Bitcoin Forum

Hello, new to bitcoins but looking to get in on the madness.

A couple of questions, which is the best/more most preferred/securest way to keep/store your bitcoins?

A service such as instawallet or some client you download to your computer?

There are bitcoin hackings/thefts often & I assume this has to do with online wallets, so I would assume that keeping them secured in a client on your computer would be best?

But is it possible for anyone to access your wallet through the client on your computer other than targeting & hacking your & your computer specifically?

Are things such as instawallet more preferred in situations where you are just transferring bitcoins quickly & not actually keeping them stored there for long periods of time?

And which clients that reside on your computer are suggested for best GUI & security?

It would be nice to have a client that has a section that tells you the current real time bitcoin price.

 ;D

Use mtgox with a yubikey for your funds that you'll need to access quickly.

Use an encrypted armory cold wallet for the funds you wish to keep for a long time.

PM with any questions.

so mtgox & yubikey are the same as instawallet? 

How does the Armory Cold Wallet/client compare to the bitcoin.org client? 

I assume the bitcoin.org client is the most popular & is very secure?

The level of security necessary should be proportionate to your risk.

A hybrid wallet like Blockchain.info/wallet might be fine for an amount that you might be willing to carry in your back pocket or so, but the use of Blockchain.info/wallet still depends on you maintaining a secure system.  So for that reason, you would want to limit the amount of funds keps with an EWallet which, by definition, requires you to access it over the network.

For any higher amounts you then should be consider the risks.   If you are like most people you could be using a system that is compromised and wouldn't know that every keystroke is being logged.  For this reason, storing larger amounts of funds on a local wallet might not be a good idea. 

For protection against that, an air gapped system is one approach.

Using a paper wallet, generated after booting to a LiveOS from the air-gapped machine is among the most secure methods.  In the not too distant future, multi-signature will improve wallet security significantly and make it easier to store funds locally.

If you wish for the convenience of an EWallet, a service with two-factor authentication will protect you against a replay account if your computer were to be compromised.  Here's a survey of EWallet accounts and their security:

 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/4114/153

The Armory offline wallet is highly secure.  You can even make a paper back up in case you lose you PC and all back ups etc!

So I think I'm going to go with Armory, do I need to download the normal client from bitcoin.org to work in conjunction with the Armory or does Armory act as it's own complete client?

You need both.  Always open QT first, let it load, then open Armory.  Should work fine!