Topic: Easy way to secure your BTC wallet. (Read 1311 times)

If it's easier, I made a client that will run off of a USB drive...
It's a batch compiled to EXE with a few tweaks to make it easy to use and update.
Just drop the data file in the "BitcoinPortable" folder and it works with your original wallet..
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18870

Just thought I'd mention it since making a clean, easy, portable windows client is the one thing I'm actually good at with bitcoin.. lol 

It took me about 10 mins total to do this, and that included time tweaking the .cmd file so that it wouldn't leave a command prompt window open. It's more convenient to have your wallet on a USB key than on any one computer, and you rarely need to use the client unless you are solo mining or sending/receiving BTC.

Seems like more of an annoyance to do that...i find it easier to just be smarter on the internet

IMO, it's pretty inexcusable that the wallet file isn't encrypted and password/pin protected in the first place.  I'm guessing that commercial clients will resolve that problem.

Here's what I did, and I know I'm not the first to do this but since I can only post here I thought I'd share:

1) Put your bitcoin data folder and client on a USB key. It doesn't really need to be encrypted, but you can encrypt the filesystem of the USB key if you're really paranoid.

u:\bitcoin - put client in here
u:\bitcoin\data - put your wallet data in here

2) Use an archiver like RAR to compress your local copy of the data folder into a backup file, and set a password on the archive for some extra protection. Keep this file on your computer in case you ever lose the USB key.

3) Create a simple script (for windows) to make your bitcoin client portable. Copy and paste this into a text file:


Save the text file as "start btc.cmd" and always use that to start bitcoin, so the client uses the directory on your USB key for data. Make sure that your system is not hiding file extensions for known types or you will end up with "start btc.cmd.txt". You may need to disable hiding of file extensions within "Folder Options" in WIndows Explorer.


That's all you need to do. You can now access your wallet on any computer, although I would avoid running this on unsecured public computers.
Don't run the bitcoin client unless you need to...i.e. to check your balance or to send money.