Topic: What is the most trusted bitcoin company? - page 2. (Read 533 times)

https://www.bitaddress.org/ safe and it is open source. If you want to look at it please visit: https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

So if you want, you can create a BTC wallet offline using these codes.

BTW, bitaddress is not only way to create a paper wallet. You can also use these ones;

*https://walletgenerator.net/
*https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/
(Update: these options can not be safe anymore! Refer: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.54473516)

For the time being. bitcoinpaperwallet, which used to be open source and a secure way to generate paper wallets, has fairly recently turned in to a scam site, with their code disappearing from github and producing a variety of pre-generated addresses which are then having coins stolen from them. If you are going to use any website to generate a paper wallet, regardless of how secure it has been in the past, you should spend some time reviewing the code to make sure it is doing what you think it is doing. A better option is to probably use a wallet like Electrum or a hardware wallet on an airgapped machine to generate either a seed or private keys which you then turn in to a paper wallet.

Although you are right, I think the bigger issue with using exchanges or web wallets to store your coins is that they can do anything they like with your coins and with your account. They frequently do things like springing unannounced KYC on their customers and refusing to let you access your coins unless you comply, track your deposits and withdrawals and freeze your account if they don't like how you are spending your own money, or even just freeze your account because you have trigger some arbitrary algorithm they use (which they never disclose). As you say, these should be avoided.

You are fairly new to Bitcoin, so I would not suggest that you use Paper wallets as your primary storage option. Paper wallets generated with bitaddress.org is very secure, but you have to use it correctly or you will lose your coins. (Generating the paper wallets is not secure, if you do this online or if you use a computer that are re-connected after you created those wallets.)

Paper wallets is also not practical for daily use, but rather an option for people who wants to buy coins for long-term storage. You would be much better off downloading the desktop wallets like previously suggested by other users to access your coins. (eg. Electrum etc.)

Some people create an account with Crypto exchanges and use their wallets, but I would advise against doing that, because these exchanges are primary targets for hackers. (Only deposit coins there for trading and then transfer it to other wallets as suggested)  

What ever you do, don't use an online wallet or a wallet that isn't open source.
Online wallets aren't safe at all. When the website goes down, you won't be having access to your wallet. Again, those online sites are always prone to hacking. The online wallet creator might claim that they are 100% secure, but trust me, no such wallets can be 100% secure and they can never guarantee you that you will never lose your coins.
Like others said, as long as you don't control your keys, the coins aren't yours. If anyone else has access to your keys, then you can't call yourself the sole owner of the coins.

Yes, given that the address you input is correct and matches yours, it should arrive.

Use it when you are offline or use github.

Paper wallets can be very practical. But you also need to keep the private key in that paper wallet well.

If you are going to keep a high amount of crypto assets in this wallet, I definitely recommend you to choose a hardware wallet.

Also, even if you do not buy a Ledger, you can create your own seed keys and use that wallet in another Ledger, but this is not practical.

Actually, if you are using the site.. you don't know.
I would discourage from using such a site to generate a paper wallet. Doesn't matter whether downloaded or online.

You can create a private/public keypair by using electrum or even via the linux command line using openssl.




While the private keys might not get sent anywhere, the random number generator could be manipulated or flawed. Especially when we are talking about javascript libraries.
Generating them using electrum, which uses the os.random() python function which uses the operating systems default entropy generation method is the preferred way.

You just download a file that generates pub&priv keys
And that is why you do the process offline, so you avoid any issues.
It is open source and as long as you verify the signature everything should be OK

You can download the website files (see GitHub respository) and run them on an air-gapped PC. This will ensure that the keys are not sent anywhere.


You don't have to install anything and you can easily generate a paper wallet if you don't trust other forms of storage. Paper wallets are not really convenient if you intend to spend your coins often and this one in particular generates only legacy addresses.

And how do I know that bitaddress.org doesn't store its private and public keys in database? What's the point of that site anyway?

Paper wallets are not that straight forward for newbies. It is common practice to make them while not connected to the internet and delete any associated files from your PC before reconnecting (just mentioning in case he wants to explore that option)
OP, here you can read  some more on the subject:
[Guide] Create an Offline Wallet For Bitcoin and Altcoin Only Use 1 Paper

As I can understand from what you've said. Actually I think you're asking how can you keep you BTC (or any other cryptocurrencies) in safe.
But for that, you don't need any company if you want. There are more than one way to keep your crypto assets. We are calling them a "wallet".

There are some kind of wallets which you can hold your assets.

Paper Wallet: You can basically create a wallet and send your assets in it. (for example, you can visit https://www.bitaddress.org/)
Hardware Wallet: These are one of the safest ways of keeping your BTC's safe. Because it is so hard to reach assets without your personal information. You can look for Ledger or Trezor for hardware wallets.
Hot Wallets: These are basically can reach an internet connection. So usually seems untrustable ways. If your devices have some problems then your assets can be in danger. There are varieties such as mobile wallet, Desktop wallet and Web-Based Wallet. For example Bitcoin core is a desktop wallet, Trust wallet is a mobile wallet and Magnum wallet is a web-based wallet.

You can also find a lot of wallet option from here: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet?step=1

That's why you should follow this guide which was already linked in this thread. This process ensures that the installation file wasn't replaced with a malicious version which could steal your coins.


As long as the address belongs to your wallet, yes. In fact, you will see the coins a moment after they have been sent, but they will appear as unconfirmed.

I just read that downloading from electrum.org is not completely verified process. 

So I have a question. If someone sends me bitcoins (to the BTC Address I have in my signature) will they arrive after the mining to my wallet?

Electrum is an Open source wallet project, there's no real "benefit" for the creator and doesn't keep your data etc

A company is something private, and it's main purpose is the one of having profits. For that, they do store and sell data, apply some shady terms and conditions (KYC)....

Apart from that, you are in control of your seed AND private keys, whereas "company wallets" don't usually let you have access to both, or even one of those



Only if you download Bitcoin Core and prune it; Electrum is a lightwight client so there's you don't have to download the whole Blockchain. In fact, the whole instalation weighs something around 80MB. You can follow this guide from direwolf to verify the download before installing anything

Thank you, I think I will go with Electrum. I just don't get why Electrum differs that much with the ones I call "companies". It seems that I don't need to get sync plus the software connects with electrum servers.


So I'll have to download the whole 250GB first and then delete until 2GB?

For starters, that has a good balance of accessibility and owning-your-keys, but not with security.
That's also a step-down from an SPV wallet because you have to visit their website, log-in using id & password and query their server to access your wallet.
So, expect website-related security and other issues like delayed update of balance, log-in issues and more ways to get hacked.

Consider switching to Electrum just like others suggested.
Or use this to select your wallet: bitcoin.org: Choose Your wallet, tick the right options on the left.
The wallets with "Full validation" tag are the ones that requires to download the full blockchain;
wallets with "Simplified validation" tag are the ones that doesn't require full verification of the blockchain.
Those with "Centralized validation" are the ones you can call "Companies".
Just make sure to choose the one with "Control over your money" (most of them does).

why would you even want to use bitcoin if you still want to rely on a centralized service to store your money for you? just stick to fiat and continue using banks and don't bother with the volatile currency.

you do need to sync and you have to download the entire blockchain. the only difference is that you don't have to store the entire blockchain.

A company/business being safe or legit doesn't mean it's going to be "safe". Look at these exchanges[1]; it's safe to assume that most of them are legitimate businesses/companies, but being "legitimate" and "trusted" doesn't make you invulnerable to attacks.

As for the Blockchain wallet, ehh. Personally I'm more of an Electrum[2] or Wasabi Wallet[3] guy.

---

[1] https://cryptosec.info/exchange-hacks/
[2] https://electrum.org/
[3] https://wasabiwallet.io/

There is no Bitcoin company... and try to avoid any online wallets, as there is always high risk of phishing attacks.

Best thing I would suggest is that you buy some Hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor.
There is also free desktop wallet alternatives.

Not really sure what you are looking for, but I assume you are asking about a wallet...

I would not recommend centralized wallets like blockchain.com . You can have issues with private keys and if the website is down ... no funds for you )
No 1 rule in crypto: Don't trust anyone !
No 2 rule (very close second): Not your keys, not your coins !

You don't need to sync bitcoin core in order to use it. You can use prune mode (after verification discards old blocks, keeping only most recent 2GB worth of blocks).
Or you can use Electrum on your PC and Mycelium on your phone.

There are many other options but these are well established and very frequently used (also by me)