Bitcoin Forum

Basicly, What's the point of an online wallet?

The only thing I can think of is that it's accessable everywhere, But so is a mobile phone with the right software.

My point is, If it's online it's not really yours is it? How much easyer is it to hack a website, Than a encrypted, backed-up, behind tor, your own personal wallet?

Can you back up your online wallet?

Would like some perspective on this

A good online wallet never needs your private key. It all runs in javascript on your browser, the server is only used to get information about the block chain. Add a firefox plugin to warn you if the javascript changes and it is pretty secure. Then, I am able to personally audit the code and I suppose most people cannot.

I use a javascript browser for every day stuff and paper wallets for anything more than I need immediately.

Good online wallets encrypt the wallet file and the server never gets to know the private keys for your addresses (the wallet decryption is done on the client side using JavaScript).

The only online wallet you can backup that I know of is the one at blockchain.info. I'm not sure whether Coinbase really never gets to know the private keys (it takes an approach where the end user has little control, making everything more user friendly but eventually less secure).