Topic: Any trustable e-wallet services? - page 2. (Read 3256 times)

Client side ewallets allow making offline backups and paper backups.  The e-wallet provider is simply "hosting" the wallet.  The wallet, keys, and funds are not tied to the wallet provider.  

Trust is very hard to quantify.

Say you can 100% trust the owner of Paymium?  My guess is you likely can.

Can you also trust every employee of theirs?  
Can you trust they have no flaws which can be hacked?
Can you trust they have made no mistakes which would result in the keys being lost/destroyed?  
Can you trust their govt won't seize the funds through use of court order?
Can you trust those with access to the keys will never in the future be tempted to steal (say owner loses his job and risks foreclosure)?
Can you trust the owners (or those w/ access to the keys) can't be coerced/threatened/forced into revealing the keys?

If some criminals broke into the home of the owner of Paymium and threatened to start cutting off his/her children's fingers can you trust that his "oath" to depositors is strong enough to see his child get tortured instead of revealing the keys?

Trust goes deep, very deep.  It isn't just trusting the owner isn't a scammer.  BTW most people don't trust banks they trust the fact that the funds are insured.  Take away FDIC and all private insurance of bank accounts and I would imagine the amount of funds on deposit would be reduced significantly.  

By keeping the keys client side it simply eliminates the entire question.  Maybe (unlikely but maybe) the answer to all those questions above are "yes" but even if they are it is impossible to prove (and may change in the future) and if they are "No" you likely aren't going to find out until the funds are gone.

He understands perfectly well.
He's just saying that blockchain.info is a really really good wallet, but it just isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.

The point is that non-hosted wallets rely entirely on the user backing everything up properly, not forgetting their passwords, not getting a virus infection on their device etc. If that's what a user requires it's perfectly respectable, but that comes at the price of some convenience.

(Oh, and if you were planning on mentioning e-mail backups remember that e-mail accounts are most of the time... hosted )

I'm not sure you've understood how blockchain.info and strongcoin work.  You literally don't trust them.  Your wallet is held encrypted on their server, so they never see the private keys and hence cannot steal the contents.

(The above isn't entirely true, since it wouldn't be hard for them to inject javascript that stole them when you opened your wallet -- but it's certainly a number of steps more secure than a hosted wallet like instawallet or easywallet)

Paytunia can be just as well considered a safer option because the user can recover a forgotten password through KYC procedure.
With a client-side encrypted wallet, if the user forgets/loses his/her strong password, he/she is done.
That's why I would stay away from being judgmental about one or the other options: they are just different but none can be said "better" or "safer".

As far as "requiring more or less trust" (you have to trust your memory or your service provider), I would find it remarkable that some people would not trust a fully registered bitcoin service provider like Paymium for say 100 BTC yet leave their lifetime savings money in their bank account.

The full list of EWallets -- hosted (e.g., what you get at an exchange or a wallet provider like Paytunia) and hybrid EWallets:
 
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:EWallets
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:HybridEWallets

just have some diffcult for you" Are there any trustable e-wallet services? "

Specifically, if the service goes offline (and you've sent yourself a recent backup) you still can use that wallet (offline mode, import into Multibit, for example).

blockchain.info or strongcoin.com.  Key decryption is done in browser using javacript.  There is nothing for them to steal, lose, or have stolen.

+1 for blockchain.info. Works great online and/or with smartphone. And the fact that you are in control of your private keys is extra bonus.

I would use Easywallet or Instawallet if it's light usage. For heavy usage I'd recommend Blockchain.info wallet, which doesn't require that much trust and a backup of the private key can always be imported in other wallets if the service happens to be offline.

Yes

Paymium also owns Paytunia?

Definitely instawallet: create as many wallets and name them as you would like.
No signup. Mobile versions: android (instawallet) or iOS (friendlypay).

This service was started by jav and is now operated by Paymium, a company legally registered in France since june 2011. Paymium is privately held and has completed a first round of financing last year.
Other services operated by Paymium: paytunia and bitcoin-central.

blockchain.info? Best part is you don't even need to trust them

Don't know what you mean by multiple accounts on one wallets, but my service easywallet.org allows multiple addresses for one wallet. It auto-generates addresses as you use them, while all the previous bitocin addresses are connected to that wallet as well.

This makes payment processing easier (different address for different payer) etc., also adds privacy.

Easywallet.org is obviously meant only for light use, since it relies on the URL key.

Are there any trustable e-wallet services? I'm looking for one that allows multiple wallets in one account.