can a bitcoin 'bank' exist? - page 2.

sadpandatech

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Activity: 504

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Quote from: mav on December 30, 2011, 10:36:20 PM

flexcoin is a really amazing site, a great idea, I am very impressed.

However, what distinguishes it as trustworthy as compared to something such as MyBitcoin? How do you verify that this organisation will keep your coin for you?

I guess this boils down to philosophy more than technology, but I can imagine a lot of people would genuinely wonder how to verify the trust of what is essentially 'just another website'.

Trust takes time. Transparency and enough real world info for accountability go a long way as well.
I would like to know where Flexcoin LLC is registered? (I checked PA and Fl and could not find anything.)
Who owns it? (real life names)
Where do they live?
Are there any plans to 'bond' some amount to protect against loss of the coins in either 'hot' or 'cold' storage?

PrintCoins

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Activity: 533

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Quote from: casascius on December 31, 2011, 11:47:15 AM

Quote from: cypherdoc on December 31, 2011, 02:16:35 AM

are the addresses this html page is generating totally safe and considered an offline wallet?

I sure hope so, I have thousands of BTC on Bitaddress.org printouts (mine were generated on a machine that never saw the internet ever)

You can download the entire code for Bitaddress and run locally offline. It will prevent that that possible case where they have been hacked and a tiny snibbit of code has been changed that no one would notice for a little while. I think it would be great if they just made a github repo that you could download from, and this way you can keep track of any changes easily.

You should also consider using botg.sh if you run linux on any boxes. I am going to be switching to that for PrintCoins this way I don't have to copy and paste from Bitaddress (I'll just enter quantity and denomination and click print)
https://github.com/RobKohr/PHP-Bitcoin-Address-Creator/blob/master/lib/botg.sh

casascius

vip

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The Casascius 1oz 10BTC Silver Round (w/ Gold B)

Quote from: cypherdoc on December 31, 2011, 02:16:35 AM

are the addresses this html page is generating totally safe and considered an offline wallet?

I sure hope so, I have thousands of BTC on Bitaddress.org printouts (mine were generated on a machine that never saw the internet ever)

MORA

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Quote from: mav on December 30, 2011, 10:10:40 PM

Very few people keep suitcases of cash or bars of gold either at home or even under their own security offsite etc, yet bitcoin as it stands expects people to do this. Seems kinda strange nobody has been able to offer this service yet.

Some use safety deposit boxes, you could do the same thing with bitcoins.
Make a few offline private/public keys, print them and put in safe, store a copy of just the public keys, and transfer surplus to the stored addresses.

A bit difficult to get them again, but its safe if the private keys have never been on a internet enabled machine.

cypherdoc

legendary

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Quote from: casascius on December 31, 2011, 02:05:25 AM

I print paper wallets from a saved offline copy of bitaddress.org.

Call me skeptical but I don't trust websites that offer browser side encryption. That's because they could be compromised and changed to disable such encryption anytime. No one is going to "view source" and audit the page with each use, so the benefit is illusory.

The address generator at bitaddress.org is a single static html page needing no network. It can be saved to a flash drive. If you save a copy of bitaddress.org's homepage and it still works on a computer with no Internet connection, it's probably safe.

i've been looking for an easy way to generate 11 separate wallets.

i just opened bitaddress.org on another tab in Chrome. i then turned off the wifi connection on my laptop and the address generator continues to work just fine.

are the addresses this html page is generating totally safe and considered an offline wallet?

casascius

vip

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The Casascius 1oz 10BTC Silver Round (w/ Gold B)

I print paper wallets from a saved offline copy of bitaddress.org.

Call me skeptical but I don't trust websites that offer browser side encryption. That's because they could be compromised and changed to disable such encryption anytime. No one is going to "view source" and audit the page with each use, so the benefit is illusory.

The address generator at bitaddress.org is a single static html page needing no network. It can be saved to a flash drive. If you save a copy of bitaddress.org's homepage and it still works on a computer with no Internet connection, it's probably safe.

gnar1ta$

donator

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Strongcoin and blockchain.info require little to no trust thanks to their browser encryption, and they let you print paper copies of your private keys. Stashes of cash or gold take up space and need security, and banks need your deposits as reserves for their fractional magic to generate profits of them. A flash drive or piece of paper don't take up much space and don't require much physical security. And there is no fractional magic profits yet with Bitcoin. Not much incentive for banking services.

mav

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flexcoin is a really amazing site, a great idea, I am very impressed.

However, what distinguishes it as trustworthy as compared to something such as MyBitcoin? How do you verify that this organisation will keep your coin for you?

I guess this boils down to philosophy more than technology, but I can imagine a lot of people would genuinely wonder how to verify the trust of what is essentially 'just another website'.

Coinabul

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Coinabul - Gold Unbarred

Flexcoin kind of fits the bill.

BitPay Business Solutions

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http://flexcoin.com

mav

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Merit: 107

Simple question - will I ever be able to store my bitcoin with an organisation who will provide secure storage for it, whilst at the same time allow me easy access to it (like a bank currently does with my cash)?

In the past, online-wallet sites have been untrustworthy. We all know that... Is it ever going to change? What does it take to be considered both trustworthy and secure?

People (especially non-geeks) would definitely go for this, and would gladly pay a fee to have someone look after their bitcoin if it reduced the risk of loosing it due to n00bness or a virus or whatever. (Who could currently safetly store even $100K in cash without a bank? Not many people I don't think)

What does it take to have an entity that can provide this sort of thing - security and trust being the two biggest hurdles as far as I can tell. How does this 'bank' become trusted? And can it ever be truly 'secure' eg social engineering etc.

Will it ever happen? Are there fundamental reasons why it won't?

Very few people keep suitcases of cash or bars of gold either at home or even under their own security offsite etc, yet bitcoin as it stands expects people to do this. Seems kinda strange nobody has been able to offer this service yet.

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