Bitcoin Forum

As the title says, i am interested to know why you guys use other online wallets then blockchain.info, and the reasons for it.. Are wallets like electrum safer, or is there something you can do with them you can't do with the blockchain.info one? To me it just seems that these are more complicated and with more fees and unnecessary stuff..

When using blockchain.info or any other web wallets you're trusting them to keep your coins for you.  It doesn't matter if they say they don't share unencrypted private keys to their server because that can change anytime they wish to change it.  You're also relying on them to keep their website accessible to you whenever you need to use your coins and fix some problems that can be fixed by yourself if you fully control the wallet.

You can't view the private keys of or sign a message with a non-imported addresses with blockchain.info (I'm not sure if that's changed) and it doesn't use any less fee than any other wallet.  Fees can be set manually if you wish to, btw.

In short, yes, wallets like electrum which is pretty much the opposite of what I said above (except the fees part) are more secure.

Edit:

They're not that complicated.  I've used a lot of wallets including blockchain.info and they're pretty much the same only with added or removed features.
If you think any of the features are unnecessary then simply don't use them, that shouldn't stop you if you want a more secure wallet.

I don't use blockchain.info that much anymore ever since they updated to HD wallets.
Too many features that I considered important were removed. Like, signing an address without the need to import and sending from specific addresses.
I have indeed switched to electrum, because it has all that I need. I can easily sign and verify, send from any address, plus I now have full control of my funds. I don't need to worry about getting my accounts frozen and funds held.
It's not complicated. Downloading electrum is fast and it doesn't take up much space. It's only less than 100mb after all.
The fees I pay are basically the same and this way, I get more features.
What unnecessary stuff? I'm not aware of any.

Is there another online wallet, that would create unsigned TX for you to sign offline, then take back & broadcast the signed TX?

Just need to clarify. Are you talking about a wallet that connects to the internet, like Greenaddress, BitGo, Electrum and Coinbase, or are you talking about solely web wallets, like Coinbase and Coins.ph?


Blockchain.info doesn't generate it offline, it generates it in-browser. A virus can scrape it from RAM easily.

Among the online wallets I am using blockchain web wallet and I do not feel to go to any other online wallet because there is no any issue and complication to me while using blockchain. Before that I was using an yobit exchange wallet but the problem was that I was unable to send bitcoins to those who also use yobit wallet. So I searched for wallets and I was suggested for blockchian and now until I face any issue I will be at there.

I do not think that there will be any reason to me in that exchange which will impose on me to go to another online wallet.

It's better to storing your bitcoin in several wallet rather than in one wallet it's obviously for security purpose.
I personally used blockchain.info only for storing spendable amount, i don't even fully trust blockchain.info due to their site is targeted by the hackers as we can see their site sometimes offline that makes me so scared. However i still used it due to it's simplicity, i've stoped using xapo and coinbase since they've locked my account for some reasons that i don't even know what it is. The point is if you want to storing huge amount of your coin you should store them offline.

The idea behind online bitcoin wallets is not to provide extra powerful wallet with all features combined (multisigs, signing messages, advanced recovery options, keys backups etc.)
- most online walled won't offer you that. Online wallets are here rather to provide entry level of wallet service available for masses.
If you are Bitcoin newbie or simple enthusiast do you really need any feature beside sending, receiving bitcoins? I doubt it. Simplicity is the name of the game here.
Electrum, Multibit HD other small SPV wallets are great, but won't offer you accessibility from every possible device as easily as online wallets.

Well for me i just using bitcoin online wallet with coinbase because blockchain wallet are asking for a fee.. that is why i use coinbase for small transaction or for daily transaction because they are not asking for a fee for every transaction like other online wallet.
My main wallet is electrum which is much safer than in online wallet..

I'm using Coinbase and Xapo wallets because they don't have fees. I'm getting and sending a lot of small transactions, so blokchain.info isn't best option for me. I know that Xapo and Coinbase have lot of disadvantages, such as not giving private keys for users, tracking of every transaction, asking for verification. But I didn't faced any problems with these wallets. So far...

You need to understand that bitcoin network is dependent on transaction fees - maybe not as much now, but in the future when block reward will be decreased, fees will be primary founding way for miners.
No fee policy of Xapo or Coinbase is making people forget that sending BTC is not totally free - for that you are giving up your privacy, control over your private keys and become subjected to their idiotic Tos.
As for the 'safer' than blockchain.info argument - I don't know any case of security breach (on the host part) which caused users of blockchain.info to lose BTC either.

A question and comments:

1)  Now that blockchain.info uses HD wallets, does that allow importing Private Keys (the way to transfer BTC from an Opendime)?

2)  I once had ALL of my BTC taken from a blockchain.info wallet (I worked with them, and eventually (two days or so) got it all back.  To this day I do not if it was a HACK of some sort, or some kind of operational issue with blockchain.info.

3)  blockchain.info used to offer a mixing service, which I liked, but apparently it is not secure, and no longer offered.

4)  I do not do micro-transactions, all I really want is a sturdy system that WORKS dependably.  I am willing to pay for that.  I don't care if the fees are BTC0.0002 or even higher, as all of my transactions are "important".

5)  As many here at the forum have advised, I only keep a "working amount" of BTC in my web wallet, the rest on hardware wallets.

I'm using wallet online such as blockchain.info. I feel safer than other wallets.
it helps me access to my wallet on whenever and wherever.

another blockchain.info, iam use online wallet is full control and support private key
if nothing private key iam prefered use coinbase, because sending without fee

I'm now using this blockchain.info
I see that it's fast and easy to access to the wallet.
I use it everyday and never get any problems about it.
Highly Recommend all bitcoiners to use the blockchain.info daily

I suggest you use offline wallets or those wallets that don't have control over your private keys. Usually these kinds of wallets can use your private keys in the event they need to. If you use a wallet that allows you to control your own private keys then you are more secure. Try bitcoin-qt or armory or electrum or any mobile wallet like bitwallet for the ios.

I only use blockchain.info for small amounts. They are trusted enough for me. I would never use any other online wallet.

ad. 1. Blockchain.info's new wallets make use of a bip39 recovery seed - so in theory it is possible to use this seed in evry wallet which support this.
I don't know if you can import your seed from other wallet as I hadn't tried it, and "Import" option which previously were present is missing.
But exporting is perfectly possibl, here is detailed explanation how you can do this: https://github.com/OmniLayer/omniwallet/wiki/Exporting-Private-Key-from-Blockchain.info-and-Importing-to-Omniwallet.org (https://github.com/OmniLayer/omniwallet/wiki/Exporting-Private-Key-from-Blockchain.info-and-Importing-to-Omniwallet.org)

ad. 2. I know cases when users lost their bitcoin balance stored on Blockchain.info - but that was because their wallets were hacked directly, not because service were compromised in any way.
The is however probability that wallet service might encounter some technical difficulties - it seems to be the case here.

ad. 3. I never used it and I can't comment on functionality of that feature.

ad. 4. The only factor which is important here is your fee in comparison how much 'big' i.e. how many inputs your transaction consists of.
As of now standard ~230 bytes transaction results in a fee of ~20k satoshis it will be processed no matter which wallet you are using.

...

Thank you, Hazir.  My blockchain.info is an older pre-HD one, I was able to import my (Opendime) private key.  

But, I now have another blockchain.info wallet that is HD.  I have not tried to import a private key yet, but I read elsewhere here that the HD wallets do not allow importing a PK.

Meaning, I suppose, that my "old wallet" is worth more (to me).

There is that. I'm not gonna argue that point since I have previously experienced difficulties due to that.

I was away from my main computer(ie. my electrum wallet), so I had no way to access my funds. *sigh
Gave me quite a hard time.
And so, in addition to electrum, I have learned to use mycelium for mobility.  ;D

I didn't realize there were still pre-HD blockchain.info wallets? I thought everything was forcefully updated?

What do you mean by "online"?  A wallet that connects to the internet or a online wallet service like blockchain.info/xapo/etc.?  I'm using Electrum wallet for the most of my coins.  Then I have a small deposit in my JoinMarket HD wallet to participate the JoinMarket coin join.  And last but not least I have some coins stored in a paper wallet (cold storage).  Except the paper wallet all of these are online but not a online service.

I do only trust some online services like blockchain for minor amounts of coins.  And blockchain has for me way to high fees.

//alex

I use Electrum and Mycelium for my main funds. I also have some small amounts on my Coinbase and Blockchain.info wallets.
Although, I don't really use blockchain.info much because I find it hard to use ever since their update.

So, Electrum and Mycelium because it's safer and I get full control of my funds. It also has more features than blockchain.info.
Then some bits for coinbase because it's free. Oh, I also sometimes use cryptonator wallet for when I need a quick exchange.

Web exchanges have different features and services which blockchain.info doesn't have. Take example of our local exchanger, there are lots of services offered to use our bitcoins there. Converting it to fiat is just a piece of candy, Coinbase does that also to their listed support country, XAPO has a virtual credit card and so on.

People are using different online wallet because of the service they want and for security it's not best to put all your balls in one container.

For a long time you could opt to not use new HD updated version of blockchain.info, however you were reminded about it during every log in.
After month or so of constant nagging I  gave up and switched to new functionality, but my pre-HD addresses I created were there, so maybe this is pre-HD functionality OROBTC is taking about.

another blokchian in online wallet
iam choose
1 xapo, because support debitcard service and sending without fee
2 coinbase anothe online wallet service , open exchanger too

If i will prefer another online wallet for bitcoins rather than blockchain.info then I will suggest for xapo because in xapo we do not pay any fees of transaction. That is the only feature due to which xapo is better than other online bitcoin wallets.

Combination best features of these wallets are not yet available in any services, I guess.

I prefer to have another web wallet services with zero tx fees and letting us access to private key. Xapo is missing signing message feature. But Xapo has email based xapo to xapo transacting capability which is not possible with blockchain.info

The reason is clear  . Since blockchain is official wallet of Bitcoin and have best security features but the new beta version is not satisfactory for most Bitcoiner because the new address at which we receive the Bitcoin will be temporary , after receive single payment it is about dead , And after this it will generate new address .
But most of use in this campaign recieving Bitcoin at single adress , so blockchain will not prove best for us .

Official ? What is the need of having a similar to that one in a decentralized environment ?
It must be a one of the misinterpretation of basics of bitcoin system. (even many times, many experts had cleared about these rumors still people refuse to learn facts).

Blockchin.info is just another services run by one of us. They do not have any privileged access to blockchain nor any bitcoin address.

I use a lot of wallets just to beware of any disgrace. If there's anything I've learned: never leave all the eggs in the same basket.

About blockchain.info, I like this wallet, easy to use and makes it easier for me to transfer small amounts, but lately I have paid very high fees. Days ago I paid $3 fee.

I suppose it comes down to personal preference, some wallets have a better UI than others and some have functions that others do not.

There is no harm in using multiple online wallets, Circle was decent until they stopped their buying and selling ability, Coinbase is okay but have restrictions all over the place.

Best thing really is to have your own wallet but if you must use online web wallets then  using a few is the safer option just in case.

Jaxx.io is a wallet worth looking at. It supports quite a few platforms and imo works as promised.

Anybody else have an opinion on thism


You can't really say every web wallet is the same. Even though BitGo has faced some problems it's still a web wallet that offers something different compared to most web wallets. They offer a certain kind of control which most web wallets don't.

I was talking about an online wallet comparable to Electrum, which OP mentioned, that would database the inputs for addresses (that you control the private keys to that have only ever been on an airgapped computer), build an unsigned TX from them, which you would copy over to the airgapped computer, verify, sign, then copy and paste the signed TX & push on the online wallet.