Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

Newbie question here:

I have chosen the option in bitcoin-qt to encrypt my wallet.dat file.

I have used a reasonably good password (20+ charachters, upper lower numeric punctuation etc.)

Is this wallet safe to backup in say dropbox without extra precautions?

The question really is does bitcoin-qt do a good enough job of encrypting my wallet.dat files private keys?

Thanks!

MyrddinDC

Newbie gratefully accepting donations to get started: (hoping to buy a causacius real bitcoin to better demonstrate to friends/family):  1FLc17px3riPeERGPWtiWmGxLfKjv1CCgP

It depends on what your concerns are.

The encryption built into the wallet only encrypts the private keys.  The addresses are still stored unencrypted. So if you don't trust dropbox to keep the file secure, then you need to decide whether you care if anybody knows what addresses are in that wallet.dat file.

If your only concern is the private keys (ensuring that nobody can spend the bitcoins), then yes, it does a good enough job of encrypting them (as long as your password isn't likely to come up in a rainbow table or brute-force search.

Thanks Danny!


My password is a non dictionary mess of letters and numbers so I hope it wouldn't be in a rainbow table.

I was only concerned with protecting my bitcoins. Should i be concerned about the public keys, and the fact that they are in this wallet.dat?

Thanks again!

Myrddin.

As long as your wallet is encrypted with a good password, nobody else can spend your bitcoins, if that's what you're worried about. However, they can still see exactly how many bitcoins you have, where they came from, and where you're spending them. If you do not want others to have this information, you must encrypt your wallet again with a third-party encryption program before you upload it anywhere.

I would also be cautious about the computer you're using to create the wallet, for example: key loggers or spyware.