I recently purchased the Trezor Safe 5. Is it accurate to say that I am unable to access or use my cold wallet without the Trezor software on my laptop? I pose this question because after setting up my wallet, I realized I can’t view my account unless I plug it into my computer. If that’s the case, how would any of us Trezor users access our coins should the Trezor servers be hacked or worse, the company goes under and servers are retired? If I’m going about this the wrong way, please help clarify.
@Fleetwood7 Good question, and the answer is that you do not need Trezor Suite for access to Trezor Safe 5. Trezor hardware wallets are supported by several third-party wallet apps that are developed independently of our company. You can learn more about third-party wallet apps from our Guide Third-party wallet apps & dApps.
Further, in the event that Trezor or SatoshiLabs companies were to cease operations, your wallet’s security and accessibility would not be compromised.
Trezor wallets are not dependent on our servers or infrastructure to function properly. They operate independently and securely store your private keys within the device itself.
The open-source nature of Trezor’s hardware and software is a significant advantage in this scenario. The open-source design ensures that the codebase is publicly available and can be audited and implemented by the wider community.
This means that even if Trezor were to cease operations, developers and the community would still have access to the code and be able to continue supporting and enhancing the product.
The security of your funds primarily relies on the private keys stored within your Trezor device.
Your assets remain safe as long as you have your wallet backup securely stored offline. This backup, also known as the recovery seed, consists of 12 or 24 words that you wrote down during your device’s initial setup. It allows you to restore access to your funds on any compatible hardware or software wallet that support the BIP39 standard, even if your current Trezor is lost, stolen, or damaged,
If you have a 20-word wallet backup (single-share or multi-share), then the SLIP39 standard applies. Currently, the following software wallets support SLIP39: Electrum wallet, Bluewallet and Rabby wallet. You can use these wallets to recover your funds. We believe that the list of both software and hardware wallets supporting SLIP39 will continue to expand.