Bitcoin Forum

After reading all the people losing their money to hackers I just wanted to remind people


SECURE YOUR FUCKING WALLET

you wouldn't leave a box of $100 bills laying out on the street would you?

Well here is how you do it.

http://btcbids.com/secure_your_wallet.pdf

Please don't hate this guide took me 20 minutes to write.  I'll improve on it if i can get some love up in here.

You should better create a second user with encrypted home on Ubuntu than using TrueCrypt.

What do you know ::)

Send funds to wallet, copy and encrypt wallet.dat to several flash drives, bury flash drives in various unknown locations in the ground.

You cannot protect a copyied wallet. You have to create it in the secure space.

Let me correct/clarify then.

That's not enough either. Your original wallet is not destroyed by deleting the file. There may still be traces.


If you want to bury a savings wallet, you have to create it in the encrypted space and send the coins to it.

I you make an encrypted space on a USB and move the entire Users\User Name\AppData\Bitcoin (for windows 7) over there you can actually direct Bitcoin to load data from the encrypted location instead of the standard location through a extra command. When you delete that folder that contains your wallet file, if you start Bitcoin without directing it to the encrypted location it will just create a totally new wallet.

The wiki post tells you how to do it.

That's not the problem. The problem is that it cannot removed from the old location securely.

Lets just kill each other off so no one can steal. There will always be theft no matter what you or I do unless we are all gone. If someone wants it bad enough they will get it.

My directions specifically state to create the wallet in the encrypted container...

dd it a few times then.

Yes, your directions work. But I would trust ecryptfs a lot more than TrueCrypt.

You never know what happens on modern hardware. A modern HDD isn't a floppy. And a modern flash drive is even more complicated.

TrueCrypt has some nice features. Such as hidden volumes. You could keep a dummy wallet with a modest balance in the main TrueCrypt volume and you true wallet in the hidden volume in case you were forced to decrypt the file.

That feature is only useful when somebody forces you by violence to release your coins.


I don't see any benefit for the usual use case. With no benefit, more features mean more complicated setup. That means more mistakes can be made. You can do that if you like, but you should not recommend it in forums where newbies are reading your advice.

Have you used truecrypt.  Its dirt fucking simple..


Even and idiot like me can do it.

Plus I specifically state, DON"T LISTEN TO ME

I can see you didn't read the entire thing.

It is not simple. That's my whole point. You should stop thinking that it is. And even more important: You should stop telling people.

Even the TrueCrypt manual agrees on this:

There is already a thread:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=16246.0

I have never used encryptfs..


Can you make a container file, encrypt that container file using gpg and then email to your self?

Any solution that would work for me has to be practical, not impenetrable.

Well,

I asked for suggestions on a better way to do it, this is the easiest way I have found.  Took me all of 10 minutes to implement and is very practical.  I invite you to write a more practical strategy.  I will gladly include it in my paper..

The point of this thread is to make people think about securing their wallets..

I hate to see noobs get owned.

Ok, I have written a different howto with Ubuntu recently:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=15068.0



I think your solution works, too, but I think a newbie could make a lot of mistakes with it. My solution doesn't even require the user to install anything. And it does not waste any ressources.

ok, I have added your info to the guide.

Please anyone who wants a mention in the guide, or has some thing to add / change / correct to add into the guide please post it.