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NODE/03 · Term

Cold Storage

A custody pattern in which the private key never touches an internet-connected device. Used for long-horizon capital: hardware wallets, paper wallets, air-gapped devices.

Aliases: cold wallet, offline storage

Cold storage keeps a private key on a device that is never connected to the internet. This neutralises remote attack vectors — malware, phishing, leaks, account takeovers — because there is no online path for the attacker to reach the key.

Forms of cold storage

  • Hardware wallet (Ledger, Trezor, Keystone, SafePal) — the private key lives in a secure element; signing happens without the key ever leaving the device.
  • Air-gapped device — a dedicated machine with no network interface (see air-gapped-wallet).
  • Paper wallet — the seed or private key written on paper (see paper-wallet).
  • Steel plate — seed phrase engraved on a fire- and water-resistant metal sheet.

When to use it

  • Long-term hodl — assets you won’t touch for months.
  • Organisation treasury — especially in combination with multisig and a sensible multisig-threshold.
  • High-risk jurisdictions where physical coercion is less likely than online attack.

What cold storage does NOT cover

  • Losing or damaging the seed-phrase backup itself.
  • Social engineering — entering the seed on a phishing site.
  • Coerced signing (the “$5 wrench attack”).
  • Bugs in the device firmware.

Context on TON

All major TON wallets (Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet) support Ledger. Ledger Live has a TON app; signing is mediated by a companion app on the host.

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