Do you trust yourself to manage your own private keys? - page 2.

DannyHamilton

legendary

Activity: 3472

Merit: 4801

Quote from: Xapo on March 30, 2015, 11:16:23 AM

no one denies that a checking account is more secure than a mattress full of cash.

In the U.S. that's because a checking account is insured by the FDIC and highly regulated by the government. The banks also most undergo extensive third party audits for both financial status and security practices. Futhermore, and perhaps most importantly, the banks have extensive powers to reverse payments.

There aren't any Bitcoin businesses yet that can say that they have all 4 of those features (full deposit insurance, regulations, security and financial audits, and transaction reversal powers).

MCHouston

hero member

Activity: 882

Merit: 500

Where am I?

I have more then 10 BTC and I replied yes.

As a network security engineer, I know there are bad ones out there. Any company could easily have a bad one and a bad security engineer at a Bitcoin exchange/storage and you will be hacked. Even companies with good security engineers get hacked it is a race against time.

I would only trust a company with my private keys, if they were audited by a 3rd party company for security and also insured by a large 3rd party insurance company. Even then it would be awhile before I trust them with a large amount of BTC.

WhatTheGox

legendary

Activity: 812

Merit: 1000

I trust myself vs anyone else, my long term holdings are all offline, im backed up in case of fire/theft. In order for someone to steal my coins i'd have to be very unlucky and figure its about 0.001% chance. At those odds i feel about as comfortable as crossing the road after looking both ways.

Xapo

member

Activity: 80

Merit: 10

Quote from: zetaray on March 26, 2015, 05:25:55 AM

I think this thread has back fired for OP. Xapo did not think so many people would only trust themselves with their private keys. As far as I know, Xapo wallet do not give users their private keys. Grin

My follow-up question would be, how many many people who voted Yes, 100%, have more than 10BTC? I'm curious if people's sentiment change as they get more BTC, or if people think there is only MORE reason to own your own private keys as your total BTC count increases. I know that most hedge funds, institutional investors, and high worth individuals do not protect their own private keys, they use a company like Xapo that specializes in security. Whether you TRUST someone else is another issue. What is undeniable is that our security infrastructure is obviously more sophisticated than what people here have suggested (USB stick in a floorboard, giving a private key to a friend, burying them in different locations, etc). How many of those who voted Yes are even producing their keys offline in line with deep cold storage practices? Yes, you must trust a third party, but if you can trust them like you trust a bank, no one denies that a checking account is more secure than a mattress full of cash.

rio3232

full member

Activity: 224

Merit: 100

yes i am, no one know my password/private keys. and i have many recovers for forget password and etc. Grin

but the problem is if u save ur private key on wordpad or something on pc/netbook if ur pc/netbook crash it will hard to recover, i done this before Sad

oblivi

hero member

Activity: 700

Merit: 501

I think the whole point and what makes bitcoin cool is being your own bank, beside the great way to do worldwide transactions easily. I like the feeling of controling my own wealth. Of course guaranteed I get why some people would choose to not do it themselves.

asuryan180

hero member

Activity: 868

Merit: 1000

Quote from: --Encrypted-- on March 26, 2015, 05:43:14 AM

Quote from: randy8777 on March 26, 2015, 05:21:34 AM

Quote from: --Encrypted-- on March 26, 2015, 05:11:37 AM

I do, but I don't think trusting myself is enough.
I gave my best friend my private keys.. tho he have no earthly idea what it is.

better ask him to delete your private keys now he still don't know what it is.
if he does know what it is and it has decent enough value, then your friend might not be much of a friend anymore.

RANT MODE BEGIN Tongue

no way I'm gonna to that, I got to trust someone and the only one I can trust in this wicked world is him.
not going to bore anyone with my life story, but the guy saved me on more that ten occasions.

oh, and more than half of people in my country doesn't even know what bitcoin are.
half the guys from the IT doesn't even know it. I live in a retarded country which blocks reddit, so yeah.

RANT MODE END Grin

Just because a large amount of people you personally know doesn't know about bitcoin that does not mean you live in a retarded country lol That just means from the people what you know do not know about it yet, not really a bad thing either. I like the fact that you can trust someone with your keys i would say it is better than trusting somebody you don't know with all your coin. I personally don't have anyone to trust like that so i will hold my own and have back ups of back ups and if i fail then i failed i only have myself to blame.

jonald_fyookball

legendary

Activity: 1302

Merit: 1008

Core dev leaves me neg feedback #abuse #political

Quote from: 15Lemon714 on March 26, 2015, 05:14:16 AM

Quote from: --Encrypted-- on March 26, 2015, 05:11:37 AM

I do.
and not only myself either, I even gave my best friend my private keys.. tho he have no earthly idea what it is.

You never know he may learn and best friends can turn against you when a nice amount of money is involved, just saying. I hold my keys on a backed up usb and it is under the floor board so it is pretty safe in every situation except the 2 obvious that i won't mention.

he will find out soon. unless he's a backwards redneck moron

knightblaster

newbie

Activity: 1

Merit: 0

It doesn't seem to make sense for people to store bitcoins with a third party. It goes against the entire premise of bitcoin, which is peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries like banks. It makes much more sense to manage your own keys, according to the degree of security/paranoia you personally feel comfortable with, which probably varies a lot depending on how many bitcoins you actually have.

Bitcoin online banks (online wallets) are not regulated, may not have deposit insurance, and do not pay interest -- so they're fairly different from fiat banks, and present different kinds of risks for someone depositing their keys there.

For the masses, I can see that people won't want to manage their own private keys -- it seems too techie for them. That's not true, but the masses tend to go for the easiest solution. I can see the masses, if they ever really do adopt bitcoin to a larger degree, gravitating towards online wallets due to the ease of use and similarity with existing online fiat banking. But for people who are enthusiasts -- which pretty much describes most people holding bitcoin currently -- it doesn't seem to make sense to hold your coins in a bitcoin bank -- goes against the entire philosophy of the system.

--Encrypted--

copper member

Activity: 924

Merit: 1007

hee-ho.

Quote from: randy8777 on March 26, 2015, 05:21:34 AM

Quote from: --Encrypted-- on March 26, 2015, 05:11:37 AM

I do, but I don't think trusting myself is enough.
I gave my best friend my private keys.. tho he have no earthly idea what it is.

better ask him to delete your private keys now he still don't know what it is.
if he does know what it is and it has decent enough value, then your friend might not be much of a friend anymore.

RANT MODE BEGIN Tongue

no way I'm gonna to that, I got to trust someone and the only one I can trust in this wicked world is him.
not going to bore anyone with my life story, but the guy saved me on more that ten occasions.

oh, and more than half of people in my country doesn't even know what bitcoin are.
half the guys from the IT doesn't even know it. I live in a retarded country which blocks reddit, so yeah.

RANT MODE END Grin

zetaray

hero member

Activity: 658

Merit: 500

I think this thread has back fired for OP. Xapo did not think so many people would only trust themselves with their private keys. As far as I know, Xapo wallet do not give users their private keys. Grin

randy8777

legendary

Activity: 896

Merit: 1000

Quote from: --Encrypted-- on March 26, 2015, 05:11:37 AM

I do, but I don't think trusting myself is enough.
I gave my best friend my private keys.. tho he have no earthly idea what it is.

better ask him to delete your private keys now he still don't know what it is.
if he does know what it is and it has decent enough value, then your friend might not be much of a friend anymore.

15Lemon714

sr. member

Activity: 266

Merit: 250

Quote from: --Encrypted-- on March 26, 2015, 05:11:37 AM

I do.
and not only myself either, I even gave my best friend my private keys.. tho he have no earthly idea what it is.

You never know he may learn and best friends can turn against you when a nice amount of money is involved, just saying. I hold my keys on a backed up usb and it is under the floor board so it is pretty safe in every situation except the 2 obvious that i won't mention.

--Encrypted--

copper member

Activity: 924

Merit: 1007

hee-ho.

I do, but I don't think trusting myself is enough.
I gave my best friend my private keys.. tho he have no earthly idea what it is.

HarryPotHead

full member

Activity: 192

Merit: 100

You are what you eat. PIZZA!

You have to trust yourself because if you don't how could you possibly trust anyone else? I will always manage my own keys and funds and always will i do not trust anyone else..

howzar

hero member

Activity: 574

Merit: 500

Yes, it's not that hard to print out a piece of paper and keep it in the same spot for eternity...or is it Roll Eyes

I personally store mine on a .txt doc on a USB that I keep in a safe. For all of my savings anyway. The rest I keep on my QT client and store those private keys just on the desktop with my chump change in it and daily use coins.

madmat

legendary

Activity: 966

Merit: 1000

Quote from: teukon on March 26, 2015, 03:41:45 AM

Quote from: madmat on March 26, 2015, 03:07:24 AM

One place is not enough. This place could be destroyed. Two safe places are better. Your head could be one of this safe place.

Wait. So I should make a backup in case my head gets destroyed?

Hmm... It seems Bitcoin is riskier than I thought.

You could forget your secret, if you don't have a backup and if your wallet is very big, you are going to destroy your head. Grin

teukon

legendary

Activity: 1246

Merit: 1011

Quote from: madmat on March 26, 2015, 03:07:24 AM

One place is not enough. This place could be destroyed. Two safe places are better. Your head could be one of this safe place.

Wait. So I should make a backup in case my head gets destroyed?

Hmm... It seems Bitcoin is riskier than I thought.

madmat

legendary

Activity: 966

Merit: 1000

Quote from: soowein on March 26, 2015, 01:52:02 AM

I don't believe anyone even myself. How to manage own private key ? Simply save it in the safest place

I think so !

One place is not enough. This place could be destroyed. Two safe places are better. Your head could be one of this safe place.

soowein

newbie

Activity: 42

Merit: 0

I don't believe anyone even myself. How to manage own private key ? Simply save it in the safest place

I think so !

Topic: Do you trust yourself to manage your own private keys? - page 2. (Read 6905 times)