For easy viewing of wallet balances, check out btcbalance.net.
This looks like a good tool. (as yet unrated by WOT) 
Topic: a simple question on wallets (Read 548 times)
It's a good thing newbies have a place to post simple questions!
What is the value of having a local (on your computer) software wallet when exchanges and other acquisition sites such as localbitcoins.com require you to keep your bitcoins in their wallets?
And a follow-on question: can a local wallet coordinate wallets from multiple sites for easy viewing?
What is the value of having a local (on your computer) software wallet when exchanges and other acquisition sites such as localbitcoins.com require you to keep your bitcoins in their wallets?
And a follow-on question: can a local wallet coordinate wallets from multiple sites for easy viewing?
With electrum (electrum.org), you don't even need to keep a wallet on your hard drive if you don't want to. Instead, you just have to keep the wallet seed (a set of 12 words) secure. When you open the electrum client, it will give you the option of restoring the wallet from the seed.
For easy viewing of wallet balances, check out btcbalance.net.
Offline wallets are safe to store big amounts.
For anonymous transfers and to send someone some coins, just transfer some coins from your offline wallet to the temporary address from online wallets and send it to the destination.
I think I understand - when you do a transaction at say localbitcoins.com, the coin goes into a temporary address which you can then export for import to your local wallet where it is permanently stored at a different (local) address. For anonymous transfers and to send someone some coins, just transfer some coins from your offline wallet to the temporary address from online wallets and send it to the destination.
It's a good thing newbies have a place to post simple questions!
What is the value of having a local (on your computer) software wallet when exchanges and other acquisition sites such as localbitcoins.com require you to keep your bitcoins in their wallets?
And a follow-on question: can a local wallet coordinate wallets from multiple sites for easy viewing?
What is the value of having a local (on your computer) software wallet when exchanges and other acquisition sites such as localbitcoins.com require you to keep your bitcoins in their wallets?
And a follow-on question: can a local wallet coordinate wallets from multiple sites for easy viewing?
A local wallet is much more secure. Exchanges and web wallets have a history of getting hacked. That includes LBC. So don't keep more than you can afford to loose with an exchange site.
In fact you should keep a tiered level of wallets:
- Riskiest - exchange, web wallet - very small amounts
- Moderate risk - Desktop wallet i.e electrum, bitcoin-qt, armory or multibit - amounts that you intend to use for transactions in the near future i.e say 1 month time frame.
- Safest - offline wallet like offline electrum or armory or a paper wallet - large amounts and long term savings i.e. funds that you can't possibly afford to loose.
Thank you for the detailed reply! If I understand correctly, one would be importing the private keys from various online wallets into their local wallet? Does the originating exchange/site no longer hold the coin?
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/How_to_import_private_keys provides instruction on importing private keys, but they also stress that it isn't advisable to do so - especially if one doesn't fully understand the process.
I am understanding that your advice is to keep everything locally, which process includes importing the private keys from whatever sites where one has bitcoin. So the value of local storage outweighs the risk of the import.
Offline wallets are safe to store big amounts.
For anonymous transfers and to send someone some coins, just transfer some coins from your offline wallet to the temporary address from online wallets and send it to the destination.
For anonymous transfers and to send someone some coins, just transfer some coins from your offline wallet to the temporary address from online wallets and send it to the destination.
It's a good thing newbies have a place to post simple questions!
What is the value of having a local (on your computer) software wallet when exchanges and other acquisition sites such as localbitcoins.com require you to keep your bitcoins in their wallets?
And a follow-on question: can a local wallet coordinate wallets from multiple sites for easy viewing?
What is the value of having a local (on your computer) software wallet when exchanges and other acquisition sites such as localbitcoins.com require you to keep your bitcoins in their wallets?
And a follow-on question: can a local wallet coordinate wallets from multiple sites for easy viewing?
A local wallet is much more secure. Exchanges and web wallets have a history of getting hacked. That includes LBC. So don't keep more than you can afford to loose with an exchange site.
In fact you should keep a tiered level of wallets:
- Riskiest - exchange, web wallet - very small amounts
- Moderate risk - Desktop wallet i.e electrum, bitcoin-qt, armory or multibit - amounts that you intend to use for transactions in the near future i.e say 1 month time frame.
- Safest - offline wallet like offline electrum or armory or a paper wallet - large amounts and long term savings i.e. funds that you can't possibly afford to loose.
I believe a wallet has to communicate with the block chain via connection to the internet. It may be local. but becomes part of the network everytime it communicates with the network. All wallets do this
It's a good thing newbies have a place to post simple questions!
What is the value of having a local (on your computer) software wallet when exchanges and other acquisition sites such as localbitcoins.com require you to keep your bitcoins in their wallets?
And a follow-on question: can a local wallet coordinate wallets from multiple sites for easy viewing?
What is the value of having a local (on your computer) software wallet when exchanges and other acquisition sites such as localbitcoins.com require you to keep your bitcoins in their wallets?
And a follow-on question: can a local wallet coordinate wallets from multiple sites for easy viewing?
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