Bitcoin Forum

My computer is not safe at all. For wallet, i use coinbase. I only access it with a bootable USB stick (Ubuntu inside)
I'm yet to invest serious money on Bitcoin.
Any advice?

not safe? then make it safe. and/or use hardware wallets like trezor. most hardware wallets are cheap and very easy to use.

use antivirus and antirootkit plus keystroke encryption, plus don't download random exe from the web, and you should be pretty safe

If your bitcoin will only sit, even paper wallets are ok.
Else hardware wallet wtg

Use Brainwallet , Paper wallet .
Be offline in infected computer while using  Brainwallet.
Use phrase that is uncommon and random.
Be aware of keyloggers.

I don't think i can ever trust a hardware wallet.
AntiVirus only makes you feel safe. There is no such thing as effective antivirus.

I will see how paper wallets works.
Thanks guys!

Use Copay wallet, make 2of2 wallet, put one on your desktop, other on your phone and now even if your computer is infected, no hacker will be able to spend your coins without the other key, which is on your phone.

Or you can use Electrum cold storage on an air-gapped OS but it'll require some work making it safely and then you'd need to keep transferring your transactions back and forth to sign and spend them.

Use the anti virus and scan your PC and delete all the malwares from your computer before accessing the wallet

If you don't have knowledge about computer security your best bet is to invest in hardware wallet.

Install a good anti virus to keep your computer safe,make sure you have no trojans and such,then use a solid wallet like MultiBit.

you are already using Ubuntu on your USB stick then why not completely switching to it as your installed OS, it is more secure than windows and you don't have to worry about antivirus if you are familiar with linux.

Maybe OP like to keep windows as his main operating system but OP you can still install linux on your hardisk as dual boot operatin system that is even quicker then the usb booting and it only takes like 40 GB

safety depends more factors. the safest pc is offline soo if you are paranoid for security store your coins on paper wallet on safebox

No wallet is completely safe; if you are transferring bitcoin a transaction will be posted on the blockchain no matter what eventually. paper wallets are an economical way to store bitcoin safely, and you can easily access the keys for it in case it gets lost or burned, etc. hardware wallets are the safest and cost a lot, but if you plan on storing a large amount of bitcoin, for safety i would buy a hardware wallet.

if you haven(t a safe computer, i suggest you to use trezor hardware.. but the best thing to do , is : format your computer & install with a decent OS like ubuntu ..  ;)

I would buy trezor and definitely made my computer safe as was mentioned above.

Wallet paper it is then.

I wish i could leave windows behind me.
Switch completely is not ideal, windows have too many good softwares.
Linux and windows Partitions in the same HD will cause problems "eventually".
In time i will get myself a new computer. For now, another hd will do.

Thanks guys!

not all of us like paying ~100 dollars for a hardware wallet to keep our bitcoins, a wallet that can be created for free and secure. trezor is for those who have invested thousands of dollars in bitcoin and have little computer knowledge.

you are halfway to safety already.
do some changes to that USB stick OS:
- add persistent space to the Ubuntu inside
- change the USB disk's format to Linux specific so than windows can't recognize it.
- cut the internet by disabling network and don't allow it to connect to internet
- install a wallet that lets you easily set up cold storage an still use by signing and then broadcasting tx (I know Armory (full node) and Electrum (SPV) that does this)
- set password for the whole OS log in and also for the wallet and encrypt the folder it is on
- you can do many different types of encryptions and password setting if you like to be safer.

you can find how to do each of these steps by googling them, there are nothing complicated about them.

This is best of all. Also i think bootable Ubuntu disk is also good for the moment.

I don't think antivirus will work most of the time specially when virus defenitions are out of date.Moreover even if it is updated to the latest definitions ,antivirus might not be able to check a new virus or malware properly as it may not be in their definitions,but yeah thats rare case as antivirus throws update whenever a new virus or malware is spotted .

you are wrong dude..  concerning hardware wallets, trezor isn't the only solution: ledger wallet are pretty safe too, and for a ridiculous coast of 34 euros... so , as you can see...  8)

https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/1-ledger-nano (https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/1-ledger-nano)

and concerning this special part of your post :
you're COMPLETLY wrong ! everybody can judge..  why "using by people with little computer knowedge"  ??  how can you say that? on what are you based your opinion? just for curiosity.. lol

You still need a safe computer to transfer funds.

Why do you need windows?

Dual boot is possible and should not cause problems unless a virus destroys all partitions. For that you make backups.

i confirm : you can use windows & linux on the same computer in dual boot : no problem;

however, if you use windows , its better to run your linux os in a virtual machine.  8)

if the host is infected your screwed, and you're not safe with dual boot, either there are some exploit to spread the infection to another partition that is using another so

the only possible way is to have two ssd, and one only active at any time, so you must un-plug the power from the other, so it's not recognized

If the host is infected you should format that host. Why would you want to be using an infected computer for any tasks?

the problem is that a good infection come undetected, until it cause problem but at that point is too late already