Topic: [General] Bitcoin Wallets - Which, what, why? - page 4. (Read 147771 times)

There are many different ways to use Bitcoin and so there are many different types of wallets:
Online bitcoin wallets. Wallets that can be accessed on the web from any internet connected device.
Software wallets. Wallet applications downloaded to your phone, computer or tablet.
So, where is the best place to open Bitcoin wallet?

Thanks for help

Hi there! I am a total newbie and I'm trying to choose a wallet now.
Have a question about one of the wallets from the list on the first page, Airbitz.
Did anyone use it? I bought some BTC last week and I am searching for a secure and simple app for mobile.

You transfer with a transaction.

Avoid phone wallets.

Use the Mac, put a copy of the wallet on a flash drive and stash it away.

The goal here isn't to put it on a device for ready access, but to insure access five or ten years later.

This is a fantastic thread!  I really wish that I had taken more time as newbie on this site to learn the basics.  I've lost BTC in to the "abyss", and I still don't know exactly what I did wrong because at the time..I had no clue what I was doing!  


Couple wallet tips that really need to be driven home-

Exchanges /Hot-wallet sites/apps .. ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS HERE.  They don't care about you they care about your BTC!  Keeping BTC on a hot wallet goes against what BTC stands for (decentralization)  and in all reality makes your coins more so theirs than yours (you don't own a private key).   Move to cold storage! Listen to Lauda and staff here trying to help you.  They don't have ulterior motives.   They are here to truly help you.  I didn't understand that when I first arrived.  Use paper-wallets and set them up correctly. Take your time!
  
Cold storage hardware- BUY FROM MANUFACTURER ONLY!  This is HUGE.  There are now reports of Ledger Hardware wallets having been compromised and people loosing all of their coins out of no where seeminly.  If you think about it..A Chinese factory that fakes everything (and they do damn good jobs of it) can easily buy up a bunch of wallets, take them out , hack them somehow and put them back in and seal them up perfectly and you'd never know.  Or simply make their own that is 100% identical looking.  Then off to Ebay, Amazon etc.  You would never know the difference.  

https://www.ledger.fr/2018/02/05/man-middle-attack-risk/

An exchange doesn't give you control over your private keys. 2FA is to protect you from someone trying to hack your account only but not from a hacker trying to hack the exchange hot wallets because the balance you see in your account is just 1's and 0's, when you request a withdrawal, funds will move from the exchange addresses.

Thank you very much for tips!

I understand what you did. I don't think your topic is well placed in this thread here, consider to open a new thread in Wallet software section or Electrum section.

Do you remember if your Electrum wallet was properly synced, i.e. it showed a green ball in the lower right corner or a blue ball when connected through a proxy?

If the second wallet shows a transaction with a transaction id that you can find as confirmed on mempool.space it means the transaction has happened. Check thoroughly the target address of this transfer to be exactly one of the receiving addresses in your first wallet. If addresses are identical, then it's safe to assume your first wallet in Electrum isn't properly synced. Try changing the Electrum server and see if it makes a difference.

I use my own Electrum server for a reason to connect my wallets to it, so I don't have to rely on foreign Electrum servers.

You write everything correctly, I restored the wallet (hereinafter: No. 1) using the seed phrase, that is, I saw my wallet with the balance on it. Next, I decided to transfer BTC from a completely different second (No. 2) wallet to the same wallet (No. 1), BUT TO ANOTHER NEW ADDRESS (which I took from the tab in electrum: Addresses) (the transfer was made from an Exodus wallet). The goal was to have all the funds in 1 wallet (No. 1), but at two different addresses, do you understand? And after a while, I log into the wallet via electrum and DO NOT FIND this second address on it, and there is not even a transfer history. Although there is a story about a successful transfer on the second wallet (No. 2) (from which the transfer was made). I have the address to which the transfer was made, I have been tracking its balance on mempool.space all the time, respectively, and the transaction history is also visible there. But in electrum itself, this address and history are nowhere to be found.

Well, I think the security concerns have been mentioned above so you can decide whether that's a good thing to do or not. I don't recommend doing that if you eventually switch to cold storage to store your crypto, might as well use an air-gapped device, to begin with.

There is a pinned thread on this sub-board that probably answers most of your questions as a newbie[1]. Check the Meta board too if your question is related to how to post/navigate the forum.

[1] https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/newbies-read-before-posting-1689727

If you setup the software wallet on the mobile phone you still expose the mnemonic recovery words on a potentially very unsafe environment. I can't say much about iOS as I'm not interested in the golden fenced fallen fruit products.

App data isolation should be good enough on iOS and Android.

The Electrum Android app does a good job on data entry security as it uses an own specialized built-in keyboard to avoid leaking sensitive data to a potentially malicious keyboard app (doesn't need to be malicious, it's bad enough if it leaks any details a user enters via the installed keyboard app). Any wallet app that uses the installed keyboard app for entry of mnemonic recovery words, I would see as a shame on wallet security.

I don't trust the security of mobile phones when I see the monthly patches and security issues published. And with increased AI shit, it won't get better, for sure.

Watch-only wallets on mobile phones: not much of an issue with that. You can't loose private keys, you can only loose some privacy.

I limit the amount of value in mobile phone wallets that can spend funds to a maximum of very low three digit $$$ value. I won't be happy to loose that, but I could afford it, worst case.


Sure, if someone insists to use more value in a spendable mobile phone wallet, do yourself a favour and get a decent open-source firmware hardware wallet. Much safer than any software wallet (unless properly air-gapped cold software wallet) and definitely worth the expense.

What I mean is, for example, there are people who want to use a mobile wallet that supports android or ios that is included in the recommended wallets such as electrum and bluewallet, but the person only installs it on the device to get the address. After getting the address and seed phrase, it is stored in a safe place, then the application is uninstalled. Is that the right way?

Personally, I am the same as you in that I am safer using a hardware wallet.

Consider to open a separate thread for your wallet recovery issue, maybe in the Electrum wallet section. I don't think it belongs well in this thread here.


Let me summarize what we know and you can clear up the facts that might be a bit fuzzy.

You had an Exodus wallet and from what I interpret you imported the recovery words of your Exodus wallet (BIP-39) into an Electrum wallet. Correct? If this was the case and you checked that both wallets in Exodus and Electrum create the same Segwit addresses, then you successfully restored your Exodus wallet as one in Electrum.

Or maybe you didn't import the Exodus wallet into Electrum, but rather created a new Electrum wallet with Electrum mnemonic recovery words (not BIP-39 compatible). You should clarify this!

FatFork refers here that you may have used the wrong mnemonic recovery words AND/OR you forgot that you used a feature called mnemonic passphrase which is like an additional passphrase to the mnemonic recovery words.

If such a mnemonic passphrase is used then any unique mnemonic passphrase creates an unique wallet. Any small error in the mnemonic passphrase creates an empty wallet!

A technical explanation how HD wallets are "constructed" can be found here:
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/keys/hd-wallets/mnemonic-seed/

I never mentioned any "speed" so I assume that's a typo. As for the "seed phrase", I trust you know what that means. It's used to generate private keys, which in turn generate public addresses. The derivation path is a specific algorithm used to derive these addresses from the seed phrase. There are wallets (software) that use non-standard derivation paths, also, one seed can generate an unlimited number of wallets and keys, so sometimes it is important to make a note the derivation path when creating a new wallet. To ensure your wallet can be recovered, you must use the exact same seed phrase and derivation path when restoring your wallet.

I have no idea what you mean by "source code" - I never mentioned that either.

If you are sure of your seed phrase, then the problem may be in the derivation path, or you forgot that you used an additional passphrase when creating the wallet. Both of these things will cause completely different wallets (addresses) to be generated with the same seed phrase.

What do you mean by "same speed and derivation path" and "source code"?  There can definitely be no mistake in the Seed phrase, it is the only one written on the sheet initially.

No, wallet addresses cannot just "disappear" from your wallet. Even after you recover it from the backup seed after many years. Provided you use the same seed and derivation path, of course.

I don't think the gap limit has anything to do with your problem. It's more likely a simple mistake like using the wrong seed or forgetting a passphrase. After two years, it's easy to overlook something.

I tried to do this, after clicking the "detect existing accounts button" he found the account, probably because I am already logged in to the wallet. As a result, I just switched to my wallet with the same empty balance.

I also tried to enter this command, but it just creates new empty wallets.

This is very strange, I always kept records, and I remember for sure that I put bitcoins to the new BTC address that electrum gave me, in the format "bc1...". I have never used any wallets except the two above-mentioned ones. But after 2 years, I go in and don't see this wallet or history. There is a history on the wallet from which the funds were sent. Then how else can you track it? And could the wallet have disappeared/disappeared somehow?

I've never faced that issue on Electrum, so you're probably doing something wrong... Below the field where you enter your seed phrase, there's an "options button"... Click it, then choose BIP 39 and on the next window ^{[script type and derivation path]} click the "detect existing accounts button" to see if it can find it. If it doesn't find anything and you know the address type, choose the appropriate one to restore your wallet.

On the console tab of Electrum, use the following command to increase your gap limit:

Greetings, friends! Faced with such a situation: there is a btc wallet address, I always monitored its balance through the online service mempool space, recently decided to log into the wallet through a seed phrase, but this address and the corresponding balance is not there! I searched everything I could, I remember exactly this address was there. Before Electrum, I used the Exodus wallet, and when I switched to Electrum, I noticed that it gave out more btc addresses than were displayed in Exodus. And it was then that I decided to use the second address purely for storing the purchased BTC, in addition to the main one to which I withdrew the mined funds. In general, there is a feeling that this second address seems to have "disappeared" from the wallet. Could it be like that? I met such a moment in the Electrum FAQ:

"WARNING: Addresses beyond the gap limit will not automatically be recovered from the seed. To recover them will require either increasing the client’s gap limit or generating new addresses until the used addresses are found."

I will be very grateful for any tips, how can I find my bitcoins?

Sounds like you're trying to generate an air-gapped wallet/cold wallet but using a mobile phone to generate the seed, is that right? I'd rather use another device, like a freshly installed/disconnected computer or a live OS to do that instead of a mobile phone. Unless you disconnect your phone, reflash the OS/ROM, and then destroy it I don't think I can feel safe. Might as well buy an open source HW. CMIIW.