Topic: Do you trust yourself to manage your own private keys? - page 8. (Read 6924 times)
For years I've been managing PGP keys that I use to encrypt valuable and sensitive files that I can't afford to lose. The exact same techniques can be used to manage Bitcoin private keys, so it is no big deal if you are already used to it.
Moment you invest fiat in bank you dont realy own that money and that is investment so bank pays interest on your deposit. Moment you invest Bitcoin in online wallet you dont realy own that coins anymore and online wallet pays you shit for that so i dont see how you can compare those two at all.
I prefer being responsible for my own keys. Banks have too much power. We don't need a bitcoin bank that can "freeze" accounts or blacklist or place levys etc.
Criticism often comes to online wallet providers (Xapo, Coinbase, etc) saying, if you don't own your private keys, you don't actually own your bitcoin. On the contrary, if your cash is in a traditional bank, you don't really own your cash either............... Are critics right to say, don't use an online wallet provider, it's not safe?
Yes. The critics are right to say so. Because one of the main reason of bitcoin's popularity is the control is back to the people. Banks can not dictate anymore. But, when an online wallet is keeping the private key with them, they are taking away the right of ownership from the people and becoming the bank of bitcoin, which is undesirable to a lot of bitcoiners.
But, yes... safety of private key is a problem at personal level as well. I think multisig implementation of bitgo, greenaddress etc. almost solves the problem...
Other big differences why most people trust banks and not exchanges:
- Banks are controlled and regulated, BTC exchanges are not
- It's difficult and dangerous to save lots of cash at home so it makes more sense to deposit on a bank, it's not as hard to hold BTC
I completely trust myself to hold my own private keys however I would never hold a big amount of cash.
- Banks are controlled and regulated, BTC exchanges are not
- It's difficult and dangerous to save lots of cash at home so it makes more sense to deposit on a bank, it's not as hard to hold BTC
I completely trust myself to hold my own private keys however I would never hold a big amount of cash.
Criticism often comes to online wallet providers (Xapo, Coinbase, etc) saying, if you don't own your private keys, you don't actually own your bitcoin. On the other hand, if your cash is in a traditional bank, you don't really own your cash either. The only possible difference, traditional banks have been around longer, and more people trust them. Many bitcoin users who criticize bitcoin vaults, store their cash in a traditional bank. Hypothetically, if Bank of America, or Barclay, or DeustcheBank announced they've invested millions into a highly protected, advanced, security architecture, would you trust someone to store it then? I personally don't trust myself to store my own bitcoin, for now. That could change in the future, but right now, I'm not a fan of the options, as the technology depends too much on my ability to maintain hardware, or, not lose something. I think about pictures, movies, files, documents, I had on my computer 10 years ago (and I always backed up), and I probably couldn't retrieve a single one without relying on a cloud-based service (Facebook, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.). I have no idea where the original photos of my trip to Indonesia in 2008 are, but I know that album is still easily accessible on Facebook. Are critics right to say, don't use an online wallet provider, it's not safe?
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