I am not an expert by any means in the crypto space, however ever since the Meltdown/Spectre exploits, it has had me thinking more seriously about the security of my crypto holdings. I already rarely have any holdings exchanges unless I am looking to make a purchase or sale, and after that I take it right off.
Every where I look on the issue of securing your cryptos in the best way, always ends up pointing me in the direction of cold storage wallets like the Trezor and Ledger Nano S, which has lead me to think that there could be a potential issue coming for proof of stake coins. My understanding of proof of stake coins is that the way they secure the network is by people holding them online in a software wallet where you get rewarded with the transaction fees on the network dependant on the size of your stake. If the computer that you have that wallet on becomes compromised due to malware you run the serious risk of losing all your funds, and with that fact a lot people may find it easier to just store them offline, reducing the risk of losing funds greatly. Now if enough people on a network decide to do this, this could really have bad effect on the security of the network, increasing the chance of an attack.
With this in mind, I am of the belief that cold storage staking wallets are essential to the future of the cryptos that use the proof of stake model, because as cryptocurrency continues to gain more exposure and becomes more valuable more people will be trying to steal it and people in my opinion will look to securing their coins on cold storage devices but in doing so will be weakening the network itself. So if we can find away to stake coins from our cold storage devices that would be perfect as we would be keeping the network secure while not exposing our funds to malicious attackers.
Let me know what you think, I am always open to discussion