Store cold storage data
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- Shut down any nearby computers or smartphones, or other devices with cameras.
- Immediate storage of
Cold Storage Information Packets
- Double-check to make sure each envelope contains a handwritten private key and a Cold Storage Information Page.
- Seal each envelope.
- Use tamper-resistant seals in addition to the envelope’s normal adhesive to seal it.
- Immediately put all Cold Storage Information Packets in the safest possible location in your home or office that is immediately accessible.
- No, really. Like right now. That’s basically a huge pile of cash you have just sitting there in envelopes on your desk.
- Hardware storage
- Put tamper-resistant seals on the ends of all USB drives.
- Close the quarantined laptops, and seal the screen shut with a tamper-resistant seal.
- Store the hardware somewhere where it is unlikely to be used by accident.
- Maintenance planning
- Create a reminder for yourself in six months to execute the Maintenance Protocol . (If you don’t have a reminder system you trust, find one on the web.)
- Long-term storage of
Cold Storage Information Packets
- As soon as possible, transfer each Cold Storage Information Packet to its secure storage location (e.g. safe deposit box).
- Don’t put more than one packet in long-term storage in the same building! Storing two keys in the same building increases the risk of losing both keys in a disaster (e.g. fire) or to a thorough thief.
- If you are entrusting any packets to trusted signatories:
- Do not send them the packet electronically – no e-mail, no photograph, no “secure instant message”. If they are distant, using a courier service is probably fine, as long as you get tracking and send packets on different days and/or from different locations. (Prevents an opportunistic thief from happening across two of your private keys. Also avoids a case where you send all your keys out in the same batch, and that entire batch is lost – along with your access to your money.)
- Tell them verbally who the other signatories are, to facilitate access to funds if you are dead or incapacitated.
- Instruct them not to keep any related notes on or with the packets. In the event the key is seen by someone untrustworthy or stolen by a random thief, such clues help them understand the significance of the key and give them an incentive to plot further thefts or attacks.
- Remember that signatories will have the ability to know your cold storage balance!
You have finished securing your cold storage funds.