We have previously reviewed various Cryptocurrency hardware wallets available in the market, while purchasing one is a no brainer – the problem was with storing the private keys / wallet recovery seeds which would be required to recover the funds in case the wallet fails or gets damaged.
Crypto enthusiasts, for a long time now, have been using various methods like writing down the private keys in a paper and storing them in fire proof vaults, saving it as a .txt file on pendrives and placing them in bank lockers so on.
All of these have been a painful process and there have been multiple people who lost their coins due to natural calamities. Regular posts pop up on bitcoin subreddits with people sharing their experiences on losing their wallets due to fires, floods and earthquakes.
Cryptosteel aims to solve the problem with the way we store our private keys offline.
We got in touch with the man behind Cryptosteel, Wojciech Stopinski, who is one among the many in the crypto community to have lost paper backups.
He came up with Cryptosteel, which he claims to be “an indestructible backup tool for optimal offline storage of private keys, passwords and wallet recovery seeds without any third-party involvement”
We got a Cryptosteel to see if it stands up to its claims of being the indestructible backup tool, Wojciech claims it to be.
Setting it up
It is no rocket science to get started but there is an error in the instructions printed behind the Cryptosteel package. It shouldn’t take longer than a few seconds to figure it out though.
You would have to unscrew it counter clock wise to open it
The same applies to the process of closing it. You will have to screw it clock wise to lock it instead of what is given in the instructions.
Less than ideal packaging
It took me close to 50 minutes from unboxing it to setting it up with my mnemonic. I would admit it wasn’t a pleasant experience but given the fact that it is a one time thing it is not something that one must complain about especially with the peace of mind one gets after setting it up.
Once you are done closing it up you can keep it in a place of your choosing. One of the best features of it is that it is really compact. The thickness is more or less equal to a phone.
Going beyond crypto:
While the primary use case for the Cryptosteel is to store Bitcoin private keys in BIP39 format, it can also be used to store various other alphanumeric strings. These could include the master password to your favorite password manager or a PIN that is needed to access your funds from the bank.
Conclusion:
While Hardware wallets like the Ledger nano & Trezor are the way to go for safety and usability, there is no doubt about needing a tool like Cryptosteel to supplement them.
You can purchase it right now from the official website here.
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