Topic: HOWTO: create a 100% secure wallet - page 117. (Read 276225 times)

Rather than TrueCrypt or LUKS partitions, just symmetrically encrypt your wallet.dat file.

$ gpg -ca wallet.dat

which will produce wallet.dat.asc . Just delete your wallet.dat after use (not the -.asc). You'll need to periodically create a new symmetrically encrypted version before each 100th transaction and back it up.

This.
Albeit surely not as secure as FreeBSD or OpenBSD, Ubuntu is definitely one of the easiest, specially for those who are "coming from Windows".

Thanks!  Was curious on what exactly to backup.  Simple to follow to boot.

Very helpful. Thanks for the posts!

Interesting. Thanks for the info.  

Questions:

1. Is it be possible to create a second partition on the USB drive in order to store any install files and such? I'm imagining that partition 0 has the bootable Ubuntu Live environment and partition 1 has bitcoin install file, truecrypt install file, etc. This is so that you do not need to redownload the install files every time you want to use the wallet.

2. Do I need to wait for the blockchain to download every time I want to send coins from my savings wallet? Or if a partitioning scheme like I mentioned in 1. above works, could I somehow keep the downloaded blockchain stored in another partition and only need to update it when I boot Ubuntu? If that is possible, how would I do that?

3. Let us say I boot Ubuntu from my USB drive, install bitcoin and such, then mount a truecrypt container with my savings wallet inside. Do I then copy the wallet.dat into ~/.bitcoin to use it, or should I make a link (using "mklink" as discussed above) to the file inside the mounted truecrypt container? (I don't actually know how links like that work, so this question might not even make sense.)

Thanks to anyone who can answer my questions. I know how to do the Ubuntu Live install and all that, but I want to make sure I know how to juggle all the other files and things I will need.

am i missing the point and cant i just put the bitcoins on my usb stick and then keep my usb stick in my safe ?!?!
thus having no need for a e-wallet ?!?!
cheers dom

Thanks for the post, all my BTC are tied up in MtGox! Obviously it's not a bad idea to consider storing them elsewhere.

Useful info is useful. tyvm!

Thank you very much for putting this together.

You rally dont have to reboot your system if you use virtualbox boot the live CD from the VM. Thanks I might look into this.

Thanks! That was somewhat helpful but mostly just funny!

Thanks for the clear (and funny) explanation...
Will be linking to this post in my signature to create awareness.

I'd like to promote a tool which generates new key-pairs and gives you a plain-text file as well as PDF's with QR codes. Perfect for a savings account.

1. Run the tool
2. Print the papers and store them in your bank deposit box
3. Send money to it
4. Profit

Link to the tool, called paper-keys: https://github.com/bitcoin-labs/paper-keys

And DO NOT copy the papers in a copy machine since they tend to keep copies of all documents on an internal hard drive: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/19/eveningnews/main6412439.shtml

I only know the meaning of one of those things, and I've never visited either. Guess it's just the hivemind popculture seeping in.

And why is thinkweis getting donations in my thread?  So far, this whole HOWTO gained me a single donation of 0.001 btc. /DramaQueen
Maybe I should've added some screenshots, or pictures of cats

Very nice guide - helpful and amusing to read! 


You don't happen to hang around C&P of the EVE-online forums, do you?

Thanks very much! I'm glad you enjoyed my guide and hope others will check it out!

Thank you very much for putting this together.

This is an extremely good idea. Also I love the humour in the post.

Useful stuff, thanks!