Bitcoin Forum

I am trying to use the flexibility of Bitcoin rate because I can see everyday it changes so can anyone please suggest me the best wallet that can be used to hold my Bitcoins for long term such as for 1 year

That would be definitely Paper wallets because they are more secure if you know to hide them , and online attacks can't reach them unlike Desktop wallets : https://www.bitaddress.org
I recommend download the source code from Github and run it offline , Just in case you have a malware or trojan in your PC .

You can use https://blockchain.info , they are the safest option from my point of view. They have the best security and a 98% uptime.

How can you say that ? specially lately they are having a lot of downtime and even if they don't store logs and passwords on their database ,  an online wallet is never secure because it's "online" , so if there servers gets hacked , hackers will get the wallet.dat files for all users and they will be able to crack the password and eventually get some .

If you want to store Bitcoins long term, the right wallet to do so is the one you like the most and the one that best suits your usage and experience. There are a lot to choose from... Bitcoin Core, Electrum and Armory are some of the best examples, in my opinion. Paper wallets are also an option. Now it's just up to you... Don't forget to have a secure offline environment, regardless of what wallet you choose. That's the biggest part of storing Bitcoins long term, not the wallet software itself :)


OP asked for a way to hold his Bitcoins...

Read more on Bitcoin Cold Storage (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Cold_storage), it's basically making a wallet offline so it never sees the lights of the internet and is thus safe from all sorts of malwares etc. The most important part is doing the whole process offline and then making good strong backups so you yourself don't lose your coins.

I would recommend on a usb stick like the ledger or electrum as someone mentioned a few posts up. Keep it on a keychain  ;)
Paperwallets can be lost if you are not keeping your desk tidy and do not file your papers away in folders. I have written it down once and lost it in my paper clutter, so it is not a good option for me or other not to neat&tidy people either.

For holding that long I would recommend looking at a Cold Storage option, e.g. printing your private key off and storing it in a safe location.

this is currently what i am using to store mylong term bitcoins and its really easy to setup and use, i highly recommend this :D.

I would say a device that is usb compatible so it can be moved from place to place on to a secure location of your choice.
Multibit HD offers you this option.

Paper wallet, hardware walllet or memorize keys. These will protect you from internet attacks but not physical attacks (burglary). Nothing is 100% secure but I would recommend these as the more safe choices.

You can generate paper wallets using https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/ (https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/) and turn of  your internet connection while doing so.
Trezor is a popular bitcoin wallet http://www.bitcointrezor.com/ (http://www.bitcointrezor.com/)

I would have to agree with OmegaStarScream on this one using paper wallets offline and learning about how to not mess yourself up on change addresses would be some good advise too as when taking coin out make sure you remove all coins and not just x amount or can have the problem of it creating a random change address that you get no access to and losing your coin. Some are like that others are not but it is one of the most secure ways to hold coin unless you storing on usb pen drive or on your system and or backup system. Just depends on how you want to store and secure them. I use online offline PC and mobile.

Best way to hold BTC for quite a long time would be either Paper Wallet or Hardware wallet, like Ledger or Trezor.
Thats the best way to keep them safe from any malware/exploits/hacks.

Paperwallets can be created for free.. and Hardware wallets cost round 40$+

Trezor or Armory.

For long term i do not recommend online/web wallets because they can be shut down at any time, i would prefer ledger or trezor wallet.

I do not find any specific advantages from any alternate wallets for long term storing of bitcoin. SSD kind of storage can withstand many years with our data unlike magnetic storage devices. So, I suggest any wallet back up with strong password, disconnected from internet and stored in a SSD.

I would go with some kind of Hardwarewallet to store them safely.
You can store them safely and still access them pretty easily.

There is lot of good ones that you can use, but instead of tell you some of them, i can tell you that never never stored all of them in just 1, i mean the best wallet for a long term is to split your bitcoins into some of them, you know... never put all the eggs on the same basket... so just choose some of the best one and use them all...

For a long term I would suggest hardware wallets like trezor and as well the ledger which cost cheaper.

I looked at many different ways to store my coins long term. I finally decided to use Electrum in conjunction with a Ledger Nano. I use the portable version of Electrum so I can keep copies of Electrum on encrypted USB drives and the actual Electrum wallet can only be un-locked with the Ledger Nano.

This is asked all the time.

Go with Armory - print your key, laminate it, and store it somewhere safe.

i have been using electrum hardware wallet where i keep my savings bitcoin as they are my hardware wallet and i have kept the seed key securely, and when ever i want i can send or receive it, no down time. for doing gambling in sportsbet i use online wallet coinbase and xapo .

Like already mentioned.. I would go with a paper wallet or hardware wallet to store them safely.

Which type of wallet you need ?
offline or online ?
offline wallets are much recommended by me. Use Bitcoin core and use it as your wallet for long term holdings and it is very safe if you use it in right way.

if you're planning on keeping bitcoins safe for 1 year, i definitely suggest a paper wallet, because you would never have to stress about getting hacked and losing your money, just keep sure to keep that piece of paper safe.

People tend to forget that a paper wallet has, at the very least, to be printed. So yes, you do have to worry about a paper wallet being hacked.

If one thinks about the usual route to print a paper wallet (1.secure offline pc/environment, 2. software like Armory/Electrum/Core or bitaddress and 3. a printer) you have a lot of ways for a hacker to obtain your coins, or to make you lose them permanently.
On 1. your environment has to really be offline and the software and RNG must be secure; 2. same goes here; 3. you can't have a networked, or "smart"/modern printer, some may be exploitable.

A good read on this problematic can be found here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1013586.0;all).

I have been looking more closely into Ledger and it seems like a solid way to store your bitcoins for long term. With the nano and the hardware wallet the size of a credit card (http://bitcoinnewsmagazine.com/ledger-unplugged-bitcoin-hardware-wallet-review/). I would say they all your bases covered when it comes to convenience and any compatibility issues that you would encounter with other vendors when trying to withdraw from the wallet.

I would suggest to use Trezor wallet for BTC holdings, so you can be safe  ;) Trezor give you the peace of mind  ;D

It depends on how much Bitcoins you own and how would you like to segregate it for long term holdings and spending. For long term holdings, I'd suggest you have an encrypted pen drive with a Linux distro installed, having Armory installed to cold store your coins and disconnect it from the internet, also make a paper backup of your private keys and store it in a secured place. Apart from this you can also purchase a hardware wallet if you have lots of Bitcoins which you are paranoid about losing. Try Trezor or ledger hardware wallets.

I've held my btc on a paper wallet for the past few months now, withdrawing with mycelium & depositing normally  ;)

Only risk is someone breaking in to the house and stealing it (low) or me throwing it out accidentally (high)

For me long term without maintenance is Brain wallet.
Make sure you know how to make a good long password entropy and remembered it.

Using a brain wallet especially for long term, is extremely hard. Especially when you are not reciting it every few days, at the least. Your password should be recited at least once a week.

I use a cold wallet running armory, with multisig. I don't usually withdraw, so this doesn't bother me, only hackers. If I really do need to withdraw, I have a pre signed transaction on Google Drive. :)

I hope that was a joke.

You should definetly go with a hardware wallet.
Even better than Paperwallet in my opinion.

I also recommend this wallet. I just added some secjre protection like confirmation code, keyword if I would forget my password because once you forget your password, there's no way to take back the wallet.

Can you expand on this?

Armory supports cold offline air-gapped signing.  Cold and Air-gapped means your computer storing the private keys is never connected to a network, wifi, ethernet, internet.

So you setup a cold offline Armory install (you could use a Raspberry Pi single board computer), you generate the private seed on this computer, and the matching xpub.  This cold offline computer does not require a copy of the blockchain.  You save this xpub to a brand new factory sealed USB drive (or QR encode it, more later)

You use your laptop/every day computer with a fully connected full node + Armory + xpub.  This online computer needs to be online, and have a synced blockchain in order the generate spending transactions.  As your online computer has the xpub, it can generate valid spending transactions, but they're invalid until they're signed by the correct private key.

With a few tools (https://github.com/aussiehash/Bitcoin-for-SBC/blob/master/start.sh#L164) you send the unsigned transaction back to your cold airgapped (you could QR encode the unsigned transaction on your online machine, read the QR on your Pi with this this camera (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1367)), then decode the photographed QR code)

online machine

cold offline Pi

from here you sign this spending transaction with your private-keys-containing-offline-Pi and then send the signed transaction back to an online device for broadcast to the bitcoin network.

The idea of passing the unsigned/signed transaction back and forth between the cold-airgapped-offline-machine and your everyday-online-machine doesn't appeal (you might choose a one way method like a closed session writable CD-ROM rather than a USB drive) but my advice would be to QR encode the signed transaction on your Pi, scan the QR with your phone, and paste the transaction in a blockexplorer like https://blockchain.info/pushtx via your phone.