Topic: Can someone school me on wallets? (Read 4307 times)

I can recommend a good secure alternative to the above: an OS that has never been touched by another Bitcoiner.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-python-paper-wallet-generator-with-strong-randomness-361092 has paper wallet generator software that will run on almost any Linux live CD, and some instructions about using one of the smaller and more secure distros.

A paper wallet or offline/cold storage address is only needed if you have too many bitcoins to lose though.


If you are just getting started and have patience, I would recommend you get familiar with Bitcoin "core"; very few people have ever lost bitcoins with a strongly encrypted and backed up Bitcoin-Qt wallet:

1. get the blockchain torrent started now, to download the 10gb bitcoin bootstrap https://bitcoin.org/bin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent,

2. use the bootstrap torrent and get the wallet software caught up to the current block,

3. encrypt your wallet with an uncrackable password (you can write it down locally; you are protecting your wallet against hackers stealing the wallet file over the Internet),

4. back up your wallet through the menu, save it to two different media; mail a CD to a relative; protect against your house being burglarized or burning down.

5. Do not get infected with trojan horse wallet stealing key logging software. If you must use your Bitcoin wallet computer to browse the web, do not download any unknown software from places that may be aware of your Bitcoin use. Remove Flash, Java, and Acrobat reader; these are unfixable holes into an OS. Use Firefox with the requestpolicy addon, so all third-party content on web sites must be manually allowed by you (or at least use noscript). Keep the OS fully updated. Use a Linux OS.

5. Then you can start using Bitcoin to store your own money.

6. If you need convenience, such as using a web wallet to pay your restaurant bill with your phone, or using an exchange or localbitcoins.com account, only send the minimum amount immediately required to use such a service, and not more than you can afford to lose.

Over the weekend I ordered some paper wallet disc and kit. The disc runs Ubuntu offline and I guess will allow me to print secure offline paper wallets. Tried messing around with Armory but it seems broken, in fact I think it trapped my fucking test deposit balance, no clue how to get it out- either broken or way too much of a learning curve, not sure yet. And I also tried using Bitcoin Core and True Crypt to encrypt my backup, but again the workflow seems more complicated than I want to mess with. Hoping this offline paper wallet kit gives me what I need.

It's safer to have two machines, one of which is never connected. Having one machine and unplugging it occasionally wouldn't add much safety.

Having a second, unconnected computer makes it harder for that computer ever to be infected by a keylogger; and if it is, it makes it harder for the hackers to get any information out. Whether this is over-kill depends on how much bitcoin you have. Arguably, you shouldn't hold more than you can afford to lose, in which case you may not need to bother with extreme precautions. Some people are betting big on bitcoin, and for them spending some money on a cheap notepad or similar, plus the hassle of ferrying a USB stick between devices, is worth the security.

(I've heard of people having a single PC with a dual boot to a second O/S, where the second O/S is offline. I guess that's an improvement over a single connected wallet, but without an actual air-gap I'd be concerned that the offline O/S would use the shared hard disk to communicate key-logger information to the bad guys.)

I agree with people on this thread complaining it's too much work storing btc safely. Btc will not get mainstream adoption until this issue is solved. Trying to imagine my mother doing this, I had to help her "installing" a dvd-player to her tv the other day... I've just had my btc on a exchange-site so far since I'm a bit lazy, but after the Gox-fiasco I realised I had to do something about that.


Since I don't have that many btc at the moment I figure I'll just go the Blockchain route. But can somebody confirm the last statement? Can I back up my wallet on a couple of usb:s and store them on different locations, and IF Blockchain gets shut down/blocked/frozen by gvt, are my coins safe? 

So, I mean if I use the Armory paper thing do I really need to unplug my PC from the internet or is that kinda overkill?

Armory has two types of wallets:

Cold or "paper" wallet for the application running on a non-networked machine.

Hot "watch-only" wallet for the app on a networked machine.

To spend bitcoin you create a transaction on the hot client and save to usb, detach and attach to the cold client where you sign the transaction, unplug and then attach back to the hot wallet to send.

A paper Wallet is more like a safe. You don't spend money what is in a safe you only had it secure.

So if you want a hybrid you can use kryptowallet.org with 128and256bit encryption or carbonwallet.com with a 128bit encryption. You can access your Bitcoin over the Internet, but had the security like a Paper Wallet. I use my Wallet kryptowallet.org, because we use 2 encryptions. We and carbonwallet.com save the Bitcoin in you Browser Cache.

If you use a Paper Wallet you can add the Privat Key @ a Wallet and than you have access to your BTC, but than it's a Online Wallet

I am still new to bitcoins. I get the impression that online wallets are no good, but how do you spend the bitcoins if they are on these paper wallets?

You can't say that a Paper Wallet is better, but you can say it's more secure. Form me Armory is bullshit you still need to download Bitcoind. You can use a Paper Wallet for the Big Money and a Online Wallet like blockchain.info, coinbase.com for you normal Wallet. And maby kryptowallet.org or carbonwallet.com as a hybrid

Appreciate the links but it actually illustrates the problem. The first video is 26 minutes, and the second is 13, that's 40 minutes of video content to cover this wallet topic? Too much for me right now.

I'm in the middle of finals, work tomorrow, need to get documents sent out tonight for a professional obligation. When I do get a week off between classes, and life will just be full time work, I plan to dump a bunch of miners on eBay and build a new rig. I can invest time into mining, but this wallet stuff seems like it should be so much easier! I mean, is it not incredibly paranoid about the offline stuff with a freshly installed OS? Seems like overkill, but maybe I'm too trusting. I know the more valuable BTC becomes the more hackers will attack wallets, hoping for an easy and affordable solution to come out sometime soon. I just can't see a clear winner from the suggestions, something like this should be so much easier.

Okay someone pointlessly jacked this thread about some website and didn't really answer me. My question above. Is this better or is using a paper wallet website better? How about Armory?

Ultimately it's looking like I will have 3 wallets, 2 online and 1 offline but on a computer connected to the internet, and several small paper ones, mainly because spreading balances is the only "easy" security I can dream up right now.

I need someone to print me up a bunch of them.




(I love that joke)

In outline:
When making a paper wallet, you generate a private key and address (and print them out).  Then you communicate that info to the block chain by sending btc into the address.
If you don't send money to the address, the blockchain will never even know you made and printed out a paper wallet.  For all practical purposes, the wallet/address you generated doesn't exist until you put money in it.
But of course,  you are going to put money in it.  That's when the magic happens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1uefzJJ6nM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=872eSnlKUeg

@LMGTF is it now better with the Copyright. In 1h i will push it back at GitHub

A "red flag" is a warning sign - an indication that there may be a problem.

I had removed my GitHub page until I update the Source. I will do my own text. What is a red flag and how to do this

...none of which has anything to do with you copying the original, copyrighted, text verbatim. If you're intending to change it, change it before putting it online.

However, since you mention the license, Carbon Wallet is licensed (https://github.com/carbonwallet/carbonwallet.github.io/blob/master/README.md) using CDDL 1.0 (http://opensource.org/licenses/CDDL-1.0) which requires attribution - you need to fix that pronto.


You'd probably find it easier to reinstate the link to GitHub (https://github.com/newtimes/wallet) rather than mess around with a downloadable zip which is out of sync with the source code (and, again, raises a red flag - whatever your motivation, it looks like you're trying to obfuscate the link to GitHub and hence to the original app).

I'm also unclear how your fork is expected to function as an offline wallet: Carbon Wallet uses static HTML files; yours uses PHP scripts. In order to run your fork offline I'd need to be running an app server (like Apache). This isn't impossible, but it raises the barrier to entry significantly - with Carbon Wallet and other offline wallets I can simply "run" the (static) HTML and Javascript in my browser - no server needed.

I'm not ready with the design, but you can see that we look more like coinbase.com I mean the blue style. So my page has a Copyright the text we also want to change. Thats the reason we use a Copyright. In the license you can see we change the SourceCode so that the Code is different that I can add my Copyright and remove his, but I haven't in the LICENSE file (when I update on GitHub) you can see that I say based on carbonwallet.com. He uses 128bit and I use 128and256bit thats the main difference.  And the main reason to add my Copyright. And I use a one single file for Bitcoind he more than 8.

yes, I understand that you forked it - that's fine, and that's why I differentiated between the fork of the app, and the website (you'll recall that I mentioned that the website was copyrighted). It's the website you've copied verbatim:

http://carbonwallet.com/
https://kryptowallet.org/