Topic: Is it Safe? If Not, What Is? (Read 1181 times)

Yes but don't keep more than a couple coins there. That's your literal wallet (like the cash in the wallet in your pocket). What I suggested is the btc equivalent to money in a savings account.

I completely agree with you and suggest everyone with some basic technical and security know-how follow your advice, but....

This is where Bitcoin isn't quite ready for primetime until inexpensive and easy to use hardware wallets come out. There are many baby boomers that are technologically illiterate , have horrible security practices(using weak passwords, Storing them in plaintext on same computer, reusing passwords, ect...), and constantly get viruses and malware.

Even though it kills me to suggest but I think telling them to use a heavily regulated exchange in the US like coinbase /circle is a a better (temporary)option than having them lose everything due to a mistake or virus. Have there been any US exchanges or hot wallets who have "lost" or stolen their clients bitcoins yet? The one case I can think of is bitcoin savings and trust and that Ponzi scheme was prosecuted. The biggest risk of keeping your coins in coinbase / circle is the capital gains theft that is sure to happen when your bitcoins appreciate in value. Hopefully inexpensive hardware wallets come out soon that are user friendly for even your grandmother to use.  Hardbit isn't opensource and merely a modified smartphone. Trezor looks promising but requires a computer and isn't to the level of user friendliness that is needed. https://mycelium.com/bitcoincard   ... perhaps... but may be another year or two before it comes out.

So where did everyone learn all this?  Is there like a newbie guide, or somewhere I can read about all of this and where I should keep my coins?

I don't think Ubuntu is very difficult at all. It's pretty simple actually. I recommend booting from a live usb or cd though as it makes dealing with your coins much safer as you're not going to get any keyloggers.

when the OP question comes up, its easier to ask the question

is it safe to let some one hundreds of miles away that youcant physically grab by the throat hold $1200 of your money, without a contract. and if thre was a contract would you want to go to court just to try getting your $1200 back, where it takes a year just to try proving you owned it.

if the answer is no, then get a proper wallet. and only put in amounts that you deem as 'toilet funds' into exchanges/third parties ... you know the amount you would spend on a night out for drinks and food that just ends up down the toilet the next morning.

If you mean a computer connected to internet, Ubuntu is safer than Windows but if you aren't used to it
and haven't got any experience with different OS', can be difficult to understand how it works.

Just go for a blockchain.info wallet if you want easy but safe online access to your coins. Keeping them on exchnages is never a good idea as you don't control your private keys. Keep them on exchnaghes onlly for as long as you have to.

Most Secure - Multisig, cold storage with keys located in different locations and encrypted or hidden in safes.

Very Secure - Offline linux computer where you occasionally connect to network transfer funds but don't use for anything else.

Temporarily acceptable for luddites until hardware wallets come out -  Coinbase/Circle hot wallets with 2 factor authentication and a strong and unique password stored in a password manager or your head.

I use a blockchain.info-wallet and the app.
The big advantage of blockchain.info is: They don't have your private key.  The disadvantage is: if you lose your password, you can't reset it, which isn't that bad either since, you can just download the Private Key in case something goes wrong with the site.

If you are going to keep the computer offline it doesn't really matter that much, although some will tell you that Linux is generally more secure (which isn't exactly true). The key point of cold storage is keeping the coins offline such that they cannot be compromised by a keylogger/malware on your computer or stolen from the exchange your storing it on.

One more question, is it more safe to keep a wallet on Linux (Ubunutu) or Windows

Glad to be able to help. The more people are smart and keep their coins safe the less of an impact the next goxxing will have on the community.

No. None. Who knows if you can't audit the code? Never heard of it before.

If you're the only person who controls and can access the private keys, then it's safe.

Thank you so much! I will do this, I have a shitty laptop I can wipe

Please don't use coinbase.

First off, you don't actually own the BTC since you don't know the private key. You just have coinbase's promise to send you BTC which as we saw with gox can easily be broken. Moreover they're not paying you any interest so there's no real reason to choose this over just securely holding your coins.

Also I've had bad experiences with coinbase in the past and I can surely say that they're not the straightest shooter in an industry filled with shady characters.

If you want to hold Btc, here's what I recommend, especially for larger sums.

Take any computer you own that you can afford to wipe. Can be very old.
Download electrum.
take the computer that you can afford to wipe offline.
Generate a new wallet on that computer.
Write down the seed of that wallet.

Now

Download electrum on your primary computer.
Import the master public key into your primary computer.

Then

Wipe the disk of the computer you used to generate the wallet.

Congrats you now have an arbitrary number of very secure cold storage addresses all of which can be accessed through the paper you used to write down the electrum seed. Even if both of your computers are filled to the brim with trojans your wallet is safe.

Enjoy.

All online wallets are only as secure as the servers hosting them. If you really have to use an online wallet, then always, for the love of all that is holy, always enable 2-factor authorization. I wouldn't use an online wallet as a cold storage solution though. I wouldn't keep a whole 2 BTC in an online wallet either. Remember Gox?

I don't recommend using a mobile phone wallet for storing anything over 0.10 BTC. Essentially, you should treat a mobile phone wallet the same way that you would your pocket wallet. After all, you can encrypt a mobile phone wallet with the longest and most complicated password that you can remember, but that won't help secure it if you lose your phone while your wallet is unlocked.

Ideally, you should split your long-term Bitcoins into multiple offline cold storage addresses with multiple backups. Hot wallets can be anywhere (phone, in your case) if you're going to spend the funds in them immediately anyway. Personally though, I don't trust the entropy of randomness used by mobile phones in generating new addresses, but that's just me.

Why not in an offline wallet or at the very least on your own computer with a strong password? Online wallets are never safe. Then again, your computer isn't either if you download every attachment from every spam email you get.

Hey guys! I just have a quick question!

Is it safe to keep a couple BTC in a Coinbase wallet? If not, what is safest web wallet? Also, how safe is a Bitcoin wallet on a phone. I use the Bitstore app on iPhone as my "On the go' wallet.