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0 pointsgonehome4y ago0 comments

Obviously that is not as easy/useful/realistic as a wallet you can generate from memorized seed words to instantly recover your wealth anywhere.

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lottin4y ago

How does that protect you from someone who can seize your device? If they can seize your device they can also seize any physical assets that you possess. So your wealth exists only nominally, you can't really spend it.

gonehomeOP4y ago

The device holds a private key that can be regenerated from 12 seed words.

The device itself doesn't really matter if you know these 12 words.

The key is what lets you update ownership information on the public block chain. The wallet doesn't hold any coins on the device, just a key that let's you update the chain of public ownership.

For example:

- You live in Russia and see the writing on the wall for invasion and currency collapse

- Prior to the invasion you move 90% of your wealth into a BTC wallet.

- The invasion happens and the currency collapses.

- You want to escape the country, but the border exits are guarded by corrupt guards that will steal any money/valuables you try to cross with.

- You memorize the 12 seed words of your wallet and cross the border with nothing.

- On the other side you recreate your wallet and restore access to your wealth in a safe country.

This isn't just a hypothetical, this kind of thing has already happened: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29518181

lottin4y ago

First of all, if you have to liquidate 90% of your wealth in the middle of a market crash you're going to lose most of it before you even get it out of the country. This, of course, assuming you can get out of the country, which for many people is not a realistic option. And finally, movements of capital across borders are highly regulated. You can't simply cross the border and "recreate" your wealth on the other side, because all you will have re-created is a pile of dirty money that now will have to be laundered at a great expense. All this is illegal, by the way.

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Dylan168074y ago

So a key step in there is finding someone that's willing to take your local currency in exchange for a not-local asset that you can access later.

Would it be very different if that asset was Euros? Or ownership of gold that's stored in Chile?

If you need any documents you can store them in a secret passworded account.

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lottin4y ago

gonehomeOP4y ago

The device holds a private key that can be regenerated from 12 seed words.

The device itself doesn't really matter if you know these 12 words.

The key is what lets you update ownership information on the public block chain. The wallet doesn't hold any coins on the device, just a key that let's you update the chain of public ownership.

For example:

- You live in Russia and see the writing on the wall for invasion and currency collapse

- Prior to the invasion you move 90% of your wealth into a BTC wallet.

- The invasion happens and the currency collapses.

- You want to escape the country, but the border exits are guarded by corrupt guards that will steal any money/valuables you try to cross with.

- You memorize the 12 seed words of your wallet and cross the border with nothing.

- On the other side you recreate your wallet and restore access to your wealth in a safe country.

This isn't just a hypothetical, this kind of thing has already happened: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29518181

lottin4y ago

1 more reply

Dylan168074y ago

So a key step in there is finding someone that's willing to take your local currency in exchange for a not-local asset that you can access later.

Would it be very different if that asset was Euros? Or ownership of gold that's stored in Chile?

If you need any documents you can store them in a secret passworded account.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse