Hi everybody!!
It's a pleasure to be part of this revolution! I'll do my best to help every single person who wants to use Bitcoins and Linux.
Following the recent events about the crimes around the Bitcoins, like the theft of wallets by viruses or even by human thieves, I decided to help all people who wish to have their wallet in a safe place, being virus and crackers proof, at last I hope so.
Scope of the solution- Use a well know Live CD and applications to access your Bitcoins, no bizarre applications needed
- Store all the Bitcoin data, including your wallet, of course, into the Cloud (Ubuntu One)
- Encrypt all Bitcoin information, it will remain encrypted permanently within the Cloud
- Safely access your Bitcoins from anywhere in the Solar System, since you have an Internet connection
- Procedure easy to follow
Summary of this solution 1- Download Ubuntu Natty
2- Reboot your computer with Ubuntu
3- Configure your Internet access
4- Sign up in Ubuntu One service
5- Prepare the encrypted Bitcoin directory
6- Install and run Bitcoin client
7- Close your session
8- Wait the synchronization and visualise the network traffic until it finishes
9- Go sleep without nightmares
This solution depends the following softwares: 1- Ubuntu Natty Linux distribution
2- Ubuntu One client (Storage in the Cloud, default in Ubuntu Natty)
3- EncFS (an encrypted filesystem in user-space)
The complete procedure 1- Download the Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop CD ISO Image and burn it
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download 2- Reboot your computer with the Ubuntu Live CD on the CDROM drive
3- Configure your Internet access
4- Start Ubuntu One Client (Menu "System -> Preferences -> Ubuntu One")
4.1- Click "Join Now"
4.2- Fill out the form to sign up
4.3- You'll receive a activation code, confirm your registration with it
4.4- New Keyring Password window may appear - Each live session have its own Keyrings
4.5- Just close the Ubuntu One window
5- Preparing the encrypted Bitcoin directory
5.1- Open Ubuntu Software Center (Applications Menu)
5.1.1- Activate the Universe Repository
A) Click on "Edit menu -> Software Sources"
B) Enable Universe repository
5.1.2- Search and get (install) the encfs package
Tip: Wait 20 seconds before searching for encfs package.
If this not work, open the Terminal and run:
sudo apt-get install encfs
5.2- Open the "Gnome Terminal" application
5.2.1- Make two directories ("~/Ubuntu One/Bitcoin-Data" and "~/.bitcoin"):
mkdir ~/Ubuntu\ One/Bitcoin-Data ~/.bitcoin
5.2.2- Encrypt (or mount) the .bitcoin data directory:
encfs /home/ubuntu/Ubuntu\ One/Bitcoin-Data/ /home/ubuntu/.bitcoin/
Select "p"
Choose your password, DO NOT LOSE THIS PASSWORD!!! NEVER EVER!!!! Well done! 6- Install Bitcoin client
6.1- Add the Bitcoin Ubuntu PPA repository (yes, it is safe and open source)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stretch/bitcoin
6.2- Update the application list and install Bitcoin client
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bitcoin
6.3- Run Bitcoin (Menu "Applications -> Internet -> Bitcoin")
Do whatever you want to do 7- Closing your activities
7.1- Close Bitcoin Application
7.2- Umount the encrypted directory
fusermount -u /home/ubuntu/.bitcoin
8- WAIT, WAIT AND WAIT! Wait the synchronization ends and visualise the network traffic until it finishes.
8.1- You can watch the network traffic by running the following commands:
sudo apt-get install bwm-ng iptraf ethstatus
or
# Menu "Detailed interface statistics"
or
# Works only for ethernets, not wireless.
So, when the network traffic stop, you can safely shutdown your machine.
8.2- Pay attention to Ubuntu One notify window, when it appear, the network traffic will cease and you are ready to the next step.
9- Shutdown your computer and go sleep well, your Bitcoin wallet is in a safe place!
Using it on a Daily Basis Basically, every time we want access our Bitcoins, we need to repeat the above steps.
1- Repeat the previous steps 1, 2 and 3
2- Start Ubuntu One Client (System -> Preferences -> Ubuntu One)
2.1- Click "I already have a account!"
2.1- Type your login and password
2.3- Click "Connect"
2.4- Wait until the "File sync in progress" finishes
3- Repeat the previous steps 5, except the step 5.2.1
4- Repeat the previous steps 6, 7, 8 and 9
The limitations of this approach are: 1- The Bitcoin data directory can be really big, around ~500MB, so, every time you want to access your Bitcoins using the presented solution, you will need to wait the end of the synchronizations tasks, I mean, you'll need to do step 4, wait the download of the files from the Cloud, and proceed with step 5.
2- The reverse too, when you're done, you'll need to wait the upload task of the new encrypted files. Do not cry if your power goes down before the upload finishes!! Maybe it can be a good idea to rapidly backup your unencrypted ~/.bitcoin to a USB pendrive until the sync ends.
3- You'll need a lot of bandwidth!
4- Since the Live CD root directory lives in the RAM and Ubuntu One makes a local copy of the Cloud data, you'll need at last 2048MB of RAM to run this solution smoothly.
5- Ubuntu One definly needs a progress bar!
Subtracting these limitations, this is the most secure solution for now, from my point of view.
Future I know how to make a better solution than this, less limited and even more safe (at least from power loss), but it costs a time $_$ that I don't have right now.
This new approach will be based on Amazon EC2. The Linux and the Bitcoin client will be installed within a customised AMI. The ~/.bitcoin directory will be hosted within the Amazon Persistent Storage...
But this will be based entirely in open source software, the Eucalyptus and the KVM hypervisor. I'm an expert with this kind of Cloud Computing softwares and I'll make the first Bitcoin Cloud to host our wallets in a safe and private place. Of course, the persistent storage will be encrypted within the Cloud too (Eucalyptus Walrus).
But huge the difference from this presented solution will be that you will
run the Bitcoin client and host the ~/.bitcoin data within the cloud, and not just only host the ~/.bitcoin directory within a Cloud environment.
If anybody wants to talk more about the Bitcoin Cloud, based on Eucalyptus, let me know! We can work together to bring the best of the technology for human kind!
BTW, if you want, you can use GMailFS or DropBox instead of Ubuntu One, or even a USB pendrive.
BACKUPS! Create a backup every time you make a new financial transaction. I'm preparing a backup / restore solution and I'll post it here soon as possible...
Virus for Linux?! I hardly think so... Just to clarify, Linux do not "catch" viruses! If some cracker tries to write a virus for Linux, it will simple NOT work, it will not be capable to propagate itself, it will not be able to "infect" the binaries of the system...
So, there is no viable way to build a virus for Linux (for BSDs too). The Linux style of development also limits much more the viability of a Linux virus... So, if you want to live free of viruses,
USE LINUX! Forget about Windows, it reeeeeeally suckz. You do not even need a anti-virus installed!
I do not have any anti-virus in my computers. My computer CPU and RAM is for
my use,
not for some "anti-virus".
Think about it, it is a big business in letting Windows insecure! So, more companies will sell anti-viruses... If everybody migrates to Linux, the World does not need the anti-virus companies anymore...
Conclusions This entire procedure is a "kind of desperate" measure for security, who owns many Bitcoins and want to have a minimum of security to keep them, should follow this guide.
Guys, believe or not... I do not have any Bitcoin cent!
So, I appreciate any donations if somebody think this guide useful!
My Bitcoin Address is: 18tACMonUoKu5P2b8YscMkKLPyZzRpEUkm
Best regards,
Thiago Martins
