If you have decided to place your faith in Bitcoin
If you have decided to place your faith in Bitcoin despite its bearish trends of late and bought some BTC holdings for yourself, you are probably wondering about how to store them.
If you are absolutely confused about how to choose a wallet, you may want to begin by reading our article that answers your question: Offline or Online? How Should You Store Your Bitcoins?
If you have already found an answer to the question and have set your heart on cold storage options, you may be interested in using a USB Stick to store your Bitcoins.
There are several ways to do so and this article will help you with figuring out the steps.
You May Also Read: How To Secure Crypto Wallets?
Why Choose Cold Storage In the Form of USB Sticks?
Cold storage devices for storing cryptocurrencies basically involves storing your private keys in an encrypted device that is not connected to the internet.
While many online service providers will give you the option of using their online wallets, and top cryptocurrency exchanges will also furnish you with an online wallet, these are in a great risk of being hacked by scammers that abound the crypto space.
Choosing a cold storage device, despite their many faults, ensures that one very potent avenue of hacking and theft is blocked off effectively enough for you to feel a little more secure about your holdings.
What are USB Sticks for Crypto Storage?
USB (Universal Serial Bus) refers to an interface that is capable of connecting a host computer with an external device. There are various kinds of USB sticks you may use to store your crypto holdings.
While one type may include well known hardware wallets with USB support (like Ledger), you can also save your private keys in a normal pendrive that’s been encrypted for safe storage.
Encrypted USB Drive for Storing Bitcoins
If you want to use an ordinary pendrive (preferably with encryption to ensure adequate levels of security), you can easily do so in a way that is very similar to making a Bitcoin paper wallet, barring a crucial step.
In order to proceed, we strongly recommend that you read our guide on how to make a Bitcoin paper wallet. In this method, you can generate your private keys for a paper wallet storage using any of the paper wallet generator available online.
In the second last step right before folding it for storage, instead of printing out your private keys, you will have to save the ready-to-print file to your USB stick that you should already have connected to your computer by now. In this way, you can have your Bitcoin saved in a USB stick.
You May Also Read: 10 Reasons To Buy Bitcoin in 2018
Hardware Wallet for USB Support
One example of a well-known hardware wallet that provides USB support is the Ledger Nano S. Although it is not exactly a traditional form of USB stick, it comes with a micro-USB cable.
It topped our list of Best Cryptocurrency Wallets of 2018 for a reason, the reason being its stellar security features and tools for backing up data in case you lose the hardware wallet.
Besides this, the OpenDime wallet also provides read-only USB access and may be used as a hardware wallet option with a USB support. The Ledger HW.1 also works well enough in this regard.
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