Topic: Which bitcoin wallet is the best? (Read 25873 times)

Multbit and bitcoin-qt are the best Bitcoin wallet

That's right, I share your opinion!
do its my words

i use Multibit, sometime sucks too but yeahh so far its better than bitcoin-qt IMO
and maybe are wallet it same

i use webbased since my internent is too slow to sync with my desktop wallet, i still have like 2million satoshis that i can't get a hold of, my first ever btc made.

Coinkite offers M-of-15 and option for generating keys offline

http://blog.coinkite.com/post/102291566521/bitcoin-multisig

IMO the best is Armory .
I used to work with Multibit but cause I couldn't sign transactions on my offline computer I suggested to use Armory, that was the main reason

Best is a very relative term.

Paper wallets or offline wallets are in general the best but they do require careful attention and inexperienced users may have trouble with that.
They are also not exactly convenient on a day to day basis either.

If you want to try a different kind of wallet, with watch-only capabilities, multisignature (so you can have 2FA per transaction, 4 different kinds), fully open source and client side only unminified inspectable code you may want to try GreenAddress' Chrome app or Android app.

No matter which wallet program you use, the safest wallet is a COLD WALLET

I use Electrum!  But I can't say that other are bad, that's just depends on your tastes

I am new but I have already read a lot of good comments about Electrum and so going to use this service 
Btw nice to know there is always a lot other services , it makes me feel freedom

Thanks again! Yes, i'm being careful/paranoid.

Sorry about these newbie posts, but i honestly cannot find the answers from google

1. Bitcoin-QT has PPA or tar.gz.  Which is safer?

2. How do u verify the sha256sum & GPG signature of a PPA?

3. Thanks for explaining the RNG attack on a fresh OS.  One guide says being offline for an OS install eliminates the "Back Channel."  What is the "Back Channel"  and an attack vector for it?

4. Which armory/bitcoin compatible Linux distro is most secure for offline wallet?
 i'm thinking Xubuntu or Lubuntu (any difference security-wise?)
Version 12.04 or 13.10?
with LVM full disk encryption & Secure Boot.

Apparently, it's Ubuntu minus Unity DE & Amazon spyware.. Otherwise, they are identical security-wise, right?
Ubuntu is on Armory's website for offline install. And Gavin used Ubuntu before, maybe he still does.
Is there something better now?

5. Are LinuxCoin and BitSafe good options?

6. And for online wallet, is TAILS OS best?

Armory / MultiBit - Local Disk
Cold Storage (Long Time) - Paper Wallet
Online - Blockchain.info

It isn't as easy or as pretty, but yes you can.


Correct, but if you don't know what the public address (you never see the public key) is, then you won't be able to send any bitcoins to the paper wallet.


As long as the blockchain that you download is fully verified by your wallet, I'm not aware of any downsides.  However, I've never used it. I've always been concerned that my wallet might not do as good of a job verifying a complete downloaded blockchain as it does individual blocks as it receives them.


At that level of paranoia you are protecting against theoretical attacks that are pretty extreme.  As an example, your online linux computer could be accessed over the internet, and someone could modify the random number generator in the operating system so that it generated numbers that looked random to you, but which were predictable to the person that modified your OS.  Then you take the computer offline and install the wallet.  Now every private key that you generate can be predicted by the attacker (since they know what random numbers your computer will create).

Thanks for your help Danny!

I think i get the basics now. I guess i'm asking tough questions, like what is the next bug  

1. Can u remember other wallet bugs besides these?
https://bitcoin.org/en/alert/2013-08-11-android
https://bitcoin.org/en/release/v0.5.0

2. U can make Paper wallets from Bitcoin-QT; You don't need bitaddress.org, right?
 U can turn any of the keys from a Bitcoin-QT wallet into a paper wallet savings backup, simply by printing out the Private key. right?

3. You don't even need to print the public key, because any wallet program reconstructs the public key automatically right?

4. Re: The slow Blockchain download. They have a torrent of the blockchain, that is quick (bootstrap.dat). Is that safe? it seems to be, because your wallet verifys it anyway right? Are there any downsides to using that torrent?

5. For offline wallet on dedicated computer:
  Why does it help to be offline STARTING before installing Linux? I thought it only matters that it is offline forever-- STARTING right before the wallet is created.

But many guides recommend to install Xubuntu & Armory using apt-offline, etc..
That is frustrating. Please explain the benefit.
  It's so much easier to install the OS and armory/electrum while online, THEN unplug the ethernet cable and superglue the port

I would expect Armory to be a more secure solution than Bitcoin-Qt, because it allows you to sign the transactions from an offline computer.  This means that the private keys never need to be stored on a computer that is connected to the internet.


I believe the MultiBit wallet is encrypted, but you're correct there is no offline option for MultiBit yet.  On the other hand, MultiBit doesn't depend on a third party server like Electrum does.


I'm not an expert on Electrum, I'll let someone else respond to questions about what attack vectors exist with it.


The most significant difference is probably Electrum's reliance on a third party server. As I said, I'll let someone else respond to questions about what attack vectors exist with it.  (Note that Armory has had the offline option for longer than Elecrtum.  Electrum offline is a relatively new development for Electrum.


Each wallet has it's own sub-forum here at bitcointalk.


If you have both an online laptop (for broadcasting the transactions), and a permanently offline laptop (for signing the transactions), and you don't mind carrying them both with you everywhere (just in case you need to, or decide to, send some bitcoins), then I suppose Electrum offline or Armory offline would work ok regardless of location.  Some people (such as myself) would find that quire cumbersome, and would feel that carrying their offline computer with them everywhere would increase risk of theft, loss, or damage to the laptop.  As such, a wallet that can be accessed from a web browser (such as blockchain.info) or a wallet that runs as an app on a mobile phone (such as Mycellium or BitcoinWallet) does a much better job of meeting the needs for small amounts of bitcoins in daily use.


If you are just looking for long term storage and you won't be spending the bitcoins at all, then a paper wallet is probably the most secure option.


Wallets such as Bitcoin-Qt and Armory require you to have a fully synchronized blockchain to be very useful.  If the wallet is left running all the time, then it doesn't take much for the blockchain to stay synchronized.  On the other hand, if the wallet will be shut down for weeks, months, or years, you may find yourself waiting anywhere from hours to days for the synchronization to complete when you start the wallet back up.


Armory and Electrum are deterministic wallets.  As such, you only need to back them up once (assuming you never import any private keys).  Bitcoin-Qt (and MultiBit too, I think) generate addresses completely at random. Therefore, if you choose to use Bitcoin-Qt (or MultiBit?), you'll need to peform backups on a regular basis.

Hello, i'm looking for the most secure method. Thanks for your help!

1. Does Bitcoin-QT have the least potential for bugs it the software, because it is the simplest and oldest?
And even that wallet had a HUGE encryption bug in version 0.4!
https://bitcoin.org/en/release/v0.5.0

2. Multibit seems to be about convenience over security -- no offline, no encrypted wallet for the longest time.

3. Electrum seems to good to be true. There must be security downsides.
Do the electrum servers automatically know that all your addresses belong to the same wallet?
what other info is leaked compared to other wallets, besides IP address?
other security concerns?

4. So how is Armory more secure than Electrum??
128 vs 160 bit entropy, but i heard that doesn't matter, that key collisions are impossible enough in electrum.
A possible downside to Armory/Electrum, is a bug in its Deterministic method.
But maybe that has been proven impossible?

5. Thanks!! Is there a wallet install guide/discussion that you recommend? Many are outdated or "Rube Goldberg machines."
I still have lots of questions, and i feel bad asking you guys 

Do you need access to your wallet from multiple locations?
Yes, but please explain the question. what does location matter? Laptops are portable enough for me.

Are you storing large amounts of bitcoins and concerned about security?
Security is my main concern.

OS?
Linux- What's most secure distro, while compatible: Xubuntu?

disk space?
plenty

Do you have a second computer that you can keep offline at all times?
Yes.

Will your wallet need to be shut down for extended periods of time?
No. Please explain the question? i dont understand. I want to be able to forget about it for 10 years without a problem, but that pertains to the back up method rather than the wallet decision, right?

Will you be wanting/needing to import private keys from anywhere?
No

Are you capable of maintaining a regular schedule of backups?
Yes

I prefer Armory because I can have watch-only wallets on my regular computer and sign transactions on my offline computer. The backup options in armory are also great.

I tried Multibit. Didn't like the user interface

I used to have Bitcoin-qt but after I've tried MultiBit I only use it so as for me it is the best wallet!

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