that can be scanned, marked Chainlockcode (CLC). This requires installation of a dedicated mobile app, which will display the balance of the card –– and of any other Card Wallets you wish to integrate into it –– allowing you to manage all your cards within one app without revealing their private keys.
Most people are unlikely to need this, since typing the wallet address into a block explorer achieves the same result, but if you’re a serial Card Wallet collector, it might prove useful While Coinfinity doesn’t support BCH at this time, bitcoin cash holders have the option of generating their own paper wallets, which can be printed at home.
Card Wallet: Final Verdict
This theoretically provides the same security guarantees, and with the wallet folded and sealed correctly, it is effectively tamper-proof, albeit without the same allure as Card Wallet’s impressive shiny hologram. Cold storing cryptocurrency isn’t about showing off, however, and the winning wallet is the one that keeps your funds the safest. Some bitcoiners will balk at paying $67, in the Card Wallet, for a cold storage solution they could roughly replicate at home for the cost of a sheet of printer paper.
Others will appreciate the imperviousness of the Coinfinity card, its convenient credit card shape, and its superior tamper-proof seal. As such, its value is really in the eyes of the beholder. For the same price you could pick up a basic hardware wallet, which will allow you to send, receive, and store a range of cryptocurrencies.
That said, there’s something magical about the seal on the Coinfinity that challenges you not to sully it, but rather to sporadically send funds to it, building up your nest egg over time.
What are your thoughts on Coinfinity’s Card Wallet– would you use it? Let us know in the comments section below.
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
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Tezos Ledger Nano X: Why I Stake My Tezos On My Ledger Nano X (2020)
In this review, we are going to see the SAFEST way to store your tezos ledger nano x, simulatenously! Tezos is self-amending, meaning that it does not need to go through regular hard forks in order to be upgraded. Even when hard forks are agreed upon by an entire network, they can create a lot of work for developers and node operators. Tezos has a more seamless upgrade process that does not involve regularly forking the blockchain. That said, it is possible for part of the network to decide to fork Tezos indeed, this has already happened during the initial KYC controversy.
The Tezos coin (XTZ) can be obtained through a number of prominent exchanges, including Kraken and Binance. Each exchange has different trading pairs, meaning that you can purchase XTZ by spending ETH, BTC, Tether, or fiat currency.
Traditional proof-of-stake, which is used in Ethereum’s upcoming Casper protocol, allows node operators to lock up their own tokens for a chance to validate blocks and earn token rewards. This system allows an unlimited number of nodes to vie for control over block validation, and the fact that countless stakers can exist makes the model highly decentralized. Unfortunately, staking is too expensive for many basic users: even if Ethereum lowers the minimum staking amount to 32 ETH, staking will still require thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile, delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) allows users to stake their tokens in order to vote for a limited number of block producers. EOS, for example, elects only 21 block producers, all of whom are large organizations that must dedicate massive amounts of computing power. This model has come under fire for centralizing power in the hands of a few block producers.
However, delegation and voting make it possible for less wealthy users to have an indirect say over the course of the blockchain. Tezos combines these two models with its unique liquid proof-of-stake mechanism. This model allows up to 80,000 block validators or bakers to accept delegated tokens. Bakers must hold 10,000 XTZ, which is, again, thousands of dollars.
However, Tezos also allows users with smaller holdings to delegate their tokens to bakers and receive rewards in return. In other words, liquid proof-of-stake permits users to either become a full-fledged block validator or merely delegate tokens to validators. The following infographic gets into some of the specifics of the baking process, which involves unique features like a “quality assurance team” and a “bonding” or “cooldown” phase: Just like Ethereum and EOS, Tezos supports smart contracts, which are blockchain programs that can execute automatic transactions.
Tezos Ledger Nano X: How Do I Stake My Tezos On My Ledger Nano X?
Staking with Tezos (XTZ) – Earn money while holding crypto assets | Ledger Staking is the process of holding funds in a cryptocurrency wallet to support the operations of a blockchain network and, in return, holders are rewarded for their contribution. This can be compared to earning interest in a traditional bank. Tezos is a multi-purpose blockchain which uses a Proof-of-Stake protocol to secure its network. Token holders can delegate their accounts to a validator, who will be in charge of securing the network on their behalf.
Tezos Ledger Nano X: How Do I Set Up Baking Tezos On My Ledger Nano X?
The user may then earn the rewards generated minus validator’s fees. Discover Ledger Live When staking, you can earn a passive income by participating in the Tezos network via delegation. The current annual yield on Tezos is around 6%, minus a validator’s fees. You can use Staking Reward’s calculator to estimate your monthly earnings.
When you first start delegating, it will take roughly five weeks for you to receive your first rewards from your validator. After this, you can expect rewards about every 3 days. In Tezos, the current consensus mechanism is known as Liquid Proof-of-Stake (LPoS).
Token holders can delegate their validation rights to other token holders (called validators) without transferring ownership of their tokens. Contrary to other DPoS protocol, in Tezos you delegate your whole account. When delegating, your XTZ are completely liquid. You are free to move your tokens anytime as there are no freezing periods when delegating to a validator. There are no direct risks of delegating XTZ. The only risk you take is not earning the potential rewards.
How Can I Earn Passive Income With Tezos?
Carefully choose your validator to ensure quality of service and rewards. Select the Tezos account you want to delegate in Ledger Live Choose your validator (baker) by comparing estimated reward rate Verify and confirm delegation information on your Ledger hardware wallet Tezos token holders who are not interested in being a baker themselves can delegate their tokens to a validator to bake on their behalf.
When performing a delegation operation, you only send your baking rights to a validator: your XTZ stay on your wallet and remain yours. As you retain ownership of your assets, you can keep your XTZ on your hardware wallet while staking via delegation. This is the best way to keep your assets safe.
You can bake on your own by setting up a node and having at least 8.000 XTZ (8.000 XTZ is called a “roll”). Baking yourself requires you to run a Tezos node, a baker & endorser client. You should have a reliable Internet connection and high-availability servers. The more delegated funds a baker receives, the greater the chance it has to produce blocks and earn rewards.
Tezos Ledger Nano X: Final Verdict
Overall, this article gives you a high level view of how Tezos works and how you can make money by “baking” your coins to help validate transactions on the network. You can spend a lot more money and become a “baker”, however that is out of reach for most people. This is why I use my Ledger Nano X to earn passive income, WHILE keeping my private keys safe and in my possession.
Don’t be fooled and believe that you can only do this on an exchange. That is the WORST way to do this, as you are making the money, and letting them keep possession of your keys. It’s easy to setup and you don’t need ANY technical knowledge to do this. In the video above, it explains how I easily did this and how you can too.
If you own and believe in the Tezos Project, there is no reason why you should not be earning passive income while doing so, in the safest way possible. What are you waiting for? Get a Ledger Nano X now so you can safely stake your rewards and not risk leaving your private keys on on an exchange or hot wallet, where you are at risk!
