Is it Wise to Store Bitcoin on a TREZOR Before and During Bitcoin Hard-Forks?
Just so you know, this is an honest question. I don't have the answer and would like for someone, anyone, who knows a thing or two about this to PLEASE, please, please, please speak up on it.
My concern with the Trezor is that I only know of one "private key" that it uses and provides me with and that's the "master private key" (MPK), which consists of 24 random "seed words". I don't currently know how to discover the private keys to the various public keys that I've used under the MPK and I'm not sure if that's even necessary.
Does anyone out there reading this know if, and how, to claim all bitcoin from any hypothetical bitcoin forks from storing bitcoin on a Trezor?
Is having the MPK good enough to claim my proportion of ownership of the bitcoin block-chain and any hypothetical forked chains? If so, how does one go about obtaining "bitcoin-A", "bitcoin-B", ..., etc.?
It is no problem to keep the coins on your TREZOR. In case of a Hard Fork you will have both coins.
You can read the full article here.
https://blog.trezor.io/contingency-plan-bitcoin-hard-fork-b6ce85cde028
Cheers
Thank you very much for providing. You've put my mind at ease :)
Having the "master private key" or really the seed for the hierarchical determination is the same as having your private keys.
A master key allows you to derive an unlimited number of private keys. The method for turning the 24 word seed into private keys is known, implemented and published in the form of BIP 32.
More information can be found here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet
The electrum approach is more foolproof but negates all the benefits of using a HD wallet in the first place - let alone the secureity offered by not needing to load your master private key into a computer.
@kyle.anderson Great response! Do you care to share more about the electrum approach?
FYI with comments like that you will always earn big upvotes on my Steemit blog ;)
Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this, Kyle. I really appreciate it.
@jamesbrown Trezor supports BIP148 so that means that if Bitcoin does split for some reason and your Bitcoin is on Trezor, you will definitely not lose your Bitcoin. If Bitcoin splits into two separate blockchains, your Bitcoin holdings would entitle you to an equal number of coins of both those blockchains and they would appear on your Trezor wallet in the very unlikely event that Bitcoin does split come August.
The only risk you would run would be that the value of all your bitcoin holdings within these two blockchains (old Bitcoin and new Bitcoin) would be worth less than the value of your bitcoin before the split. However then you would be in the same boat as everyone else who owns Bitcoin.
I don't understand this question: "I don't currently know how to discover the private keys to the various public keys that I've used under the MPK and I'm not sure if that's even necessary."
I know a thing or two about crypto so I'd be happy to answer it if you can rephrase it.
I hope you found this answer helpful. Let me know if you or your readers have any more questions @jamesbrown
Every bit of info I can get is helpful, so I appreciate you sharing your knowledge on this.
In the question that you pointed out, I was working from the (mis?)understanding that each public key has its own unique private key. All that I currently know for my Trezor is the MPK (24 seed-words), which, as I understand it, is the the key to having access to all the private/ public keys used within the Trezor.
Yes, each public key has a private key. Did my statement somehow negate that?
In any case Trezor as you know has a long reputation of being very secure and safe so it's likely the number one safest place to store your Bitcoin now.
No, nothing you said negated it. I was just trying to clarify my understanding and my position. I have a MPK (24 seed words), but I don't know the unique private key(s) to the hundreds of public keys that I generated between my BTC wallet, DASH wallet, and ETH wallet on the Trezor. As I now understand it, I don't need to know those private keys because the MPK generates them (all private keys are stored in/ under the MPK).
I agree on your assessment of the Trezor, which is why I store close to all my BTC, ETH, DASH, and ZCASH on it.
@jamesbrown Sorry I didn't reply for a couple of days, I was on a flight from Bangkok to Amsterdam.
As to Trezor, if I'm not mistaken you have many encrypted private keys on your Trezor which can only be decrypted with your unique MPK.
No prob. I'll figure it out when I have to. For now, it's good enough to know that the MPK is the "key" that gives access to real block-chain ownership (private keys).
Here's a more up-to-date response from the TREZOR.IO (dated July 18, 2017), regarding how the TREZOR will handle a hard-fork, if you're interested.
Thanks again to @pzd3mir for providing the other link, dealing with questions concerning a possible "bitcoin unlimited" (BTU) hard-fork.
I am really not an expert on this stuff, but I'm putting my BTC in my Electrum wallet for the next couple weeks. I choose Electrum specifically because it allows me to access the private keys directly (of course, there are plenty of others that do as well). I'd have the same concern as you - if you don't have the PKs, and you want to get control of your bit of the various hypothetical BTC forks, how do you do it?
The MPK seems like it should let you generate the PKs directly, but I don't know exactly and I find the Electrum approach just more foolproof.
Having the "master private key" or really the seed for the hierarchical determination is the same as having your private keys.
A master key allows you to derive an unlimited number of private keys. The method for turning the 24 word seed into private keys is known, implemented and published in the form of BIP 32.
More information can be found here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet
The electrum approach is more foolproof but negates all the benefits of using a HD wallet in the first place - let alone the secureity offered by not needing to load your master private key into a computer.
That's kind of where I was leaning with all this too, only I was looking at the client wallet as the option to obtain private keys.
Electrum does seem more feasible though, thanks to not requiring to download all the block-chain transactions.
Thanks for your response :)
Frankly I do not know
But you can search you will find a lot of information
Yeah, I've gotten ample info and a clear answer to my question, thanks to the many who've commented on this post -- It IS wise to store BTC on the Trezor during a BTC hard-fork.
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