Easy Wallet Encryption for Ubuntu/Linux users (HowTo)

Here's my formula. I expect it would work the same on Windows with reasonably full cygwin installed, but have not had occasion to try it. I didn't feel like dicking with public key crypto and installing software that other people compiled and so forth.

I do this when I want to squirrel away an entire savings wallet with {n} number of coins in it.

1) bitcoind stop (However it is done on your client.)

2) cat ~/.bitcoin/wallet.dat | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -salt > ~/wallet.dat__whatever.enc

3) wipe .bitcoin/wallet.dat (better than a simple 'rm' which a competent attacker can possibly re-find.)

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Before I remove my wallet, I actually do do some sanity checks. Such as:

1) sha256 .bitcoin/wallet.dat

2) cat ~/wallet.dat__whatever.enc | openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -salt | sha256

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I use a pretty good password and am comfortable putting the entire encrypted wallet in a public area.

I really like Unix because it is so damn _easy_. Really! GUI software really does confuse the heck out of my and as often as not just does not do what I wish it to do. After learning a few basic principles, the simple command line tools really are super easy and really flexible. That is my opinion.

Topic: Easy Wallet Encryption for Ubuntu/Linux users (HowTo) (Read 944 times)