Since cryptocurrencies emerged on the scene a few years ago, there have been countless blockchain protocols to choose from. With every new solution introduced, however, the technologies have become less interoperable. This has hampered the exchange of value between them and limited the mass adoption of digital currencies. The divergence in underlying technologies has also impacted support for cold wallet storage.
This was our case until the recent introduction of the COTI Cross Chain Bridge. The bridge enables the COTI Trustchain to communicate directly with other MainNets, creating an interconnected value chain. This new development also provides immediate support for hardware wallets, which wasn’t possible prior due to technical differences between the COTI Trustchain and other blockchains. COTI has not been supported across hardware solutions to date; however, by adding support for ERC-20 tokens, storing coins on cold wallets like the Ledger Nano S or Trezor has been made possible. Users can also stake coins through it to make earnings via specific dPOS and POS networks.
Cold Storage: Pros & Cons
Pros:
- A robust method for storing large amounts of cryptocurrencies for a long period of time.
- Greater security as the funds are stored offline.
Cons:
- Vulnerable to external damage, human error, and theft.
- Not efficient for micropayments and daily transactions.
Best practice tips for hot and cold wallets:
- Don’t keep your money on exchanges longer than you need to. If you day trade, understand the risks involved in doing so.
- Set up your hot and cold wallets by planning the amount of digital currencies you’ll be storing, whether you’ll use them over the short or long term and what security risks you’re willing to take.
- Use cold wallets for large amounts of money that you don’t plan on using for a while.
- Always use hardware wallets that are PIN or password-protected.
- Set up multi-signature, multi-party, or multi-factor wallets for weekly transactions.
- Reserve your hot wallet for micropayments.
How to store your COTI coins in a cold (hardware) wallet?
- Go to the COTI Cross Chain Bridge: https://bridge.coti.io/. Review the written guide or video tutorial for clear instructions.
- Enter the Ethereum address you wish to receive your COTI ERC-20 tokens into and follow the instructions. This address can also be the address of your cold wallet.
