How To Self-Custody Bitcoin Using Aqua and Trezor Wallets

In A Nutshell

The Aqua Wallet is a good mobile wallet for holding small amounts of Bitcoin. It is a self-custodial wallet, meaning you have full control of your funds. This wallet supports Lightning and Liquid BTC transfers, as well as regular BTC transfers. You can also convert Bitcoin to Liquid Bitcoin and Tether seamlessly in the wallet.
Trezor Safe 5 is an easy-to-use hardware wallet. Good for holding larger amounts of Bitcoin securely.
Cryo is a reliable metal device for backing up your Trezor seed phrases.
A Honeywell Fire Safe is a good place to store your Cyro seed backup and protect it against house fires.

Here are more details:

Aqua Bitcoin Wallet

The Aqua Wallet is a non-custodial Bitcoin and stablecoin wallet for mobile devices. You have full control of your BTC. The wallet is backed up with a seed phrase.

Liquid and Lightning Bitcoin Support

The Aqua wallet gives you easy access to the Liquid Network (a Bitcoin sidechain) and the Lightning Network (a fast payment network that runs on top of Bitcoin). This is noteworthy because Bitcoin transactions might become expensive ($100-$500) at some point. Both Liquid and Lightning transactions have lower fees than on-chain Bitcoin transactions. Liquid Bitcoin exists in a sidechain and it’s fully backed by Bitcoin in a manner that can be verified.

The Aqua wallet has two main accounts. One holds regular Bitcoin (BTC), and one holds Liquid Bitcoin (L-BTC). Aqua calls the account with on-chain Bitcoin your “Savings” account, and the Liquid account your “Spending” account. The Liquid account also acts as your Lightning payment account. When you want to make a payment using Lightning Bitcoin, the Liquid BTC is sent to the Boltz Exchange via the Liquid Network. Boltz then converts the Liquid BTC into Lightning Bitcoin and this is sent to your recipient.

If you need to initially fund the wallet with Lightning Bitcoin, you can go to the Boltz Exchange yourself, and exchange Bitcoin (BTC) for Lightning Bitcoin (LN-BTC).

Economical Tether Transactions

Additionally, the Liquid network offers economical Tether transactions, with fees lower than those on the Tron or Ether networks.

Trezor Safe 5 Hardware Wallet

Trezor recently leased the Trezor Safe 5. The Bitcoin-only edition of the Safe 5 is preferable. The interface less complicated and the device’s attack surface is reduced because it only supports Bitcoin.

It employs the EAL 6+ Secure Element along with PIN and passphrase protection

Test Your Trezor Backup

When you set your Trezor you’ll be given backup words. It’s important to test that your words will restore your Bitcoin succesfully.

Here’s how to check:

Set up your Trezor.
Send a small amount of BTC to it (i..e. $50 worth).
Wipe your Trezor (factory reset it)
Restore your BTC using your backup phrase.

Once you have performed this test successfully, you can be confident that you’ll always be able to recover your funds using your backup phrase.

Cryo Stainless Steel Backup

Security experts recommend that you store your backup words in metal. I recommend using Cryo metal plates. This is a simple set stainless steel plates. These plates can be punched with holes, and record your backup words. Here are some durability tests on the Cyro.

It is available on Amazon and the device’s home page.