Cold Storage
wallet · security
A custody arrangement that keeps signing keys unavailable to ordinary internet-connected systems.
Cold storage reduces remote-attack exposure by keeping spending keys offline or inside a dedicated signing boundary until they are needed. It is an operating model rather than one device category.
Stronger isolation increases recovery, update, transaction-transfer, and physical-security complexity. A hardware wallet connected by USB can still provide key isolation, but whether it qualifies as "cold" depends on the system and threat model.
Backups, descriptors, passphrases, signer thresholds, and inheritance procedures are part of cold storage. An offline key with no tested recovery path is simply a single point of failure.
Related terms
Air-Gapped Wallet
→A signing setup designed to keep private keys on a device isolated from ordinary data networks.
wallet · security
Hardware wallet
→A physical signing device that keeps private keys isolated while approving cryptocurrency transactions.
wallet · security
Hot wallet
→An internet-connected wallet used for convenient spending or dApp access, with higher exposure to online threats.
wallet · security
Offline Signing
→Preparing a transaction on a connected device and authorizing it with keys kept on a separate offline signer.
wallet · security