29th May 2023 > > Tangem and two legends.
- Mark Timmis
- May 29, 2023
- 3 min read
tl;dr
Cold storage without a seed phrase could be a game-changer for mass adoption of cryptos.
Market Snap (at time of writing)
Market Wrap
It is now just over a year since the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, one of a series of disastrous events that derailed cryptos during 2022. This day last year I reported BTC at $29,000, pretty much where we are today. That has been a ride and a half. All those using DCA (dollar cost averaging) have taken advantage of the intervening volatility. Well done to you all, I am proud of you.
Occasional Series – Football nonsense
It is with a heavy heart that I report that Everton were not relegated to the Championship. What is annoying is that Doucoure, once a darling of The Rookery, scored that goal.
The ideal scenario would have been that the Toffees, and the club who will forever more be associated with misogyny, homophobia, and racism suffered the plunge. But with all their ill-gotten riches, Newcastle will never flirt with that danger again.
It is also true that at the beginning of the season you could get 15s on Leicester being relegated, and many pundits called it. As the creators of probably the last miracle of the Premier League I do find that sad. Not least because their elevation to the Premiership was delayed by this extraordinary goal:
Yes, that is Robin and I behind the goal.
…
With Luton being promoted giving a platform for their hardcore racist fans, and oil money now dominating the prem, I am really, really, happy to spend next season watching proper Championship football at Vicarage Road.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Tangem
Tangem is a different take on the practice of cold storage.
The CCC has long been a fan of Ledger Nano X, and before that the S. The app is easy to use, functionality is continually growing, and it segues nicely with MetaMask for Web3 interaction.
It does of course suffer from one key drawback in common with all other wallets – the need to securely store your 24-word seed phrase.
If you lose your Ledger and the seed phrase your funds are gone forever. If someone finds your seed phrase, it is a simple matter to steal your crypto stash.
These are significant obstacles in the way of mass adoption of cryptos on a retail level.
But perhaps there is a new solution – Tangem.
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Not wishing to sound like a salesman (I have no skin in the game) I have just stumbled across Tangem, and it looks interesting:
From the website:
“Tangem is a card-shaped self-custodial cold wallet which gives you full control of your private keys. Store, buy, earn, transfer and swap 6000+ of coins and tokens.”
Apart from looking like a credit card, there is nothing unique in that description. But dig a little deeper and this is what you find:
“When you activate Tangem Wallet, the chip in the card generates a random private key which never gets exposed.”
Now that is a potential game-changer.
The core concept is that you buy a 2- or 3-card set with the additional cards acting as back-up. Interaction is via a phone app of course, presumably protected by a PIN. The obvious place to store one of the back-up cards is that same security box at your bank that currently holds your spare Ledger Nano.
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I am putting my order in today and I will report back shortly.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – What about this for a trade
A wallet that participated in the Ethereum ICO in 2015 has just moved the 8,000 ETH bought in the ICO for the first time:
Initially costing just $2,500 this bag is now worth $15mm.
Another legend.
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