Bitcoin Forum

Hello,

I'm researching bitcoin wallets, but I still haven't decided. Online wallets are said to be unsafe. I'm thinking of using one of the desktop wallet software. Which wallet you recommend is easy to use.

Did you read? -> https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

Here's a list of wallets https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet (https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet). You can use the official bitcoin core wallet, however you will need to store the whole blockchain which is currently almost 100GB. To start I recommend you get a light client, such as Electrum.
Good luck! :)

Yes, I read the wallets there. But I couldn't decide which wallet to choose.


Why electrum? What's the difference from the others? In general, they're all described as simple and lightweight.

Its a difficulty question to answer if we dont know what you are looking for. Electrum and Multibit HD are both HD wallets, so its easy to create a backup. Electrum allows some more advanced features like exporting and importing (extra file) private keys, while Multibit HD is aimed more at beginners. Multibit HD's wallet files are better protected against brute force attacks, which can be mitigated by using a longer password if you prefer electrum.

I can say almost nothing about Bither, I only used it once in a VM to create a "how to sign a message" tutorial. It looked fine, but I never used it with coins.

I have never used GreenAddress, Copay and BitGo.

I would not consider mSIGNA a light wallet, because it needs a full node to run. That node can be externally, but thats usually not a good idea. Its been a while since I used it and I found it overly complex.

As a beginner I decided to use Multibit HD because it provides both ease of use and more comprehensive security. thanks for the answer.

You dont want web wallets? Then use mycellium and electrum. These two are the best for me. I use these for a long time and did not encountered any problems. You dont have to worry about losing your btc. Because you are the only one who has the access to your private keys.
Its also indeed online wallets are not safe. They suspends accounts which is bad because they taking your money.

If you're unsure of which wallet to use, and for which purpose, maybe I can help you out by giving my 2c on how people should handle their coins. Anyone else please feel free to critique.

1. One wallet for buying/selling bitcoin. This wallet is never used to store bitcoin as you're trusting a third party with them, only as a mediator for buying and selling your coins. This wallet should be located on an exchange for bitcoin. This is your "exchange" wallet.
2. One wallet for spending bitcoin. This wallet you will treat like your wallet that you keep cash in. You only keep enough money in it that you wouldn't mind losing, your spending cash. This wallet can be located on an online wallet, exchange, paper wallet, mobile wallet (I would most recommended), and hardware wallet. This is your "hot" wallet.
3. One wallet for storing your bitcoin. This wallet will be treated as your "savings account" or "investment account", only ever depositing funds but never unless under extreme circumstances withdrawing funds. This wallet can be a hardware wallet, or multiple multisig paper wallets in various safe physical locations (I would most recommend). This is your "cold" wallet.

That's what I feel is the most optimal, safe, and convenient way to store your coins, let me know what you all think.

https://i.imgur.com/xrLUueV.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/xrLUueV.jpg)

Topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1661543.0

Though desktop wallets are better, but online wallets are not that much unsafe as people would tell you, you can keep some funds in them without any problem as long as you are not willing to hold them for long and they are not too much like more than 0.5btc as that is around $500 now a days, so you can keep your daily transacting bitcoins in an online wallet too. Blockchain can be the best for that.

In the above comments Shorena have explained you clearly about most of the wallets but even then i can give my own experience of using electrum desktop wallet which is more secure and light weight, in this the most important thing to keep secure is the passphrase key , because with this key you can regenerate you old wallet anywhere and anytime even if you lose the wallet.dat file. As with this passphrase key you can download the software from anywhere and go for backup key and insert the passphrase and your old wallet is regenerated with all the coins stored in it with addresss safely.

I'm using a desktop wallet of bitcoin core version 0.13.1 . it's very good for me .
this wallet is easy to use and very safe to store and transfer bitcoins to anywhere.
you should encrypte your wallet pass and creat your own private key for security.

i personally have no experience of such things and that is the reason that i  mostly use the online wallet i like to learn about it that how can i use a dsktop wallt if some one can give me some idea about that.

Good chart but is there really any advantage to a hardware wallet over encrypted multisig paper wallets for cold storage? I suppose you don't need to have a bunch of paper wallets in different locations so it makes life easier, but when I talk about "cold storage", I don't want life to be a little easier to access the coins, you know? 

For small amounts and day to day use Web Wallets are fine, to store your funds a hardware wallet would be better.

Not much except easier mobility if you choose a Ledger Nano or Ledger HW.1 hardware wallet. All you need is your pin, a PC with google chrome and your security card with you in order to use it whenever you have a PC available. Other than this advantage I don't know over multisig paper wallets cold storage.

Use the default one with encryption. Wallet its the most safe so far ;)

They are unsafe. With software wallet you control your coins.
I would recommend bitcoin core (nowadays is fast enough to use day to day basis), multibit (SPV wallet very very fast) or electrum which is third party server based so there are privacy concers but aside from that its good.

Paper wallet:

• Free!
• Easier to hide and less risk of being stolen (nobody steals a piece of paper buried among many other useless papers but they will steal a nice looking hardware wallet)
• Spending it is a bit hard (or easy! you can download an SPV wallet, sweep and spend)
• Making it is not easy.

Hardware wallet:

• Not free and even expensive.
• I'd say it is harder to hide than your encrypted private key on a piece of paper
• Easier to spend from
• You are trusting a third party to give you a bug-free and safe enough tool
• Risk of hardware failure. like any other hardware it can fail too.

If you wanna use desktop wallet use Multibit HD Desktop Wallet (https://multibit.org/) or Copay Chrome App (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/copay/cnidaodnidkbaplmghlelgikaiejfhja?hl=en).

Reason to recommend you this wallet is because both supports Trezor (https://bitcointrezor.com/) which the most secured Hardware Wallet for Bitcoin.

Great breakdown. For very cold storage I would say the paper wallet wins hands down, and for a cold but not ice cold solution, the hardware wallet takes the cake.

If you are looking for a normal Bitcoin wallet for general use then MultiBit is going to do good. Just keep your computer secure with antivirus/malware software and you will be fine.

If you have an Android phone, I'd also recommend you to check out MyCelium. I have been using MyCelium for more than two years now. I like how 'mobile' it is and I can access my Bitcoin anytime and anywhere.

Its up to you my friend, you choose your own wallet that suits your taste. There are lots of websites where you can create your btc address. And for me im using coinbase and xapo wallet , and when i want to exchange it a have coins.ph account were i can convert my btc to fiat in an instant.

I'd recommend you, personally, blockchain.info one. I've created it a while ago and didn't replace it, and I've never had any problems with it. I don't know why people are avoiding it. :/

This is awesome. I love your Computer Programming approach to this problem. And to the original poster, please search this forum before asking new topics. Thanks!

Thanks, but Flowcharts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowchart) aren't limited to programming only. They are a great way of visualizing a process and help in making decisions by showing the steps that should be taken.

Couldn't have said it better but in order to make paper wallet the most safe option it has to be handled very carefully. They don't leave much space for mistakes.

Thanks for the answers

Bitcoin Core is not a very good choice for a newcomer to me. It can be used to store and use btc in small quantities like web-based wallets. Hardware wallets are not very reliable for me. We do not know how secure firmware is.

The best choice for a newcomer will be Multibit HD or Electrum. For the moment I made my choice as Multibit HD. I could try different wallets in the future.

Hey guys im looking for bitcoin cold storage?

Any prefer site you know,  kindly share and pm me thanks

I also like blockchain.info for newcomers to bitcoin. I's a straight forward website and you can set the fees yourself.

But once you accumulated more than 1 BTC I would store your money in an online wallet, better go for a desktop version.

Cold storage literally meany offline, so there cant be a site where you use an offline wallet. You have to do it yourself, e.g. with an old laptop.

Well you can use Trezor  (https://bitcointrezor.com/)Hardware Wallet which is pretty safe an secure.

People avoid it because online wallets are not as safe as paper wallets. There is a chance of your coins getting stolen, if someone steals your password, or if your email gets hacked. But I would agree that Blockchain.info is the best online wallet out there.

Actually there are many wallet services providers are in market such as Coinbase, Xapo, BTC.io, Blockchain.info and many more. But I am using Blockchain. Blockchain gives you more control with your bitcoins.

Just main disadvantage of blockchain.info is that we have to pay transaction fees. But still its best. Because blockchain.info only provide private keys of your public wallets address. None of other offer you private keys.

i won't suggest using online wallets or exchanges to newbies to store their coins as the security level for you is lower compared to using desktop wallets such as bitcoin core or electrum. those sites you mentioned maybe trusted today but we will never know what can happen to them in the future. they may claim they got hacked or something like that and our coins will be gone

Our vote goes to Mycelium too (if mobile is ok). We've been using it for years now and never had any problems with it.

i use only paper wallets to hold ... and for regular daily work and trading i am using blockchain.info

What exactly is a paper wallet? How do you shop with your paper wallet. Is it different from other wallets?

A paper wallet is a wallet where your Bitcoin private keys are literally printed out onto paper. These keys are usually encrypted with a password so that not everyone can steal them. Paper wallets are typically used for long term cold storage. The idea is that you use them when you don't plan on spending the Bitcoin for a while.

In order to spend from Paper wallets, you need to import the private keys into a wallet software such as Electrum and then just spend the Bitcoin as you normally would.

Electrum works pretty good

well if you are holding over 0.1 BTC i would get something like trezor or ledgerwallet. Multibit-HD or electrum are my recommendations from software wallet side.
Mycelium is a decent wallet for android phones, since it has much functionality. And also you can attach ledgerwallet nano or ledgerwallet nano S via usb OTG to your phone so you will need that to sign the transaction on the ledger hardware wallets.
I do not know about iOS, feel free to ask more if needed .)

A “Bitcoin wallet” is basically the Bitcoin equivalent of a bank account. It allows you to receive bitcoins, store them, and then send them to others.

There are four main types of wallets

Desktop/Software Wallet is one that you install on your own computer or mobile device. You are in complete control over the security of your coins, but they can sometimes be tricky to install and maintain.

Hardware Wallet is like movable thing where you can store your own bitcoin and carry anywhere build with strong security.

Smartphone/App Wallet are also great tool to get control over your web wallet with apps. Some of actual just apps are also can be used to send, receive or store bitcoins securely.

Web Wallet or hosted wallet is one that is hosted by a third party. They are often much easier to use, but you have to trust the provider to maintain high levels of security to protect your coins.

This information sourced from Pocket Bitcoin Guide (http://bitgold.co.in)

Check here
http://kingoffaucet.online/2017/01/09/best-bitcoin-wallets-for-your-bitcoins/

-Blockchain.info one of the best in providing the facilities required by the users of bitcoin, bitcoin security becomes high priority also provides cold storage facilities, where the digital currency Bitcoin you are not stored online, but offline, so avoid theft activity of hackers.
-Xapo
-coinbase
if you want to secure and protected from theft i recommend choosing Software Wallet like Electrum

Locking this thread as there is a General thread for this which has almost all the information you need and in which you can ask questions: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0

Also, the thread has also received enough quality answers and post quality has started dropping quickly, so locking it for this reason as well.