Questions, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Set Up Monero

tl;dr: I have some monero on one of the .onion's. I want to take it off and have control of it, obviously. What is the safest way to do so?

Before you chime in on whether or not to even fuck with Monero, let me start by saying my mind is made up on messing with it.

Anyway... so I downloaded the latest TAILS iso and verified it with the TAILS' team signing key already included with TAILS. I also downloaded the latest monero build (is that the correct term here? "build"? Maybe "binary" or "version"? On an unrelated note, I should really google the differences between those terms... anyway... ) for linux and verified it via the hash, sha256 checksum ftw.

So I created a brand-spanking new TAILS bootable USB, disabled all networking in the start-up options, and launched TAILS. I extracted the contents of the TAILS ISO image from a USB drive onto which I had copied the verified image. I added a folder named "monero" and then made an ISO disk image of TAILS with monerod, monero-cli, and monero-gui. I wrote the new disk image to another USB, and then I used this new bootable USB in the same air-gapped fashion (disable all networking). I rolled a set of dice 25 times to get a 25 word seed using diceware entropy, and then I entered my seed into the monero-gui to create a cold storage wallet.

A few questions:

1.) Is the setup I mentioned adequate for a cold storage wallet? It struck me as more secure than simply downloading moneromooo's offline wallet generator and running it from an air-gapped machine. I'd like further input before I dump some monero into it, however.

2.) What is the "best" way to send the monero from a hidden service to my cold storage wallet if my priorities are privacy, security, and anonymity? Something tells me merely entering my monero withdrawal address and sending the monero dirrectly to my cold storage is not the way to go about it.

3.) What is the "best" way to spend monero from this wallet prioritizing privacy, anonymity, and security? I would imagine that, like BTC, it would involve some way of generating, signing the transaction offline, and then broadcasting the tx by generating a QR code which I open from a "hot" machine. [E.g.: With BTC, I have an air-gapped machine with bitcoind having never been synced. I generate a raw transaction in the console, sign it with the appropriate private key, and then generate either a text script or a QR code (QR code I've read is more secure, so I do that most, but sometimes I temporarily don't have a camera and I copy the script text onto a USB. I try and use a never-before-used USB for this.) Then I access the script or the QR code from a "hot" machine to broadcast the tx.]

EXTRA CREDIT!!!!!

4.If I wanted to have a hot wallet, for use for things like moving monero to / from exchanges, .onion sites, localmonero, etc., would it be advisable to do something similar to the above? If so, is there a practical way of storing and syncing the blockchain myself, or is it advisable to point to a node?

5.) Should I point to a Tor node for anonymity, or are there a lack of trusted hidden services being used as dedicated monero nodes? Should I host my own tor node on a separate device and sync the blockchain there myself, and then turn on the hidden service and point to it everytime I am going to broadcast a monero tx?

6.) If running my own node, should I use password auth, PGP auth, or auth cookies to make it private so that it can't be messed with? Again, the priority is privacy, security, and anonymity. I can host a public node on my own time on a separate machine.

Really trying to get the best set up for all of this digi-LARP'ing we do around here. Don't want to get caught by Alliance while I'm playing as Horde.


Comments


[3 Points] Blow-that-Doge:

We have created instructions to create a custom Tails image with Monero GUI. The instructions should work on Tails 2 and 3 (beta). If you want a working Monero GUI you should download the Tails 3 beta ISO. Instructions are available here: https://garlicgambit.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/how-to-create-custom-tails-image-with-monero-gui/ Later this week we will upload a custom Tails iso with integrated Monero GUI. This image will be for educational purposes only. We do not recommend people to use it for actual Monero payments, because you should not trust our image. You can use the image to play around a bit. And if you like it you can create your own Tails image with our instructions. We are also working on instructions and scripts to make it very easy to create a Tor .onion service on a Tails system for a Monero (RPC/P2P) server. It will be possible to create, backup and restore a .onion service in seconds. This will allow people to use a Tails system as a remote node.


[2 Points] None:

[deleted]


[0 Points] None:

Monero shills are the worst.