Topic: Why say "NO" to Web wallet (Read 584 times)

Can't be bash shitcoins here? Lol

When I discovered cryptocurrencies I bought a lot of ethereum, then I realized they don't even have a proper desktop wallet...

Anyway, as the discussion turned over browser wallet, which bitcoin doesn't have any one that I am aware of

Actually I have use coinbase wallet for long now and I haven't encountered any problem. Even deposit and withdrawal in coinbase all transactions went well. Aside from web wallet I use hardware wallet which is also safe to use for me. Right it is not safe to store big amount of btc in a web wallet and I don't trust easily better use a secure wallet to avoid problem.

Oh my bad, I thought we are in the Bitcoin section, no the altcoin discussion 


Nope, the hacker needs to infect your browser.
And if you plan on having a separate browser for every coin to keep secure, why not stick to a traditional wallet?
Oh, wait, because the shitcoin doesn't have a proper wallet...

In my opinion, the choice is pretty simple, I can invest in some gold that I can keep in a safe, or I can invest in some platinum that I must hide under my doormat.

Let's not even talk about the deadly combination of a web browser and pornhub..

They are more secure than a web wallet, yes.
But they are by far not as secure as a desktop wallet.


There are still many attack vectors which would allow to steal funds from a user using a browser-based wallet, compared to a desktop wallet. DNS poisining, etc. The attacker does not always need to compromise your device.
On the other hand, there is no attack vector i can think of which applies to a desktop wallet, but not to a browser based one.

There is a big difference regarding security between a browser based wallet accessed by typing an URL into the address bar and a desktop wallet.

Storing bitcoins on custodial wallets like Coinbase for a long period of time is not advisable op, next time use desktop wallets that you can easily recover your bitcoins whenever you need it bitcoin core, electrum, exodus, mycelium there are plenty of it you can use for free, most users only use coinbase for buying and selling bitcoins, fiat conversions but not for storage purposes. 

Never encountered something like this on coinbase unlucky for you. I guess not all web wallets are safe. Looks like in coinbase you dont own the private keys right? Its better to use a web wallet that you have full control of the private keys it feels not comfortable putting big amounts there.

Its not safe to use web wallet because i think it can be hacked easily and save the private key of the wallet address which very important. That's why it is much safer to use the wallet on pc and hardware wallet that is legit.
 
And i think using wallet like Metamask is much than the myetherwallet website because it needs a. Json file and other informatiion need that can be at risk getting hacked.

After these anomalies in web wallet, I stop using them to store my coins all my wallets are now desktop based and I secure it by taking all the necessary precautions like installing the best antivirus and anti-malware, only use a web wallet to store a little number of tokens, or if you are good and educated in how a phishing site looks like, metacert is a big help but it will not guaranty safety.

Nothing is safe as long as your money is controlled by others, so if you are in doubt using the services of others, you can use a hardware wallet that is managed by yourself.
but now everything has evolved, they have added several security features, and so far news of the hack has been reduced.

Web wallets has had a history of insecurity and if you do a little research, you would discover that most of the phishing scams involving cryptocurrency wallets were done with a web wallet, applications are much more secure in my opinion because I think that whena hacker can't even identify a domain, then they wouldn't be able to hack it.

Even the biggest web wallet has been hacked in the past by a good Samaritan hacker who later returned the funds and you could read the article here: https://www.coindesk.com/good-samaritan-blockchain-hacker-returned-255-btc-speaks

Browser based wallets, which stores data locally, are common in ethereum network.
They are safer imo, compared to web wallets. Those browser based are like desktop wallets. They are safer because there is xentral server which can be hacked to steal your coins : the hacker would need to hack your computer.

Those browser based wallets are more common in ethereum because there are no good desktop Wallets for ethereum. Have you ever seen one?
On the other hand bitcoin has a lot of good desktop wallets.

So I believe browser based wallets (like metamask) are a workaround , because they can't make good desktop Wallets

Currently I still use myetherwallet and blockchain wallets and everything is fine. I agree that there are many slow and insecure WEB wallets, but there are still many reputable and well functioning web wallets.
Especially web wallet is easy to use, it is fast and convenient. However, I still divide my money into many different wallets.If there is a problem, I will not lose all my money.

For web wallets and other online wallets like exchanges and websites, I only keep enough usually for the day, or for whatever purpose stated on them. I've lost coins a couple of times on exchanges that died the next day, so at most I've only lost what I was trading for the day. Sometimes it was supposed to be a larger withdrawal and I blame mostly myself (as well as the exchange) for disappearing like that.

Not your keys, not your coins.

This is not about hacker attacks, but about the fact that the funds kept on the exchange or in online wallet do not really belong to you, because the person managing the service or exchange can freeze your money at any time, or simply steal it from you. Already many times, exchanges disappeared overnight with the money of all users. They often explain themselves by hacker attacks, but it's usually inside job.

Whether or not a website is going through an upgrade or completely offline for a month, as long as you have the private key, you'd have your wallet (assuming that site didn't steal an unencrypted form of your private key and use it to move your coins, of course).

blockchain.info/.com has been around since 2011 and has never had any major issues to my knowledge. That said, technically anything sent through the internet has a chance of being captured, but in the case of blockchain.com, it should end up getting captured in an encrypted form.

I don't personally use any web wallets and keep everything local with Core, but I realize it's not a practical solution for everyone.

I believe it's a matter of who you chose to trust, your own security practices, and convenience. Web wallets can be convenient and needed but you definitely want the private key, and you have to have some trust the website provider is actually encrypting the key and not stealing it and/or claims they're hacked and the hacker changes the site to steal your keys/password/coins/etc (Instawallet comes to mind).

Also, any browser access to any web wallet, exchange, or any site including blockchain.com always carries a risk of browser-based infections/malware. And even local software has the potential of system-based infections/viruses, none of that would be the fault of the web wallet or the local software since you have to make it your own personal responsibility to keep your system and browser free from those types of infections (and of course keeping the e-mail account secured that you've used with these services).

With Coinbase, you will have no private key. They go down or deny you access, it's their wallet and their private key that "your" coins will be associated with. They should always be treated like an exchange IMO.

Because he might knew that it was a crap.

If you have time visit Web Wallets section,where you can find the first page is filled with Issue with my blockchain.com wallet,Blockchain wallet hacked,etc,so no web wallet is safe but when compared coinbase and blockchain,blockchain is more worse.

Yes, you're wrong and you keep on being wrong.
From the start, as Tryninja pointed out, not most, but almost all wallets are NOT browser-based.
Guarda comes with either a web wallet hosted on their server or a standalone wallet not related to your browser.

I hard it hard for somebody to mistake a web wallet and call it browser-based because you access it via a browser, but I really can;t find any other reason why you would say this.

so because of that you must to secure your account.  You might need to find a solution or find a possible web that are legit for security and also for you security.  There are a lot of wallet that are more secured so then you have the only one who can access your account specially to some wallet that have google authenticator that you are the one who can open your account.

The intention is to give awareness that business like this always have the rights to review your account if they've seen some uncommon movements.
There's nothing anyone can do about that, maybe there's a site rules or updates in terms of withdrawing or securities seen malicious changes from your wallet, whatever reason they have ins their minds, it's always best to have your own wallets where you are holding private keys so you can deal
anytime without any interruptions coming from any third party service.

About security reason, I agree with you. But, about seed or PK on web wallet, I'm not agree, if you are using blockchain.com you are able to get your PK on setting menu. It's different if you are talking about exchange wallet, they will never give you your seed or PK.

As for me, you find fault

It’s normal practice when some transactions can be checked by the exchange or wallet.

Of cos web wallets are bad, vulnerable to attacks from hackers and lose of password and login is very possible, the biggest issue is no private key or recovery seed, once wallet stop working thats it

Haven't use coin base and blockchain.com in awhile, those who put too much amount in one wallet may it be website, mobile or in exchanges should be very careful and see whether it have report of flaws. There are really many negative feedbacks in coinvase now especially regarding leaking the identies of users. That's why I don't put my coins in just one wallet, have hardware wallet and mobile wallet.

Why don’t you use Electrum, it is well suited for a small number of Satoshis.
Moreover, you manage your wallet, you do not need to download gigabytes of blockchain and it is portable, it works on a computer and on a phone (android).

There are reports from many people that have their hundreds and thousands worth of coins stuck in Blockchain especially during their upgrades, and their support are notoriously late in replying. Sometimes they take months. So think again if you are suggesting that Blockchain.com is actually the best way to store BTC online because it isn't.

Why you didn't use Blockchain ? I think this is only best web wallet to save BTC.
I use Coinbase too in long time ago, but in few months i always get email with other device try to access my wallet.
So, i move my fund in Coinbase to Blockchain.

There is Guarda which is non custodial and stores data locally and not centralized on a server. Even Blockchain has a non custodial version but I dont remember the details.
Am I wrong?

He is obviously talking about custodial wallets, which are undoubtedly worst and insecure compared to any non-custodial wallet. Coinbase, which is what OP is referencing to - and not a stupid browser wallet provider - did what every other custodial wallet or exchange could do, freeze your transactions or even your whole account for whatever reason they want. Not your keys = not your coins.

I don't know a single BTC wallet that is web based that stores the wallet data only in the local computer. That's MEW, where you only use a web interface but your wallet is stored with you. Even Blockchain.com stores your wallet data in their servers, and could block access to your account at any time.

It seems like you are pissed off for some odd reason and now you are making some illogical conclusion. What's worse is that you are spreading misinformation among Beginners and newbies which is just wrong.

Most web wallets are browser based, which means your key, your password, and your wallet data are all stored locally IN YOUR COMPUTER.
So I do not know why you would compare your stupid browser based wallet service provider that controls your keys and transaction and call every web wallet the same thing.

Thats like calling every person a terrorist because some Muslims are terrorists. That is insane and illogical.

This should sink in very deep.
I know its hard to learn enough to be able to securely manage your funds  but it worth it.
Be your own bank, learn learn learn.

It's very common for exchanges to hold someone's balance which aren't spent for a long period of time that's why holding your assets are not recommended to be held by an exchange otherwise it can result you in a scenario like this. On the other hand, you may just use an application based third party wallet instead such as Electrum for your convenience.

Satoshi Nakamoto never wrote anything in his whitepaper that stipulated that people must use third party wallet providers to control the Bitcoin

tokens on their behalf. His goal with Bitcoin was to give control to every person who owns bitcoins, to have 100% control over their own tokens.

You do not have 100% financial control over your wealth, when you rely on third party services to allow you to make transactions. Also, some of

these third party services control your private key, so you do not actually own those coins. (That is a scary thought, because they can take those

coins, whenever they want to.) 

The problem comes from the others.

As much as people love the simplicity of a web wallet that resembles PayPal, they also love low fees, no KYC, and more at which point they start avoiding the old and regulated services and fall for the zero everything scams that prey on beginners. And even if we talk about Coinbase, which has a reputation, but everyone had a reputation before the first bad thing went wrong, from exchanges to banks. Everything is fine till it's not fine anymore , and at that point, there is nothing left to do.

Just as some say "don't invest more than you can afford to lose", it's probably the same about not having more coins on a 3rd party service than you can afford to forget about.

Agree, good message, good story.
There are so many easy apps for wallets for PC/Android and more. Why giving control of your funds to others? In Bitcoin world its a no no.

I know many guys faced the same issue from coinbase but they didn't get the coins as much easier,we may have to wait for the support team from coinbase to respond but yes we may get back our coins from blocked account but it may take time at least few weeks.

It is a false claim, already discussed a lot here in this forum and iin the whole bitcoin community, especially after mt gox episode.

A wallet is a software or web interface which gives you your private keys. No private keys? Not your coins. Simple as that.

If coinbase ever shuts down, you lose your coins. If some government requires anything, they can freeze your account and so on.
Coinbase is a custodial service, or custodial wallet, whatever...

Blockchain.com is a web wallet.
You hold your privatekeys. The coins are yours. If you lose the keys, they cannot recover. They cannot check or authorize transactions, they can't do anything. They just generate keys and give them to you, and also provide an interface to spend and receive coins. A truly wallet. Forked coins are also yours. Coinbase doesn't have any of that.

They should allow us to withdraw it or they will the one who will send it to you after you fill out details of closing your account. In our country there is a popular crypto wallet like coinbase it's also created to trade with addition features to pay bills and to convert easily to fiat, if it founds out that you're money came from gambling they will block your account to do transactions but will give you info how will you terminate your account, just need to submit the form and wait till it send it to your bank account or preferred recipient since it's still your money.

web wallets like blockchain.info or myetherwallet. while Coinbase is exchange, but also you can save it on that. so maybe your intention is not to save on the exchange? because they control your funds? but it's true, don't save too much money on the exchange, if you look at the history, many exchanges got hacked. whereas web wallet like I said is good, it doesn't control your money, so maybe the title you mean is exchange, not web wallet.

Coinbase isn't a wallet which had been said earlier yet its an exchange which means you don't posses your wallets keys and that the risky part.
Knowing coinbase is heavily centralized and if they do find out some issues on your transaction then they would really have the power to make investigations
which causes delays.For you not to experience the same thing in the future then better not to opt-in  with Coinbase yet there were lots of non custodial wallets as of this moment.

Web wallet is just part of their exchange service,so if they found your transaction is from gambling sites or the source is from somewhere they restricted it will have such impact on these kind of transactions.Once they identify that its from an gambling site then your account will be closed,you may or may not be able to withdrew the remaining funds.

Don't rule them out, they come in very useful for on the go transactions <$100. Make sure you;re using one like blokchain.info or BRD wallet where you own the keys too and keep spending balance on there only.

I totally agree, but when it comes to buying and selling crypto, it's most convenient to do it online.
I think Coinbase is the safest online exchange service on the market, but I advise against keeping money in online wallets or exchanges.
If someone is as lazy as me and does not want to go to a ground exchange or Bitcoin ATM, or lives in a place where it is impossible to trade F2F and is forced to use online exchanges, should do it very quickly, and keep the funds only in the cold wallet, and preferably in hardware wallet.

Also, I don't prefer to use a web wallet. But I use hardware wallets like ledger nano s and trezor and also I use Exodus wallet for my crypto and the best thing about this wallet is it is a very lite wallet which is desktop supported crypto wallet. You don't have to store the entire blockchain on your desktop and its interface has very good access to the wallet.

Quite an unpopular opinion, but I'd say using Coinbase as a hot wallet is mostly fine, currently as developers are still working on the lightning network and making it better. As far as I know, the Coinbase app is what a good number of people(in the US) use to store their bitcoin, and the off-chain Coinbase<->Coinbase instant transactions are definitely very convenient(privacy issues aside). With that said, only store funds on a hot wallet amounts that you would store on your physical pocket cash wallet(probably <$100?). Because like you have said, some centralized wallets are quite notorious for locking up funds.

How long you've been holding those btc on coinbase? I think they're becoming stricter for their withdrawals these days and wants to verify it first before allowing the transaction.
I'm aware of the consequences upon using web wallets but to be honest, I'm still using them but I'm not holding a huge amount with them, for smallers transactions they are good for me.

"Why say "NO" to Web wallet"

And why not? We shouldn't be hypocrites. Generally, people start (including most of us here) with a web wallet such as Coinbase and blockchain.com and others. It's a good solution for those who start and who are not geeks.

We need to provide user-friendly solutions if we want it to be easy to use by everyone and thus to increase adoption.

Saying not to use a web wallet is a barrier to all this. We can perfectly use a web wallet. It's just that it's the kind of wallet in which you keep a little bit of money for current expenses.

The irony is that you tell to people not to use this kind of wallet but then you tell us you use it and you have bitcoins

They are both, an exchange as well as a web wallet, at least they claim that. However, in my early BTC days, I used to use that and had some regular people whom I used buy/sell BTC, they too use coinbase. That's why I am still there. I'm using it for regular use purpose, for others. I have software wallet which I don't carry on my phone.
https://wallet.coinbase.com

From my point of view, It's preferable to download electrum mobile App and used than patronizing the web wallets, I have used both at some point and the experience is quite similar but the electrum mobile App is more secure and convenient to used than web wallets also it puts the control of your fund in your hands since you'll be in control of your private key.

Web wallet and exchange aren't idea for storing funds, just as the saying goes, "not your private key, not your coin". Both service providers can easily be hacked at anytime and that's their biggest disadvantage as it puts your coin at risked of been stolen.

Coinbase is not a wallet Little Mouse.
They are an exchange, and they let you hold your funds in their wallet if you wish. It is a custodial service
There are some wallets like blockchain.com, myetherwallet, etc. They are not custodial and doesn't hold your privatekeys.

They are good for adoption and for newbies. They're easy to use. However, they are unsafe for big amounts.

Web walletsare nothing like banks. Coinbase is, because it is not a wallet, but an exchange

so far I still use blockchain and until now it is still safe, even they have added 2FA features and of course it will be more secure. but of course, when having a lot of bitcoin it is recommended not to put it in one wallet, it's best we save most of it in a hardware wallet, such as trezor or ledger.

I am not using web wallet much, unless I am in need of some quick money to cash. That's why I was having a little BTC to my coinbase wallet. Yesterday, when I sent ~0.06 BTC which I was holding there for a long time, they didn't send it instantly. They emailed me that it will be delayed since they need to check the transaction for some reason.

Your fund, you are giving power to others to control = web wallet = BANK
Stop using web wallet, get rid of being controlled by others.