Reminder to not use brainwallets - page 2.

Biitcoin

sr. member

Activity: 353

Merit: 250

Zichain

Quote from: webtricks on January 02, 2017, 10:12:11 AM

Wow, listened about Brainwallets for the first time.
Ok, I will not go for it. For me best for holding Bitcoin is Paper Wallet and for daily transactions is Online wallet.
Any better suggestions?

Brainwallets are fine but human sometimes can't generate a passphrase that is secure enough and If he does , chances that he forgot the passphrase over the years are high.
An online wallet that doesn't give you control over the private keys are never suggested , not even for daily transactions , here is my order :

1. Hardware wallets
2. Paper Wallets
3. Desktop wallets (for daily uses)
4. Web wallets (that gives you your private keys)

susila_bai

hero member

Activity: 1260

Merit: 524

Quote from: pereira4 on January 02, 2017, 09:48:48 AM

Quote from: Priam on January 02, 2017, 09:43:35 AM

What is a brain wallet ? These are the wallets that are secured by a passphrase like Multibit HD, or is it something else, and I'm wrong ?

Quote

A brainwallet refers to the concept of storing Bitcoins in one's own mind by memorizing a mnemonic recovery seed. If the mnemonic is not recorded anywhere, the Bitcoins can be thought of as being held only in the mind of the owner. If a brainwallet is forgotten or the person dies or is permanently incapacitated, the Bitcoins are lost forever. Using techniques like memory pegging allow them to be memorized and recalled easily.

To create a brainwallet, use Bitcoin wallet software to generate a mnemonic seed and then memorize it. Such seeds are generated by wallets like Electrum, Armory and Mycelium.

Here you have it. I think the thing is, you can never trust that your seed is not going to be hacked. You can trust that your wallet.dat is going to stay safe if you keep them in safe places and encrypted, you can trust your paper wallets will not move from your closet and so on... but you can bet on brainwallets in the long term.

What you are telling is not upto it, as if you have the passphrase key with you you can always anywhere regenerate your old wallet in electrum , mycelium. So i think in this desktop wallets you have to keep in memory the passphrase because even if you lost your wallet.dat file with passphrase you can regenerate your old wallet and run back your all address.

manselr

legendary

Activity: 868

Merit: 1006

Quote from: mrkevio on January 02, 2017, 09:52:42 AM

I'd rather go for web wallets than brain wallets. I am stoing my Bitcoins on paper wallets and I feel safe, they're even easy to hide. You can be 100% sure nobody tracked you and saw your money if you're going to install a temporary system (Linux Live) and generate the wallets OFFLINE abd print them out after.

If you use paper wallets, don't forget to use BIP38 to encrypt the cold wallets, you are going to need that. I don't get why people think using paper wallets with no encryption is a safe practice just because you are storing them at your house. People often forget that good ol thieves that actually break your shit and get inside your home and steal everything they feel is worth stealing don't exist anymore in the internet age.

Once bitcoin becomes mainstream, thieves will learn that anything with a QR code is a potential goldmine, and a paper wallet without a lock is an easy steal.

webtricks

legendary

Activity: 1918

Merit: 1728

Wow, listened about Brainwallets for the first time.
Ok, I will not go for it. For me best for holding Bitcoin is Paper Wallet and for daily transactions is Online wallet.
Any better suggestions?

OmegaStarScream

staff

Activity: 3500

Merit: 6152

With no doubt , the number of users of brainwallet are less (much less) then the users of exchanges (who stores their coins there) and online wallets but here is the thing , If I learned anything from being with the bitcoin community in the last two years , is that bitcoiners never learn the lesson unless they lose their coins.
I will give you an example , since the hack of Mt.gox and people are advising each other to not store their coins in an exchange but how many of them are actually doing it? not much... because until now , exchanges are still being hacked and we see people crying about how they lost bitcoins.
Overall , you can put reminders and warnings all over the place but If people don't lose their coins , they won't learn the lesson.

mrkevio

full member

Activity: 210

Merit: 100

I'd rather go for web wallets than brain wallets. I am stoing my Bitcoins on paper wallets and I feel safe, they're even easy to hide. You can be 100% sure nobody tracked you and saw your money if you're going to install a temporary system (Linux Live) and generate the wallets OFFLINE abd print them out after.

Red-Apple

hero member

Activity: 1470

Merit: 655

Quote from: Priam on January 02, 2017, 09:43:35 AM

What is a brain wallet ? These are the wallets that are secured by a passphrase like Multibit HD, or is it something else, and I'm wrong ?

a brain wallet is where you put in a password and the code turns that password to your private key. and it is bad because humans can not generate a random enough password.

what you are saying is encrypting the wallet file and that is secure as long as your password is a safe password.

also don't confuse these two with seed. a seed that HD wallets have should be as safe as the private key. i say should be because it depends on the code they are using the wallets like Electrum are tested and safe. others possibly should be but you need to investigate.

pereira4

legendary

Activity: 1610

Merit: 1183

Quote from: Priam on January 02, 2017, 09:43:35 AM

What is a brain wallet ? These are the wallets that are secured by a passphrase like Multibit HD, or is it something else, and I'm wrong ?

Quote

A brainwallet refers to the concept of storing Bitcoins in one's own mind by memorizing a mnemonic recovery seed. If the mnemonic is not recorded anywhere, the Bitcoins can be thought of as being held only in the mind of the owner. If a brainwallet is forgotten or the person dies or is permanently incapacitated, the Bitcoins are lost forever. Using techniques like memory pegging allow them to be memorized and recalled easily.

To create a brainwallet, use Bitcoin wallet software to generate a mnemonic seed and then memorize it. Such seeds are generated by wallets like Electrum, Armory and Mycelium.

Here you have it. I think the thing is, you can never trust that your seed is not going to be hacked. You can trust that your wallet.dat is going to stay safe if you keep them in safe places and encrypted, you can trust your paper wallets will not move from your closet and so on... but you can bet on brainwallets in the long term.

Priam

newbie

Activity: 16

Merit: 0

What is a brain wallet ? These are the wallets that are secured by a passphrase like Multibit HD, or is it something else, and I'm wrong ?

pereira4

legendary

Activity: 1610

Merit: 1183

Now that there are a lot of newbies asking how to store their bitcoins, it is often remembered how it's a terrible idea to hold bitcoins on exchanges and online wallets like blockchain.info, but it is often forgotten how bad of an idea is to go the brainwallet route. Even gmaxwell has remembered people to not use them... it is just not a trusted way to store coins specially longterm. Maybe if you want to cross borders and temporarily hold coins "in the void", but forget to hold your main stack in a brainwallet.

Topic: Reminder to not use brainwallets - page 2. (Read 1413 times)