Topic: BitGo, Coinbase Vaut or Paper Wallet for secure long term storage (Read 4040 times)

No matter how safe the storage system is, it's always a good idea to split your funds and store them in different places (safe places ofc).

Well, yes and no. I didn't expect a consensus, but also didn't expect some of the risky advice.

Of course, the suggestions to avoid centralized services from many does point to the anarchistic nature of many of the people that use this forum.

From my options and the feed back I've gotten here...

1. Paper Wallet created correctly is the most secure, but probably not the most durable.

2. Hardware Wallet, well you have to back up the seed on paper, so I don't see how this is any better than 1, espessially since I just want to sock away the btc. Hardware wallet is certainly the best option for your "checking" account.

3. Coinbase/BitGo, you personally control 2 of 3 keys and still have the advantage of a service to more easily spend if needed. The jury is still out on the bitfinex thing, but it for sure soured me on it.

4. Coinbase Value (they have the keys), trust in the third party service is needed. Trust that they will be good stewards of the keys and also trust that they will be around long term.

At any time the Mycelium people could release a version that sends all my coins to some BTC address in some auto update. Do I think it will happen, probably not. Is it possible, yes. Hence my

So, perhaps I will create a BIP38 Encrytped Paper wallet on an Air gapped computer and then just store it in my Evernote account along with the physical copy. I am still concerned if something happens to me the money is gone, which means I need to backup the password somewhere. So, Shamir's Secret Sharing I guess to encrypt that and give the parts to trusted friends/family/escrow agent to use in the case of my untimely demise..

well, reading the rest of this thread should be enough to convince anyone that bitcoin's nowhere near ready for prime time yet.

Definitely, people need to consider the risk of loss from accidents/catastrophe as well. It's important not only to have your backups in different physical locations but geographically disparate locations.

Another risk that people don't often talk about is the risk of data corruption. Mediums like USB can suffer degraded quality over a period of years, so people should be replacing their backups every few years. I doubt my gold discs will become unreadable in such a short period, but better safe than sorry when you've got dozens or hundreds of bitcoins on the line!

To clarify, I also wanted to highlight the risk of loss due to some mishap or catastrophe - I can just see someone bemoaning the loss of their paper wallet due to a fire or flood. Maybe someone down in Louisiana, for example, thinking they were smart with three copies of a paper wallet carefully hidden in their house, parent's house, and workplace - and all flooded and destroyed.

I see a lot of focus on hacking incidents, and not unreasonably so given bitcoin's history, but the more traditional risks of physical theft and loss due to catastrophe over a person's lifetime should also be carefully considered. And like you said, we shouldn't be publicizing our bitcoin holdings to anyone. I assure you I haven't done what I suggest above, for example. ;-)

If you're smart about your bitcoin holdings, you don't announce them to the world. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of paper wallets. I only keep paper copies of encrypted keys to add an extra layer of obfuscation. It would be difficult IMO for a thief to locate both my decryption key and my paper wallets. If a paper wallet is stolen, I should have ample time to move the funds to a safe address.

Why doesn't anyone consider the risk of physical theft or loss when considering paper wallets? Seems to me backing up an encrypted wallet from an air-gapped computer to any random Dropbox account, renamed Birthdaypics2007, might be 10x safer in the long run.

I certainly will not use BitGo, since Bitfinex used it and still got hacked. Which makes me fear Coinbase vault for long term storage. You can not possibly go wrong with paper wallet, can you?

I personally use a coinbase vault for long term storage, however I do not have much to store, so I am not making much of a risk in doing this.  If you have a large amount, I would recommend a paper wallet, for that would be more secure.  It is really preference, for it is harder to access a paper wallet, from my understanding; however at the same time, getting your BTC out your vault takes 48 hours.

If you wanna choose between of those 3 I would go with paper wallets.Make sure to secure them from water and fire.
But there also other possibilities like hardware wallets e.g. Trezor, Ledger Nano S and Keepkey.
All 3 are great devices and worth the price they cost.

Blockchain.info might be a step up from a 3rd party wallet where you don't control any keys. But it is susceptible to attack. If you don't control the software that controls your keys, your keys aren't safe.

Much better to use a desktop wallet (or hardware/paper), particularly for longer term storage.

What about blockchain.info?

It's a web based wallet and you generate your own private keys.

Why would you use a 3rd party for cold storage? Why trust anyone else with a key? Just get your own paper wallet and/or hardware wallet. I also keep encrypted copies on USB. No reason to trust a 3rd party when you can do it yourself. The nice UI of sites like Coinbase (or Bitfinex...) are deceptive -- you are much safer handling your own security.

If you aren't going to consider a few hard-drives or USBs for long-term wallet storage, then I would probably recommend either the Coinbase Vault or the Paper Wallet, and I would personally be leaning closer to using the Coinbase vault as long as you don't have anything that would make them want to close your account. Coinbase basically absolves you of most responsibility, however it is less liquid and you have to wait for a timer iirc.

simply downloading those wallets and using them is not going to ensure your security. you have to do some extra stuff to increase your level of security:
1) downloading the wallet files from official sites and checking their signature.
2) encrypting your wallet file with a password.
3) having anti virus and taking other security measures to not get infected
4) using cold storage

Why not use some of the downloaded wallets such as Multibit or Electrum? Those are probably the only wallets you can count on not scamming you and/or being "hacked". But anyhow, I'd suggest Coinbase Vault if you are really sure about it.

I usually use Coinbase, I think Coinbase Vault safe to storage Bitcoin.

By "cold storage" you mean what? Because you say ledger you mean a hardware wallet?

I would use cold storage.

Advantages are long-term, secure storage for Bitcoin. The Ledger wallet is a secure device.

A disadvantage is the chance of it being lost. It is hard to hack, but most things today can be hacked.

These are my recommendations.

 

I will say the coinbase vault. If they offer to give you your private keys then I will go with that.
I don't use Bitgo and if I used a paper wallet I would end up losing it as i store everything on my computer.