Bitcoin Forum

I'm still very confused about Bitcoin. Now, I opened a wallet from blockchain, ok? And you know, I have the identifier, pass, mnemonic info and etc...

Do I need to something extra? I mean, isn't this enough? Why people are using other wallets?

because online wallet are not seen as a 100% secure or more secure than your local wallet
they have another problem besides the infection that your computer can have
their server can be infected as well, so you don't have a fully control over security
you must trust their work, if they fail you lose your money, it happened in the past

you need to keep your Identifier, and recover phrase somewhere safe. preferably written on a paper.
also use a strong password and make sure to enable two factor authentication for extra security.
now you only need to give others your bitcoin address in order to be able to receive bitcoins.

people use other wallets because they are more reliable and safer.

if you have significant amount i suggest you to look into other wallets specially try to use a cold storage for big amounts.

1st what coinshot said, but also specifically blockchain.info (dont say blockchain it leads to misunderstandings) has a history of beeing unreliable. One great thing about bitcoin is that you can be the only person responsible for your money. If you are using an online wallet you also have to rely on other people.

There are different reasons people use different wallets, first is security as mentioned in post after you, second is if you don't transact higher amounts, then multibit is the best option for you, if you have good internet and transact higher amounts, then Bitcoin Core or Electrum are good options.

As said before, blockchain is an online wallet which doesn't seem to be as secure as offline and desktop-based wallets.

hello there,

you can use that wallet for pocket change and everyday use.

when you have larger amounts, you should use cold storage or a hardware wallet:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0

I don't use blockchain.info any more. The machine you access it with will always be the weak spot and they themselves have had a few issues too. For smaller amounts I use a phone wallet now. Mycelium does a nice job.

Make sure you have all these info saved.

Some people use other wallets because of the security or they simply prefer the layout of other wallets.

Indeed, you can also use a Trezor hardware device.

I have seen many wallets that you can use only if you put the usb to the pc, login and transfer.
I personally use coinbase. Good to start but not safe as others. Your bitcoins are hold by someone else.

I do not recommend coinbase at all. Best way is to use Trezor or Paper wallet.

You should absolutely set up 2-factor if you're using an online wallet, preferably to your cell phone. Make sure to safely back up your wallet regularly too but don't forget the mnemonic or make sure you've written it down properly in the first place.

We know that we can set up 2-factor (also in coinbase that i am using), but have you ever wonder if you reset your phone and all the data is lost.
How would we recover the codes or anyway, because we can lost a large amount of bitcoins.

You need something extra if you want to store big amount, hardware wallet is good choice or if you don't have a budget for buy hardware wallet, cold wallet is good choice too. https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

don't forget to enable 2fa on your blockchain.info wallet . it adds an extra layer of security. also never use TOR with your wallet there, you most probably going to lose all your bitcoins.

for better wallets use bitcoin-core or armory if you can download the whole blockchain. or Electrum if you want to download a small amount of data.

Just a heads up, Ledger has a low end HW wallet that is something like 15 dollars.  It is basically the same thing as the other wallet but with less snazzy packaging.  It depends on how much you are storing, if it si worth it or not.  But imo this is a great intro wallet.

Why do you not recommend coinbase?

You don't control your private keys on Coinbase, they also track where you spend your coins.

The main reason people don't recommend it is because they're in charge of your private keys and you effectively just have a Bitcoin credit. In reality they no doubt do a better job securing them than most people but the principle stands.

Another reason is their fondness for shutting people down if they decide your activity is going to make them look bad. They seem to be monitoring addresses to gambling and dark market sites.

and add to that, that they will report any income that has the right to be reported to IRS, so if you're a america citizen, ironically it is better to use another exchange

also they are very slow, i heard about 5 business day for transfering money to your bank account,. or for deposit..

stop using blockchain.info if you have large amount of bitcoin and don't want to risk losing them.
my friend lost his bitcoin on blockchain.info wallet, granted it was his own fault but still he could've avoided that if he used an offline wallet,

To keep it short and simple: "You dont control your bitcoins" - they are on someone's else hands.
I am not using coinbase to tranfer deposit from/to bank.

Coinbase is under heavy regulation, they have limits on each account just like PayPal.

Isn't all of their bizarro behaviour self imposed? I would've thought they were so anxious to keep The Man off their back they'll be preempting any possible issues by being ultra twitchy.

Why i am using it is the fact that is so easy. It's much easier than with all the hardware stuff managing the bitcoins.
But yes there are some limits of course.

If you want full proof wallet I will suggest wallet with full validation (you need to download whole blockchain, for now it is more than 40GB and growing).
As recent news shows there can be something called 'split' when some blocks can be invalid and it happen  that Bitcoin Core 0.10.x or 0.9.5 are immune to this issue.
With online or simplified validation wallets you can never be sure.

If you hold yourbitcoins in an online wallet it could be hacked if you have a poor password. If you have your bitcoins in a wallet on your computer, it is much safer. So i would suggest to download a wallet and put ur coins at an offline wallet.