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I was doing some cleaning on my room and I found some floppy disks, they are around 15 years old! from the Sony brand. I don't have a floppy disk device anymore on my computer, so I used an older computer because I was curious to see if they would still work.
To my surprise, they worked and all the files were accessible.

This made me think that, you could store some Bitcoin related stuff in floppy disks too? Obviously having backups in other places too.. but floppy disks may be yet another cheap way to store files. If I put my seed key in a txt (compressed in a 7z file with a pass) and my wallet.dat file on that floppy disk, it would have lasted for 15 years. I hope that if I do this, in the next 15 years when I find the floppy disks again, I will be rich :D

Haha.
I'd never recommend you to store your wallet.dat files on a floppy disk.
If you're planning to store it for a long term, Floppy disk readers would be an antique in the near future.

but after 15 years, i am sure you willnot be able to find any devise where you can put this floppy disk to start, so they would be usless.

take some mini disk and write your wallet.dat and txt file there and put this disk in the safe place. this will be better option

I wouldn't,  only because I don't know how durable they are in the long term.   And we're already in the long term as far as they're concerned.   No one would probably think to steal a floppy, though.

I think it will be easy to find readers. There are a lot of retro stuff, you can buy a floppy disk reader that can be connected through USB... there will always be a niche market of people that need to access old data. If the ones I have now break (I doubt it because at the end of the day it's pretty simple and mechanical stuff) it should not be hard to find some reader out there.

Also the idea is that I have a bunch of floppy disks. So If I have a box with like 50 floppy disks, and I put wallet files on all 50 floppy disks, it means that I have 50+ extra different points of failure for free. I think it's very unlikely that 50 floppy disks will die in 15 years, im sure at least 1 will survive :D

You can still buy external floppy disk drives that plug into your usb port. This one only costs $13.99

http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Floppy-Drive-FL-UDRV/dp/B00E9MD700/


It might last 15 years if you don't use it much. Nevertheless I wouldn't trust a floppy disk to store a wallet safely for a long time. I'd back up a wallet in triplicate on a cd, dvd, and a thumb drive. Floppy disks are from the stone age.

I thought if you store into floppy disk will not support bitcoin.
But if they actually work, it may be another optional place for you to store more. Just make sure that your floppy disk has safety package

I guess it would be a great experiment.
You can store the Bitcoins on the floppy disk (with safer backups). It would be great to see if the floppy disk still works after 15 years.

If you ever used fdd, you know that there's always a risk a bad sector develops where you don't expect and the subsequent file will get damaged.

Also, since they use magnetic surface to store data, I am amazed your data is still readable. Most of the cases that doesn't happen after 15 yr.

All in all no, your fdds are already something way better/unexpected than an average fdd. Your experiment would prove nothing, whether it'll be succesful or not (not mentioning the lack of fdd drives nowadays).

it is strange that those disks are still working for you!

because i had a couple of Floppy disks with the same age over 15 years and when i tested them recently they failed to even open.

but it is a good place to store only if it is not the only place, and you back up in something else like paper too.

Maybe it depends on the brand. I tried some other that aren't Sony, they are some other unknown random brand, and some have corrupted files, but the Sony ones seem to be working, also some IBM ones still working fine, some other don't even show up, they make a noise but it doesn't show up anything on the files explorer, it asks me to enter a disk with the disk inside, so those are definitely dead, but most work.

There isn't enough storage capacity on those any ways. What were they 1.44 megabytes?
That is small amount of space to store anything nowadays.
You remember dat drives or zip disks? Those might be more of a capacity you would be looking at.

No.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_degradation

I know the odds are against me for my floppy disks being intact in another 15 years, but I will still do it, I mean what I have to lose? Im sure a lot of people has also think of this and is already storing their wallets everywhere possible, including old floppy disks. The more different points of failure you have, the better. I actually think floppy's are safer than usb pendrives.

No because floppies are notoriously unreliable. You just got lucky with those particular disks.

Floppy disks are extremely fragile and are often destroyed even when you treat them with care. That is also one of the big reasons why they are not used anymore in modern computers. Also don't see the point to use outdated floppies when there are more good options available.

better use a M-Disc.

Good to hear that floppy disk can long last for several years but storing bitcoin wallet backup in them will be disaster if we can't find floppy drive reader in future. And if you say you will also keep that old computer with you than your old computer may get damaged by years and also that floppy reading device in it. Its always better to store papper wallet in some safe places.

Just do it if you really want to do it, but also make a backup in usb drive just in case floppy disks fail.  :)

I think this is not a good idea if we use floppy disks as our store wallets.. its very slow process if you use floppy disk as your wallet.. but you can try this too.. and i heard here in our forum also usb and memory cards is not recommended too because if you dont use it in many months or years the files wil be corrupted or usb won't work because i have lots of usb here in few months my usb didnt work anymore.. but if you use it every its work fine..  also memory card i have lots of mmc but all of them are not work.. mmc cant live in long time..
If you really want to store bitcoins safe try to use vps and install win 7 and install virtual box that can install os again.. and install your wallet their just store bitcoin in offline mode..also making a scrypted rar file can help to safe your bitcoins..

This would be pretty smart if you ask me, I think this could work out and it would be safe, the most computers/laptops does not support this even anymore.

I would not recommend to depend on a floppy disk to save your life savings. They don't seem to be reliable and I am worried it would even be sufficient to store more information/addresses on it.
When it comes to safety why try to reinvent the wheel? Trezor is the best and probably the safest way to store small and large amounts of bitcoin.

Exactly, there is no way I would put my money at risk using an oldskool device like a floppy disk. Just hink about how fast they can be broken? Sure Sony is a good brand but we are talking about your money here. Why risk it?

There are some floppy disks that can hold 128GB of data like this one, and i would suggest you to make a floppy disk like this by using an SD card and store the wallet but don't forget to make also another copy:

http://core1.staticworld.net/images/article/2016/02/sd-card-floppy-drive-100647369-large.png

Ah, forgive my ignorance, but what the hell is a floppy disk?  It doesn't sound like a very safe mechanism to store such a valuable asset....I mean, just the name, "floppy," sounds insecure!  If we're going that far back into the past, I think that a punch card would be more effective.  Why not use a bunch of electron tube R-S flip flops?  That might do the trick also.

Short answer: No.

Floppy disk is very delicate, i just have a few of them sitting in my old shelf, they are all 20+ years old and they dont work.

A tiny scratch or anything will just make it unreadable, probably doest last longer than half year if you use it regulardly, but even if you just keep it in a box it can deteriorate.

Better just keep it on CD or a  USB.

I guess no one would think to look on a floppy disk for a wallet, but no. I had countless floppies go bad, many are still good, but flash memory and CD-Rs are much more robust, or better yet, paper wallets.

I never heard that floppy disk now can put sd card inside of floppy disk.. But for me its still not recommended because life span of sd card is limited so its  not recommended.. maybe this link will help http://superuser.com/questions/17350/whats-the-life-expectancy-of-an-sd-card
To know sd card have a limited life span..

This is a self made floppy disk by modifiying the real floppy disk and integrate SD card into it, (who will think it isn't a floppy disk?)
Btw, i do not recommend to have only one backup but multiple backups, btw SD cards can hold data at something like 10 years or more sitting idle.

Here's the link how to make a similar floppy disk using SD card: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3038787/computers/sd-card-hack-breathes-new-life-into-this-old-floppy-drive.html

I think we can consider them as good for sure, its of course old but I think it can be good for sure.
Hardware wallets can be compared with it if you ask me because its in the same category in my eyes.

Floppy disks are widely believed to be fragile storage mediums. However the question is, if usb sticks or CDs are any better. I'm not sure at all, if you would have been able to recover data from these mediums after 15 years. However at least CDs offer protection against magnetic fields, which can be a serious problem for floppy discs.

Regardless of the electronic medium used, another problem is the future availability of devices that are compatible/can read these mediums (as you have experienced).

Long story, short recommendation: For long term storage, use paper wallets. Or even better engrave the private keys into precious metal bars... :)

ya.ya.yo!

Your computer hard drive last much longer than this if you store data in it and keep it as cold storage in a climate controlled
environment

Offcourse I agree with you. There is no way like the milky way, and if you are looking for a bite, get yourself a snickers.
The same applies for your private keys. If you want security for your important private buy an adequate device which is meant for that sole goal. If you want to store some less important information then do what you please...

Bing - Bang - Bong

I remember lot of corruption problems on floppys, i would not recommend using it. Could be a problem to find a computer to read them now, in next years could be a big problem find a reader. But on another hand, no one will stole you a floppy disk, they would not know what this is.

I wouldn't use them if I were you. Floppy disks always had a lot of problems back in the times they were used, now if you want to use them just stick an SD card into one of them, and they will be safe even for crypto walltes.

No, it's better to keep your bitcoin safe on usb or cd, I would not recommend to storing your bitcoin on floppy disk, iam worry if in  future we can't find the readers or something happened with the ploffy disk distruction, unreadable, or something else better to using other device like peoples mentioned above

i think it is just a matter of preference in this case mostly because of lack of access to floppy disk and floppy drive at this day and age. and as long as you are aware of the risks involved and you are keeping multiple copies and especially a paper back up you are safe.
the wiki link that Holliday gave you has some good information about different devices and how they lose data over time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_degradation#Decay_of_storage_media)

Floppy disks are not safe to store your Bitcoin wallets on them. You can lose your data if they are subjected to magnetic interference. One interesting fact that I found about floppy disks is that the magnetic storage can last as long as 10 to 20 years. If you are interested in knowing more about different storage devices have a look at this nice article comparing a list of them:

http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/data-storage-lifespan/

Here is the conclusion:

Media    Estimated Lifespan
Magnetic data (tapes)    10-20 years
Nintendo cartridge    Up to 10 years
Floppy disk    10-20 years
CDs and DVDs    5-10 unrecorded, 2-5 recorded
Blu-Ray    Not certain, probably over 2-5 recorded
M-Disc    1,000 years (theoretically)
Hard disk    3-5 years
Flash storage    5-10 years or more (depends on write cycles)

Exactly... I really don't understand the point of this thread except for people trying to have a bit of nostalgia while reusing their old floppy discs...

But the point is, is that in the end, the most probable scenario is that it is going to be antiquated and the ability to use your floppy disc isn't going to be readily accessible in the future.

Plus it's really no different than using your USB device to save your wallets and stuff like that.  So in my mind, it's rather pointless. 

This is hilarious. Okay first I can guess how old are you now. Second I will say, a piece of paper last for ever, even exposed to a magnet.

Not if exposed to fire though...

You just honestly have to be mindful of were you are keeping these keys stored, because if not you are bound for a very dreadful day ahead of you.  I honestly don't think of it being that bad if you had some other precious things you need to store in safe place; to put those things in a deposit box at your trusted bank and keep the cold wallet storage paper along with it.

Then in that case, all you have to do is keep the public address with you on hand so you can continually send funds to it as you please, as sort of a "savings plan".

Wow, you brought back some memories with this thread. We started out with magnetic tape and moved over from that to floppy and stiffy discs. The floppy discs were very fragile and error prone, but the Stiffy's was much better. We even drilled a hole in the stiffy's to double it's capacity to 1.44 mb.

From my experience from back then, I would not recommend it, because it gave CRC read errors frequently. ^hmmm^

FD man this is good
i have some driver and disk (believed or not they are still working) and i dont know what to say about storing wallet on floppy seem little off cuz is old and not so reliable and fragile were
store on something else even now dvd disk are not reliable so i dont know what to say about it (i can send you disk that is old enough when is stored my ms dos 6.22 confid for games back in the days with 622kb free memory after reboot)

best advice is to store on several mediums like paper usb some ghost drive or something else dont use floppy

Don't use floppy disk to store your .dat file as the floppy readers are already extinct from the market.

If your current floppy disk reader goes dead, you will loose everything you are going to store there.

Better, use some current technology to store your bitcoins safely.

actually a piece of paper only lasts for a while, not forever. it is subjected to decay and based on the environment in which you are holding it this process can be speed up or slowed down. you can of course laminate the paper to prolong the life time of it.

but if you are looking for a permanent way of holding your private keys which doesn't involve electronic stuff, you should engrave it on something, the most common thing is a metal place which is resistance to corrosion.

Brand does matter, but this was imho a great amount of luck too.
If you really used floppy disks, you should remember that from a kit of 20-30 fdds, you always got 1-2 with CRC error.


Floppy disks also don't do well if exposed to fire :D


Engraving onto metal may mean to use somebody else to do the engraving, hence you just hand out your private key to somebody.
Laminated paper wallets are not a bad solution actually. Nowadays people have printer at home and if you don't have the "laminator" (I don't know if it's actually called like this), you can buy the plastic and it may work with the clothing iron.

safe, but the key can be unsafe because the floppy are worse than HDD about the writing errors, if failed to read well then your key is gone.
for the Qt wallet, you will even need at least 30000 of them for the blockchain, the monster of space.  ::)

I do not think that floppy disks are pretty safe to store your coins on because they are pretty old now. There are much better things were you can store your Bitcoins on like an usb stick. Some people even safe there coins on there phones.

Floppy disks are very outdated and they are very unreliable when it comes to storing files. Paper wallets are probably better for storing them, and even USBs are bad but not as bad as floppy disks.

Even physically its unreliable. It can easily get damaged due to dirt.

if you read the topic you will see that he already has a Floppy drive to read those disks also you find out that somebody also gave some amazon links where you can buy it!!

anyways this topic gave me an idea and i think i will also put my encrypted seed on a floppy disk, of course i will be storing it elsewhere too.

I think the OP is just feel excited about bring an old device/disk back to work. I would suggest you keep both disk and drive in a dry cabinet to avoid fungus growing on the surface of the magnetic media and the reading heads.

Definitely need a backup like paper wallet??

Let me tell you the story of my colleague and the floppy disk disaster he went through.
My colleague was making a doctorate in Biology in 2001, flash disks and pendrives were not that common yet and very expensive for a student like him who was from a poor family. He wa going to make the presentation of his thesis and a professor told him to make more than one copy of it on floppy disks in case one does not work, he made 12 copies on 12 different floppy disks, each from a different brand and all floppies were new and used for the first time. Guess what, the day of the presentation the first floppy he tried did not work, so the second, and third, and forth... he was sweating like a pig when he reached the 11th floppy and it didn't work eaither, and only the 12th copy saved him. So don't do it floppies are probably the least reliable form of saving, thank god they are no longer in use thanks to flash memory.

Haha, you could try it just to see but I wouldn't put too much on them.  One bonus is that if you ever got burgled chances are that the thief would take one look at those disks and just laugh and move along so they could be the safest place lol

I agree to not use floppy disks because they are why to old to hold something valuable like Bitcoins on a floppy disk. Also, most computers do not even have an input where you can put in your floppy disks they are useless right now. 

The best storage is probably the one that uses different techniques to store the data. Floppys generally wont last too long and if they lose their magnetism then the data is lost. But keeping a copy of your .dat file on a floppy, another on a paper wallet, a usb memory stick, cd etc might allow for recovery down the road. All this is based on having something that can read the data at a later point, eg have a floppy reader<->usb stored with the floppy, a cd reader for the disc etc.

Additionally the data should be stored in different locations too in case of a local disaster like a fire or flood.

Yes he has to preserve floppy disk reader also with floppy for future which is going to be an uphill task.At what if after say 15 years he found his floppy disk reader not working properly,where would he find anyone to fix it

Still exist floppy disks?  ;D anyhow even if you find it now, in a maximum of ten years will be hard to find it.

I never would save my coin in a magnetic storage.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk

it's rally dangerous,floppy disk can be easily broken,just drop it from 2 meters height and it'll sure make you lost all of your money, why did storing on floppy disk instead of usb drive which have more benefits than this old thing?

Well, because the floppy disk is already outdated technology. However, still there is truth in your words. No one can read the floppy disk for the lack of drive. ;D
I would suggest that private keys are printed on a piece of paper, a piece of paper to put in one of the books of the private library.

My advidce,  use laminated paper +  some usb sticks for example, for me is the best combination possible, well obviously trezor and all those wallets are good too but always use paper, dont know why but i fell more safer by using them than any other way.

and no, i will never use floppy disks for nothing important...

This is not a safe option. There is a reason that floppy disks are on the verge of becoming obsolete. They could easily wear and must be kept with utmost care. Moreover there is always a threat of breakage associated with this delicate way of information storage.

Well if you can find a floppy disk and a floppy disk writer and reader well ghen yeah its safe because not svryone have it and I dont think they will go an extra mile and have gheir own reader just for your Bitcoin Wallet. Do they still exist? I thoughtbwe can find those in museum. Lol

i think it was good idea to store your wallet backup on floopy disk,as long you have old computer that still work properly,and you should make sure that you can keep it work good since some years,because i think old computer hard to repair if its broken.

it is already too old dude and I think the manufacturer is not making or producing floopy disk again.
so I think store bitcoin on a floppy disk is a strange thing you know? in fact you can still save your bitcoin in a flashdrive? then why are you looking for something hard?

I think floppy disks are a bad choice for storing Bitcoin wallets long-term. The magnetic material they are made of can degrade with time plus the data on them can become corrupted if the disks are exposed to magnetic interference. I think a laminated paper wallet will outlast a floppy disk easily. Sometimes simpler things are better  ;)

The magnetic particles on the floppy disk will change its characteristics over long time, you will lose information.

You are right about this, I think it would be nice to have a floppy disk wallet but the fact is that it will change in a long time period so that makes it a no go.

USB is better, but if you want to be safe from malware, you can store wallet in floppy. Only then you must keep also your old computer for floppy disks use too.  ;)

Paper is a good choice if you protect it the same way you would protect a floppy disk. They last hundreds or thousands of years. Just look at any old book or painting.

I am more worried about the availability of the hardware to read this media... I dealt with them before and I can still remember that there were something about the floppy disk lenses inside these

devices that did not last a long time or had to be regularly cleaned for them to work. I know we used to clean them with surgical alcohol and ear buds, when they got dirty. Will these devices or the

replacements parts {lenses} still be available in 10 or 15 years from now? Will the interface between this device and the computer still be compatible? 

Floppy disks can break and become unusable just while they are sitting in a safe place. It is usually the humidity damages floppy disks. Now we live in 2016 and there are no more floppy disk readers/writers and their cap is 1.44mb which is not enough to store any shit other than a half ass mp3, you should'nt worry about it. Good day.

Why not store the wallet into your thumbdrive, and burn a copy to CD-Rs, and keep them in a dry box?

Safer to do a paper wallet, or store it on punched cards than floppy disks mind ; - )
Storage mediums go out of fashion, paper does not


Never save any coin to magnetic storage? I guess your HDD would count as magnetic.

You can still buy floppies at one of the local computer shops in my town.

These days seeing a floppy drive in a computer itself hard, so than depending upon floppies its better to store it into a USB. Also have a back up in one more secret drive to have increased security.

How about we store our wallet on Zip drives? :)

I have bad experience with Zip drive. They used to have the Zip 100 and Zip 250. They are NOT reliable at all. My feeling is that floopy disks are better than Zip disks in terms of reliability.

i dont think that foppy disk is safe. floppy disk is no reliable, i can stop working any time. i think it is just like sucide. i think its not time of floppy disk. there is no concept of floppy disk. we should keep our bitcoins in a safe place.

all of them are good but also all of them are not permanent and the data on them can be corrupted. even CDs won't work after a couple of years and lose their data.
you have to save your wallet in multiple places and remember to check it with 6 month to 1 year intervals and renew them if necessary.

If you own a 3d printer I think it's a good idea to try to 3d print your private keys just in case. I found a project that may be interesting to someone. It's a Bitcoin Ingot: Plastic Bitcoin Wallet with printed QR codes and everything, it looks great and I would recommend checking it out here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:241805  ;) I know that plastic can't withstand fire but in most extreme conditions not even hardware wallets will last either and you would need to have etched your private keys on a piece of metal at least but that would have been much more expensive I guess.

you can always encrypt the key before engraving it.
also engraving on a metal doesn't necessarily need high tech equipment like laser or expensive machines. you only need a hammer and chisel
http://www.wikihow.com/Engrave
http://www.engravingschool.com/private/images/palmclassic-copy_small2.jpg

also there are tools that have letters on their head (like the picture below) which you use a hammer to indent the metal with that letter.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61aG%2B1dj8XL._SY355_.jpg

Never trust floppy disks, they can seem to work flawlessly but become suddenly unreadable when you need something you have stored on them. I learned the lesson the hard way back in the day.

I think it's very safe compared to online wallet prone hack. But it is not safe if the diskect is damaged cartilage and because the technology is old,I feared no floppy disk in the future to open your discket. :D
hehe just my opinion

You were just lucky. They day you'll need it, they will be gone forever. If there aren't used anymore today, that's for a good reason.

Floppy disks are very old and you are lucky still to have them

yes its old device,i can't find my old flopy disk on my house,i forgot where i put it,and i think its not good idea to store wallets on floppy disk,its too old and you will hard to find old computer to open your floppy disk everywhere.

I always had a hard time using floppy disks before. My files always got corrupted or my floppy disks got viruses. I would definitely not recommend it and it is not anymore useful in the present times. :)

Wow! Awesome and great ideas here. I have never thought of the engraving thing but I can go with the laminator and maybe frame it. :)

No.

There are way better alternatives nowadays. I'd consider CD, DVD, M-Disc, Cloud storage. Just make sure your wallet is encrypted with a strong password and with quantum proof encryption.

And always name your wallet files randomly, naming as "My Millionaire Bitcoin Wallet" is definitely not a good idea and will just encourage brute force attacks and attempts. Naming it as "travel_71nYNujPnL" would work otherwise.

Even binary data printed in sheets of paper and buried somewhere in this planet would be safer than a floppy.

Maybe that was the case, but all the IBM and Sony ones are working lol. And I have found an even older floppy (the ones that folded), I would like to try this one out but I don't have a reader for big floppy disks anymore, but im sure someone already made one that can connect to usb :D


Yes, I have backups everywhere and they are all encrypted. What do you consider "quantum proof encryption" to be tho??

I think that the really problem is find an hardware that could read easily a floppy... they are literally disappeared a lot of young nerds don't know what are and how it was hard use a floppy for every operation....  I think you could save the passphrase wallet... maybe it's more sure as device space...

Any well known and established symmetric algorithm (e.g. AES-256) is safe, considering key size of at least 256 bits.

As far as I know.

Indeed these kiddo's from now do not even know the name, they are thinking you are talking bullshit, they never heard from it.
I honestly think it can be safe.

As anecdotal evidence goes...

Just couple months ago I found myself experimenting with old floppies from 20 to 30 years ago.
A bunch of 880KB Amiga single density ones, and both 1.44MB PC high density and 720KB turned 1.44MB via hole punching. Some of well known brands, some with no branding at all.
I had no problems reading a complete image out of each floppy I tried, with an Hitachi USB floppy drive from 10 years ago. I was kinda suprised.

Again, I don't recommend actually using floppy nowadays to store things (it's also most impractical), but they worked far better than I expected.

Old, cheap burned CD-Rs, on the other hands... a real bloodbath!

Maybe tattoo your private key to yourself ;)

Maybe. But think about the compatibility. Floppy disk readers are already incompatible with Windows, and you need a 3rd party program to read it. In a few years, those applications will not be updated.

the data are registered in a magnetic tape? I am asking this because I remember something like this...
also floppy are so "delicate" if you have a little damage on your plastic case you lost all information ... and find a way to fix it is quite impossible...

instead of a floppy disk save it on to a usb pen drive floppy disks are going way too back in the 90's and it won't be a good way to save data because they can get corrupted and damaged easily. To me it just looks like flat fragile plastic which wasn't engineered tough enough like a hard disk drive.

I saw floppy disks and was thinking back to how they used to get damaged from to much sunlight and had to be kept in their envelops. Damn that was a long time ago,crazy how times have changed.
Have seen a lot of discussion and no real solid way to really protect yourself long term,seems like there is a business idea some where here to be hatched for protecting data in general.

Forget floppies they degrade over time (even CDs do).

I had a box of 100 floppies stored in a cool, dark place and 10 years later many were totally unreadable.

In the next 15 years, you will find that your floppy disk has been damaged and the wallet data in it is lost, lol. Better print your private key in a laminated paper. Then put in your attic, and hope in the next 15 years that paper wallet is not eaten by rats :D

Actually, everything degrades over time in this world.

I believe CDs are much more reliable than magnetic tapes, even if not "perfectly" stored.

I have CD that are over a decade old and can still be read flawlessly. Given the careless way they were treated for all these years, it is a great achievement and a good solution for not so "short term" backups.

To my understanding, floppy disks provide the same security measures as USB disks. Except they are a bit more dusty, and floppy :P

Keep in mind that you won't be able to access your bitcoins if you ever need them for an emergency situation on most PCs and laptops. Nobody uses floppy disks anymore. As long as you keep it completely offline, it'd be safe. But a USB stick would be way more accessible.

Quite an interesting concept, but keep in mind that Floppy disks will be used on the computer is an old version and if indeed it can be done to save the data of the Bitcoin. Then you also have to keep the old version of the computer in order to operate your Bitcoin. Dreams that might be realized when world-renowned Bitcoin and 80% of people use the Bitcoin for each transaction

A floppy disk is an ancient USB. Has the same "plug & play" principle, but has alot of storage (32 MB lel) and is floppy!

IIRC a floppy is a strip of magnetic tape. Doesn't seem very good longevity wise.

Probably the best post yet.

Floppy disks aren't safe to store anything. Period.

There are plenty of alternatives whose degradation is much more manageable.

3.5" floppy disk has a size of 1.44 MB. It's one of the worst ideas of storing any data for long-term  :D

Use a texta and write the private key on the floppy disk might be the best solution

Floppy disks are only good for short-term storage, it was widely used before so it kinda 'was' good for storage.
Well, considerin the current technology that we have, it's nowhere near 'good' anymore.
USBs aren't even a good alternative just to say. The longevity of USBs aren't that much long either.

1.44MB... I used to format them as a kid with maxidisk DMF style to get 1.66MB ;) The original windows 95 set up disks were on DMF formatted floppies to hold more, you could format any 1.44MB floppy DMF style.

Might be able to store 1 - 2 blocks per disk depending on transaction volume, imagine trying to sync the blockchain from floppies ;)

its safe just because not many people use floppy disk nowdays,but its not safe if you lost that floppy disk because sometime you will forgot that you keep your wallet on that floppy disk,why are you forget?because you will rare to use that device.

 ;D  ;D   ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D
Such a long time gone, when I last saw a floppy disk.

Really miss you floppy.

Things are modernizing day by day, so we will always miss our old stuffs.

Floppy disks are really old, i still have some lying around too. If you have an old model pc that accepts PC you could probably use it but its quite risky because these kind of things can be erased due to magnetic interference. I suggest you keep them really safe and dust free otherwise just don't use them at all.

that's what i think,storage like USB disk,CD or floppy disk,have same security and its all safe,and one that make different on floppy disk its a rare device,you might unable open floppy disk on every computer,you need you grandpa computer to open floppy disk.

In other news, US military uses 8-inch floppy disks to coordinate nuclear force operations (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/25/us-military-uses-8-inch-floppy-disks-to-coordinate-nuclear-force-operations.html).

Beyond pure nostalgia, you've got to tell me why the sudden love for floppy disks all around. I've been using them for plenty of time back in the days (both 5.25'' and 3.5''), and these are the words that will stay associated with them, as well as the distinctive noise of the step motor in much moments:

The United States Nuclear program still uses the floppy disks since 1976. Thats 40 years of usage and while they are are being finally phased out by end of 2017, i would say 40 years is not a bad run.

the article just posted on may 25th 2016 is here : http://time.com/4348494/pentagon-nuclear-floppy-disks/

"If it is not broken, don't fix it?" mindset? But that legacy system that is running for so many years had its ROI many times over.

USB external pendrives are not good for storing sensitive data over longer periods of time either.
The problem with USB sticks is - if they are left alone without power for too long memory cells can degenerate.
If you want to keep data on your USB you have to plug it in from time to time.

Floppy disks are extremely fragile and are often destroyed even when you treat them with care. That is also one of the big reasons why they are not used anymore in modern computers. Also don't see the point to use outdated floppies when there are more good options available.

If I were you then I should not save my bitcoins on a floppy disk because those things are pretty old and they do not have much storage space.
I suggest that you save them on a usb stick or hard drive.

I also would not store any of my bitcoins on a old floppy disk, those things are not to trust again. They do not have much storage space on them and your files can somehow disappear on them.

Just have it stored properly man, after a decade or two you can sell that for probably hundreds. Just have your private key printed and stored securely.

Lol, you would do better to write the plaintext key on the outside of the floppy. It's probably more durable than the magnetic film.

They also make great coasters.

Floppy disk are out dated and many computer doesn't have a floppy disk reader and all laptop don't have any floppy disk reader so what's the use of storing in floppy disk. Better store on paper or in usb pen drive

that is exactly the reason to store it on a floppy disk. if you want to store it on a floppy disk, then in order to do so you need a disk reader. just hang on to it and you will be able to read it later. and i am sure you will be able to find one in 20 years, in case yours not working anymore. and if some one tries to steal your coins the wont even bother to pick up the floppy disks unless you label them or they know what is on them.

Seriously? I would never recommend to store your private keys in a floppy disk. There are far better options available, such as USB sticks, Blu Ray Discs and portable Hard drives. But then, what you do with your coins is your own choice. Just make multiple backups, just in case one or two of them get corrupted. Else, be prepared for heartache later.

For  me  i would never do such thing  because in near future you would have a hard time  to open that floppy disk since in future for sure computer wont read anymore floppy disk  as i assumed. Well it would work on   90's years but  bitcoin does exist on 2009 as  far as i remember. Better not to proceed at all, you just risking your money on there. hahha

Don't go this way, throw it away to trash can. Anybody that used it once know they could fail you in any moment in any day.
You would lost wallet then forever.

I finally decided to put some wallet copies on some of the floppy disks that were in the best condition possible, just for an experiment, let's see how much they last. I put them back into my box and we will see for how long it lasts and I hope the wallet files dont get corrupted. Obviously I have copies in better mediums of storage too so its not like im storing it all in the same place.

why are usb sticks, dvds etc better than a floppy disk? the device can be damaged or lost no matter what it is. and since fewer people have access to floppy disks then usb sticks, the potential number of people who can harm you is smaller. 

oh and just btw the us military uses computers from the 70's including floppy disks. oh and is not just some unimportant department dealing with miner stuff. they are in charge to coordinate the functionally of atomic bombs. and you worry about some wallet.

Really?
I also have some floppy disks in my room but i don't think that i would storing bitcoin on it, firstly my computer doesn't support it and i think it's too risky i would choose hardware wallet for storing my bitcoin, however it's ok if used your floppy disks just for an experiment, good to see you have some copies. Let's see what will happen in the future.

Sounds cool but I do not think it is a wise idea to store your wallet into the floppy disk.  They will work ofcourse on old computer models but the wuestion would be, how long do you think your computer will still be operational.  If it brokes and would not be able to repair you would surely find it hard to have some technician. 

Way too hold, how will you access it in the future? Why not just use a USB that's been kept offline like most people? Is there a specific reason you want to use a floppy disk or are you just asking for kicks?

The floppy disk which us military uses is some other quality disk which are dat drives if i am not wrong, but what OP is telling is the local floppy disk and it is a failure method of storing in them as they can get damage even if they get fungus or dust on the disk.

Off course i dont see why they are not safe you can store bitcoins where ever you want and i can tell you i trust my own floppy more than some stupid online wallets for sure!

Any external drive could be used for this purpose, not only floppy disk, right? And how safe it will be depends on you.

What i want to say about this is that i like to store my coins local because i got rid by an online wallet and sins than i dont trust tham anymore you know that is the biggest problem

maybe 15years later,the reader of floppy disapear,then,how to do ?

I think so, only if information or files are properly backed up and on it, it will...also longtivety has to be on check.

then he will lost all the data but 15 years later i don't think that floppy reader could be fully disappeared,some people are always collecting these stuff especialyl those geeks so maybe the price will be quite expensive but not fully disappeared

It's kinda a little inappropriate to rely on floppy disk now much more for a portable and handy technology like bitcoin. BTC is built around your hands not in your pc as it use to transact in which place you want to be. You can't always bring a desktop or an adapter for it. In technology you don't go back to the past rather you move forward, for example do people still use VHS or Betamax now? If it is it maybe less than 5% of the population of the world. Also look at as now even CD-r players on laptops are disappearing.

Floppy disks are so unreliable that it is a waste of BTC even with backups, I remember when we had to deliver assignments with floppy disks and we had to use 2-3 because one malfunctions... I think flash and paper wallets are the way to get "and of course hardware wallets if possible".

instead of a floppy disk save it on to a usb pen drive floppy disks are going way too back in the 90's and it won't be a good way to save data because they can get corrupted and damaged easily. To me it just looks like flat fragile plastic which wasn't engineered tough enough like a hard disk drive.

I wont trust my whole saving fund into floppy disk, and even for now to find a device with a floppy disk reader is kind of difficult, so in the next 15 years i wont know where to find the floppy disk reader, so i think you better find another way to keep your private key, rather than rely to floppy disk

Its amazing to think somewhere in the world some one is actively still using floppy disks,not thinking about how they would be destroyed if they where exposed to to much sunlight. I like to think of these people as the same people that drive around with a cd hanging from their rearview mirror to shine in my face as I drive. No idea why they do it other than to piss other motorists off.
I would not advise using a floppy disk,but I think that point has been driven home at this point. There is a reason vhs tapes are also no longer being used. When something is crappy it has a short life span.

There should be a pretty obvious answer as to whether or not a floppy disk is good for saving a Bitcoin wallet. That answer is effectively no. Part of this is related to the relative obsolescence of the technology and the lack of an ability to recover data from it in poor circumstances.

Choose a USB or something else that's actually a good choice. None of this old technology that's dubious today at best.

In 15 years time there will probably be a niche market for people who can recover information off of floppy disks.  I can see they will have a free post address or even send out a pre paid envelope to post them in.

The only problem for BitCoins is the confidential trust they would offer to ensure you use their service otherwise you would constantly doubt whether of not they have kept a copy of your information (just in case you need another copy later)...

If you are down to relying on the humble floppy diskette to get you out of trouble (in 15 years time) then perhaps you should have looked to other way of storing the information such as emailing it to yourself via an online service that isn't likely to go away in 15 years time (such email providers do daily / hourly backups which are there as long as the company exists).

I wouldn't fully trust floppy disks, cd's, or thumb drives. I recommend that you also keep the addresses written on paper that is stored in a safe deposit box or fire safe. You can never be too careful.

and especially they can get a crash from various factor like the temperature, stricken by the dust or caused by the owner's fault if there are the another way is better and may you should for choosing the floppy disk?

No I do not think they are, they are old and not good secured and another fact is that they are not used anymore these days.
I do not recommend you to use them as a wallet honestly.

And we can find vinyl players over there, why not floppy reader... Will be not hard to find one working...
The problem with all this things, floppy, usb, harddrive is the durability..
Good to know your floppy have 15 years old  :o

If you're wondering about life span of floppies, and vinyl and other mediums, consider paper, plastic, stone or metal. Aluminum, steel, titanium, tungsten.

Paper, if stored properly and carefully can last hundreds of years. Forget floppies, you will not find a working reader for it. If you keep a paper wallet in a safe place, it will last decades.

I have found my old floppy reader a week ago, with 10 disks that I have never used. I copied some files to it just to check it out. I accidentally dropped the disk about 30 centimeters, and it fell to rough ground.

Now the data is  corrupted :D


So yeah, a floppy is a very poor integrity device, the data will be corrupted very quickly, and then you are fucked.

It even degrades naturally, I remember in the past all my disks became corrupted after 5-10 weeks by themselves, I havent even touched them.

I am not so like to save my bitcoin in a floppy disk because there is gonna be chance that the disk will be broke. so I preffer like to choose online wallet like blockchain or etc. although Online wallet is have risk to be hacked but it is just a litle chance. It is depend on who wants to keep their bitcoin. That up to you.

That's risky business, man. How easily is it for the device that reads the floppy to break and quit and never really be fixed again? They don't make those parts and whatnot anymore. So unless the old PCs are so simple that you can fix and/or rebuild them yourself I wouldn't waste time with it at all.

What kind of balance are we talking about?

It's not the device that worries me but the disk itself. It has a magnetic strip in it where the data is stored, like early analog photo cameras.

One small scratch or some dust particle sets on that magnetic strip, and your are fucked, the data will become unreadable.


It is inevitable for floppy to become degraded, that is why nobody uses it anymore, its very inefficient and faulty.


I remember cleaning my floppies in the 90's, you had to use a special solution to clean the dust particles off, but still, no guarantees. It will become corrupted eventually.

Better use CD or DVD, at least there the data is burned inside deeply, and not on the surface, so dust particles affect it less.

Burnt CD's and DVD's are slowly being eaten away by a bacteria that is eating the gold film layer that the information is written onto.

Cloud services with daily / hourly backups is one way to safeguard protected data.

It would not be the best idea to be storing you wallets on a floppy disk because floppy disks are way to old and they have almost no memory space.
You need to throw those away and by yourself some usb sticks.

why dont you think that floppy disk cant safe to store your coins i dont think that is true because i think that all kind of hard drivers can safe store your coins
because i am doing it by my sslef because i dont trust wallets.

Because floppy disks are easily corrupted and you also have to keep a very old computer so you can open it in the future (if it is not corrupted yet) . I think keeping your backup on multiple secure location is the best way to keep it safe.

I think that everything that yoiu can store local isbetter than when you use online wallets because i know that online wallets can be hacked.
And that is not what you want dont you?

Wow it is good thing to have those up to this time.  It is safe to use of course but the problem that I think is what if there is no computer that can read those disk.  I mean, computer designs now phases out cpus with floppy disk drive.  But like what you said you still have an old model computer.  Better to keep it functional by maintaining its condition.  Maybe you may also want to have knowledge in repairing that kind of computer.

If you're sure that you'll be able to retain a floppy disk drive (I still have several of these on my old pc's) or if you can find an external floppy disk drive in the long future you can store it in the floppy disk. But make sure that you keep the disk in a safe place away from direct contact with lots of heat. It's recommended to store in a USB pen drive and these are available for cheap. You could also print the private key on a paper and store this in a secure place.

Yeah that safe enough. Just make sure you do not broke it. By that way youre bitcoin is safe from hackers. But I preffer like to use online wallet becouse it is more practicaly.

Storing them in a floppy disk is not the problem, but the problem will occur when in future you want to use your bitcoins out of that disk and you find no source of running that disk, because as we can see that technology is growing day by day and i don't feel we will have floppy disk running devices after 15 years from now.

With an online wallets you don't have the private key, so you're not technically the owner of this address :)
Online wallets are one of the worst solution to store btc. Maybe they are practically just for "kidding" with btc, minus expense, receive some payment, but for sure they are not a "store wallets"

to me the floppy disk time as been pass away, a floppy disk is not trusted to keep bitocin safe in. a floppy disk become corrupted very soon and you can lost your whole data for ever. therefore i will never recommend floppy for keeping bitcoin.

I would still rely on laminated paper wallet, and then put it into a fire proof safe. I've already transferred most of my money to paper wallets, and now I'm awaiting for my next payment so I can fill one more paper up. Safest method, and it's both fire and waterproof.

Do not think about doing  to store your wallet.dat files on a floppy disk.

I would suggest that you do not make use of a floppy disk because those things are so old that ou cannot eve trust those things anymore and most pc cannot let you make use of the floppy disk.
It is better to just save them on a usb stick because those are allot more reliable.

The older the floppy, the more reliable it is. Floppy quality started to degrade seriously around early 90s.

If you're planning on storing it on a floppy, also make sure to save it on another media, such as an engraving on a dog tag. Don't trust anything that involves magnets (floppy) or electricity (flash drive). So far, we're not sure of data longevity on any digital medium, and numbers are simply speculation or based on accelerated/simulated aging.

No it's not the best option. If you are thinking about data loss or whatever you are thinking then floppy disk is now outdated storage media and almost 99.9% computer don't come with floppy disk drive so why you had choose this option. Better keep you bitcoin in paper wallet in QR codes form.

The questioned is, I just wondered if there is still floppy disk distributors around today? Well at least as far as my knowledge concern, I don't have any idea now if that is still present. But well OP does save some of it while roaming in his room. Good for vintage collection lol.

Anyways, there are other ways to store our coins and floppy disk is somehow not wrong to consider as a storage backup for wallets. But if we will take the discussions about being "Safe" don't consider floppy disk here.

i wouldn't recommend it, as like someone said before, floppy disc readers will be very rare after some years, also i wouldn't like to store bitcoins in thing that i can lose easily

Saving it on USB stick is ok, but I think its good to burn on DVD and store it. Or print your code and laminate and save. Its better to have several backup plan than sorry.

it was the worst idea I've ever heard. I am very confident it will succeed. I never thought about this and I think everyone here had not occurred towards there.