Topic: Storing money on Smartphone is far more secure than desktop or laptop - page 4. (Read 9344 times)

Give a fool the most secure system and he will break it, lose it or whatever. Give a smart man any option, even the less optimal and he will do good by making right choices. Simple as that!

Blockchain.info and I'm almost sure all exchanges accept 2FA, but don't force the user to use it(I don't know if Xapo does), so they are not less secure at least in this point.

I like blockchain because they don't really have your private keys, so in theory they can't steal your coins even if they really want

I have experience about web wallet and moblie wallet
oneday my ymail get hacked and i lose all of my BTC at blockchain, Bittrex and local exchanger

but my satosi at xapo still secure, basically xapo use 2fa
and 2fa only avaible at mobile aplication

now Im using xapo everyday it's more secure than blockchain or other web wallet

Im never use dekstop wallet like bitcoin core, electrum or etc.

iOS is more secure than Android btw. If you want Android with better security get the new Blackberry Priv running Android thats been out recently.

Breadwallet ceo:

RVC: I've read that mobile wallets should only be used for pocket change. How much money can I safely keep on my phone at one time?

It's ironic, because many people don't realize that their smartphones are actually the most secure computing device they own, far more secure than desktop or laptop systems. It's wallets that can be accessed from the web or desktop that should really only be used for pocket change.

An iPhone uses the same techniques of app sandboxing and enforced code signatures that dedicated hardware wallets use. The phone is also hardware encrypted so your funds are strongly protected even if it's physically stolen. The US DOJ even complains publicly that the phones are too secure. Some people prefer to keep large amounts in paper wallets, but for someone who doesn't have a strong technical knowledge of bitcoin, misunderstanding how change addresses work can result in total loss, so they're not really suitable for the general public. There was recently a $1M dollar bounty offered for a remote jailbreak of iOS, and the winner ended up having to use an exploit in the chrome app, so if we assume markets are efficient, then in theory it should be safe to keep at least $1M in breadwallet (if you don't use chrome).

You leave your fingerprints everywhere[1].

The overal idea that some device is more secure than another is nonsense. It all depends on what you want to defend against. If you do not define the attack you cant claim one is better than the other. E.g. a smartphone would usually not stand against a brute force attack, because hardly anyone[2] has a long pin. While its common or easy to have a lengthy 20+ symbol password on a laptop or desktop computer. A smartphone is more prone to shoulder surfing which is hardly an issue with a private desktop, but might be for a laptop used in public.

A desktop can be more vulnerable to viruses and malware, but this greatly depends on user behaviour. Keeping your system up to date and the same logic as with iOS applies. 0 days are expensive for all systems.


To add to this, rooting and jail breaking is common among many because they want to install different (stolen) software from possible unsecure sources. This is not a feature that keeps a system safe, its just a feature that keeps a system safe if the user does not go against it. In the end security is an user feature, not a system feature. Always, no matter which OS or device. Well unless you special purpose hardware.


[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM8b8d8kSNQ
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvG8prWynKM

But you have to also have a pass/fingerprint - code on your phone, because if it is stolen or lost, the security wont matter. Other than that, it is true that there are less viruses for phones, especially iOS phones.

So to put it short; you are safe from third party apps because you can't install them..
-snip-

Android is far from secure.
And iOS is secure only because it avoids you to installing unwanted apps, since anything outside App Store iOS says "no".

I agree with that. In fact, my old iphone 4 stopped charging some days ago. There I had two factor authentication for some accounts with bitcoin online. Fortunately, I got to change the authentication before the phone died. I would have likely lost access to the coins if I had not realized about the phone not charging.

Not very secure.