Bitcoin Forum

I recently asked where people were storing their bitcoins. Most of the replies were cold storage but from what I see that meant offline, on an offline PC, paper wallet etc.

Is anyone out there using any of - Coinbase vaults or Xapo for offline storage?  How about other options that don't require paper or offline PCs etc?

 

using any services like xapo on coinbase means putting your trust in a third party. which means if they mess anything up, you are the one that is going to pay for their mistakes.

for instance blockchain.info made horrible mistakes with their wallet in the past (like using random.org for generating a random number) which lead to a lot of losses.

I use xapo wallet for my every day transactions so for very good and no issues as well. Their support team also responding all my queries with in a day or so. It just like a bank so we have to believe some one to the safety. Also good thing is they won't charge for transactions and if your doing few transactions in a day then this should help you.

I prefer using my own offline generated key than Coinbase vault, they isn't exactly offline storage. Reason being that Coinbase vault isn't exactly safer than any other online wallets. They claim to keep majority of coins in cold storage but it can still be hacked if weak RNGs are used. They are also in total control of your coins. Multisig vaults are a different story all together, they control one key while you or your friends control the others. Without more than one key, they won't be able to control your coins at all. Bitgo offers this feature too.

Except that, atleast in the Netherlands, your money is backed by the government up to 100 000 euro in case of bank going down. Don't expect to get your money back if Xapo goes under.

i was thinking the same, but an user saidì that coinbase have an insurance against possible fraud, and your money are covered pretty much like a bank, maybe with a smaller liquidation

if this is true, it may change completely the view about how online exchange are not secure

It was my understanding that both coinbase and xapo had insurance up to a certain amount but I need to recheck.

Xapo insurance covers "employee dishonesty and on-premises theft at Xapo Vault locations". I don't think a remote hack is covered, but they claim it's near impossible (source: https://support.xapo.com/insurance ). Xapo used to insure their bitcoin at "Xapo Insurance"! Now they claim it's "third party insurance companies with an A.M. Best rating of A or better", whatever that means.

Bottom line is, I will use their wallet to store small amounts, but I trust myself more than any online vault.

Not relying on any third-party services to store my BTC no. Both projects seem decent enough but personally, not interested in either.

So, what your problem to use cold wallet?

It's too risky to store your coins on web wallet, especially use 3rd-party, for long term. just don't.

Actually, i don't have enough BTC to store on cold/paper wallets. And my online wallets especially coinbase wallet having more number of transactions on daily or at least weekly. And didn't have much BTC on xapo wallet.

If you do not have possession of the private keys you do not really own the bitcoin, you are trusting someone to hold for you. Anyone can be their own cold storage vault by just using a $99 Trezor.

You are right! but do you really think people like me who have little more then 0.06 btc should go for Offline wallets and private key hassle when i can just signup for blockchain wallet :P

I would not store a significant amount in Xapo or any other serivice or exchange. You never know when another company would pull a mtgoxx. I would just transfer over enough to do your atm withdraws.

Use Electrum wallet, it's free, safe, cold wallet. or you can store your coin for long term on paper wallet, it's cold wallet. just protect the paper from physical damage.

I make use of Xapo's wallet and vault because I have a Xapo debit card. So Xapo is my hot or online wallet.

I only store enough coins in the wallet portion for a couple of transactions and keep a similar amount in their vault which I move to the wallet if needed. The total amount kept on Xapo is however still pretty low as I believe that any online wallet carries some degree of risk so I'll never dump everything I have in there. The Vault does offer a little more security than the wallet part but for me its still an 'online' wallet even though they state that its held offline.

My main wallets are held on on a Trezor and I make use of Electrum and MyCelium to access those wallets. This is far more secure so the bulk of my coins are held there and moved to Xapo or wherever else as and when needed.

People don 't store their bitcoins or Xapo wallets because those two comapnies control your BTC and you don't , means if they goes down , your bitcoin goes down with them , if they get hacked , your BTC gets hacked with them aswell which means this defeats the whole purpose of creating Bitcoin in my opinion .
If you want something else that dosen't require offline PC or Paper wallets then you could simply download Electrum as Desktop walle t,it's pretty good and secure and you could restore your bitcoins in case of a computer failure or something else .
Just make sure that your PC is clean from trojans and malwares and you should be good to go and you have nothing to worry about .