Author

Topic: New to Army, one question. (Read 1336 times)

legendary
Activity: 1428
Merit: 1093
Core Armory Developer
August 19, 2014, 01:29:16 PM
#14
...

4. Distribute your 6 pages to secure places and trusted people.

...


My issue with the paper wallets is... where do I store them? Seriously, where?

Storing them in a bank is expensive where I live, giving them to friends means friends can get together to steal your money, keeping them yourself is pointless, etc...

Fragmented backups are perfect for people with limited options for physical security.

The nice thing about fragmented backups as well as multi-sig wallets in general, is that you have the flexibility to manage those parameters yourself without many resources.  You don't need to store some at the bank.  Even if all you did was scatter them in your house, you'd still be protected against someone breaking in for other reasons and randomly finding a paper backup.  With regular paper backups that would be game over.  With fragmented backups, someone has to specifically target you (i.e. break into your house with the sole intent to find your Bitcoins).  Even then, they may not find them.

But of course, we recommend not keeping all of them in the same place -- people also like to distribute backup fragments in case their house burns down, etc.  Keep one with a family member, bury one in your backyard, etc.  If you make a 6-of-6 backup, having only 5 pieces is as good as having zero -- they need that 6th piece to get your wallet, and without it they might as well try brute-forcing your wallet from nothing.   

It's up to you to decide the parameters you are comfortable with, since it's your money.  At least Armory gives you that flexibility (are there any other wallets/services out there that do fragmented backups?).
full member
Activity: 123
Merit: 100
August 19, 2014, 12:58:15 PM
#13
...

4. Distribute your 6 pages to secure places and trusted people.

...


My issue with the paper wallets is... where do I store them? Seriously, where?

Storing them in a bank is expensive where I live, giving them to friends means friends can get together to steal your money, keeping them yourself is pointless, etc...

Physical security is less important with a 3 of 6 fragmented backup.

If you just hide 4 keys in different places, and keep 2 with a couple friends or family.  They would have to conspire and find one of your hiding spots to steal your money. Anyone else locating one of your keys would still have to find two more.

Fragmented backups are perfect for people with limited options for physical security.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
August 19, 2014, 10:52:31 AM
#12
I read the title and I thought you enlisted.  Cheesy

The bitcoin foundation should start financing a bitcoin army. Perhaps you can bring it up at your next meeting?
That's a good idea. Currently we farm it out to Al-Qaeda.  Grin

I would have guessed IDF considering you have Ploshay on board
والانضمام إلى Kufar?
lol
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 109
August 19, 2014, 03:24:00 AM
#11

Is it good now? I have a watch only copy on my online computer.

2 copies of my paper wallet
2 encrypted copies on 2 USB's

You seem to be taking extra steps to ensure that you have redundant backups in case something happens to one of them.

The best way to achieve this goal is to have a fragmented backup, say a 3-of-6.

This will give you 6 pieces of paper, such that any 3 will recover your wallet.

Any other attempts to duplicate your backups increases the ways your bitcoins could be exposed to an attacker.

I recommend that you throw out your current wallet, and start over with the following steps:

1. Create a new wallet on the offline computer.
2. Print a 3-of-6 backup with secure print, remember to write your secure print code on each page with extra careful penmanship.
3. Delete your wallet, and attempt recreate it from the backup on your offline computer with different combinations of 3 fragments. Repeat until you are certain that you will be able to repeat this process if needed.
4. Distribute your 6 pages to secure places and trusted people.
5. Then test your offline wallet with a couple small transactions.



My issue with the paper wallets is... where do I store them? Seriously, where?

Storing them in a bank is expensive where I live, giving them to friends means friends can get together to steal your money, keeping them yourself is pointless, etc...
legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
August 18, 2014, 04:11:06 PM
#10
I read the title and I thought you enlisted.  Cheesy

The bitcoin foundation should start financing a bitcoin army. Perhaps you can bring it up at your next meeting?
That's a good idea. Currently we farm it out to Al-Qaeda.  Grin

I would have guessed IDF considering you have Ploshay on board
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
August 18, 2014, 12:32:06 PM
#9
I read the title and I thought you enlisted.  Cheesy

The bitcoin foundation should start financing a bitcoin army. Perhaps you can bring it up at your next meeting?
That's a good idea. Currently we farm it out to Al-Qaeda.  Grin
full member
Activity: 123
Merit: 100
August 18, 2014, 10:15:15 AM
#8

Is it good now? I have a watch only copy on my online computer.

2 copies of my paper wallet
2 encrypted copies on 2 USB's

You seem to be taking extra steps to ensure that you have redundant backups in case something happens to one of them.

The best way to achieve this goal is to have a fragmented backup, say a 3-of-6.

This will give you 6 pieces of paper, such that any 3 will recover your wallet.

Any other attempts to duplicate your backups increases the ways your bitcoins could be exposed to an attacker.

I recommend that you throw out your current wallet, and start over with the following steps:

1. Create a new wallet on the offline computer.
2. Print a 3-of-6 backup with secure print, remember to write your secure print code on each page with extra careful penmanship.
3. Delete your wallet, and attempt recreate it from the backup on your offline computer with different combinations of 3 fragments. Repeat until you are certain that you will be able to repeat this process if needed.
4. Distribute your 6 pages to secure places and trusted people.
5. Then test your offline wallet with a couple small transactions.

legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
August 18, 2014, 08:32:53 AM
#7
I read the title and I thought you enlisted.  Cheesy

The bitcoin foundation should start financing a bitcoin army. Perhaps you can bring it up at your next meeting?
legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
August 18, 2014, 08:31:18 AM
#6
I installed Armory, created a cold storage wallet and printed 2 paper wallet copies. I also backed up an encrypted digital copy that's on 2 USB's and in a password protected WinRAR file on my Google Drive that has 2step. I exported the watching only copy to my desktop and deleted my cold storage wallet and imported the watch only wallet. Do I just send coins to my watch only addresses and they will be there in my wallet?

That's no longer a cold storage wallet since you stuck it up on google drive. Cold storage means it never goes online. Actually cold storage means paper wallet which is not what you are trying to do. Offline wallet is the correct term.

Apart from the above, I would never be happy with an offline wallet until I had first sent a small amount of btc there and then made sure I could spend it.

Yeah, I was kinda iffy on putting it there, I ended up deleting it off drive.

Is it good now? I have a watch only copy on my online computer.

It's no longer a strictly offline wallet. If you want one of those you should create a new wallet in offline armory.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
August 17, 2014, 07:57:03 PM
#5
I read the title and I thought you enlisted.  Cheesy
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
August 17, 2014, 07:55:11 PM
#4
I installed Armory, created a cold storage wallet and printed 2 paper wallet copies. I also backed up an encrypted digital copy that's on 2 USB's and in a password protected WinRAR file on my Google Drive that has 2step. I exported the watching only copy to my desktop and deleted my cold storage wallet and imported the watch only wallet. Do I just send coins to my watch only addresses and they will be there in my wallet?

That's no longer a cold storage wallet since you stuck it up on google drive. Cold storage means it never goes online. Actually cold storage means paper wallet which is not what you are trying to do. Offline wallet is the correct term.

Apart from the above, I would never be happy with an offline wallet until I had first sent a small amount of btc there and then made sure I could spend it.

Yeah, I was kinda iffy on putting it there, I ended up deleting it off drive.

Is it good now? I have a watch only copy on my online computer.

2 copies of my paper wallet
2 encrypted copies on 2 USB's
legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
August 17, 2014, 07:38:05 PM
#3
I installed Armory, created a cold storage wallet and printed 2 paper wallet copies. I also backed up an encrypted digital copy that's on 2 USB's and in a password protected WinRAR file on my Google Drive that has 2step. I exported the watching only copy to my desktop and deleted my cold storage wallet and imported the watch only wallet. Do I just send coins to my watch only addresses and they will be there in my wallet?

That's no longer a cold storage wallet since you stuck it up on google drive. Cold storage means it never goes online. Actually cold storage means paper wallet which is not what you are trying to do. Offline wallet is the correct term.

Apart from the above, I would never be happy with an offline wallet until I had first sent a small amount of btc there and then made sure I could spend it.
legendary
Activity: 3752
Merit: 1364
Armory Developer
August 17, 2014, 06:27:15 PM
#2
Do I just send coins to my watch only addresses and they will be there in my wallet?

Yes. Please make sure to get Armory online synced first, so that you are sure you can get these coins out without resorting to the support channel.

Also, welcome to the Army, private!
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
August 17, 2014, 06:15:38 PM
#1
I installed Armory, created a cold storage wallet and printed 2 paper wallet copies. I also backed up an encrypted digital copy that's on 2 USB's and in a password protected WinRAR file on my Google Drive that has 2step. I exported the watching only copy to my desktop and deleted my cold storage wallet and imported the watch only wallet. Do I just send coins to my watch only addresses and they will be there in my wallet?
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