Bitcoin Forum

Different wallet options are available for Bitcoin. There are Web, Desktop and Hardware wallets.
What are the things to watch out for these wallets? What should we do for the safety of our Bitcoins?

Ensure that you are the sole owner and controller of private keys. Not using internet wallets at all is generally quite a good idea unless you want to avoid transaction fees and have someone like coinbase.com pay them instead.
There are good hardware wallets like trezor (the more known the brand is, the less likely it is for them to be scams although it may be less secure just due to the fact that their more commonly used).
Good software wallets include bitcoin core (http://bitcoin.org/download) (a full wallet that downloads the entire blockchain) and electrum (http://electrum.org) (a light wallet that does not download the blockchain).
All the wallets I mentioned encrypt their private keys but with coinbase, you don't have access to them.
Bitcoin Core is the original wallet releaased by the bitcoin developers.
Electrum is a wallet that uses "public keys" (a set of characters used to generate addresses and show the addresses in a wallet) to get how much the user owns - not transmitting any private keys at all.

Only a few web wallets worth using these days but If its for holding large amounts of BTC then definitely not a good idea.
In the different types you mentioned , hardware wallets are the best choice , If we take Ledger Nano S as an example then using it cannot be an issue as long as you have the device with you and even If you use an infected PC that won't hurt you at all while on desktop applications , If you have a malware installed then you are pretty much screwed.

Web wallets are a big nope in my opinion and the biggest concern is not having control of private keys.

For desktop wallets the biggest issue is getting your PC (or any other device) compromised, though you could use a separate offline device to ensure this doesn't happen.

For hardware wallets the biggest issue would be hardware failure and therefore the need to hold backups.

Is it even possible to back up a hardware wallet? I heard of people that have two factor authentication on hardware wallets but not a backup of them. And with more backups, you then have to worry about where you're placing these backups. If you do too many backups in different locations, then one might find it's way online.
Keeping a small proportion of money on an exchange site such as coinbase is normally quite a good idea as it means that they will cover the transaction fees for you so online wallets are sometimes useful (but only for small amounts).

If you want a good software client I can recommend electrum (http://electrum.org) which doesn't require a 108GB blockchain download before you can use it.

Most hardware wallets uses seed and you can recover everything using them. You know, you can always use a pen and paper to back it up.
Sometimes, they are strict about suspending accounts. They like to suspend accounts for various activities. Hence, you are giving up your privacy.

First we must admit there is none wallet with 100% security. The way I see it depends with the amount of our bitcoins and how often do we spend them. That is, if we have a wallet for our savings that means a big amount of coins, then a cold wallet solution "send many spend once" is the best one. If you want a wallet to spend anytime, everywhere you are but not for big payments then a mobile solution like as mycelium is a good one. At last, if you spend sometimes sitting in front of your computer for bigger purchases then a desktop solution like as electrum would be your choice. The security is inversely proportional to the ease of use.

I would go with hardware wallet, if you want some security.
I can recommend ledger nano S or ledger nano which both you can find here: https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products (https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products)
I think that desktop wallets are not as safe as hardware wallets, if you generate the seeds offline.
You can find a safe way to generate the seeds offline from here: http://support.ledgerwallet.com/knowledge_base/topics/how-to-initialize-my-ledger-wallet-on-an-air-gap (http://support.ledgerwallet.com/knowledge_base/topics/how-to-initialize-my-ledger-wallet-on-an-air-gap)

you should be using the right wallet for you're bitcoin. having wallets on the trusted bitcoin wallet provider is the best way to secure your bitcoins, try researching the local bitcoin wallet provider in your country. or better try the wallet which was used by the majority. you could always be wise.
 
or better not give your personal infos about your wallet to others because they might hack you. just be secured.

Wallets are as secure as your computer. Nobody can simply hack into your wallet without hacking your pc first. Don't install crap, don't visit porn sites and don't click every link you see and you'll be fine. And one more thing, install a good AV.

Don't click on suspicious links or email, don't install script that is suspicious and always keep a regular malware scan weekly, I believe the person himself must be responsible for the bitcoin wallet security too.

How much can we trust the hardware manufacturer? For example, the source codes of desktop wallets are clearly shared. Can source codes be examined in hardware-based wallets?

Bitcoin wallets or any other wallet is just as secure as the wallet in your back pocket! if you take the right precautions then you should not"should not" have any problems but if your careless and reckless using your computer then hand your coins over to a friend that is probably safer then you holding them

when ever people ask about wallet security one thing that always come to my mind is: How have I been safeguard my fiat money in my possession, bank and my Atm cards. You should know that your username and password is the only way from your part and every others security are secondary. Bitcoin offline or online wallet, the only way to secure them is strong password and how you also secure the password itself.

Education, education and education. There is no single solution that would make all wallets safe. People need to learn how to make their wallet safe.

1. Watch out to never believe web online wallets because relying on third parties to hold and operate your bitcoins poses a big risk for the security of your bitcoins.

2. Desktop wallets are as secure as your PC is, meaning if you have a rock solid Debian Linux system, should be no problem in theory if you are the sole user of your PC. You can visit porn sites, and any site you like in Linux , it's far more immune than Windows, but still I don't recommend you doing so. Electrum offers top of the line security for desktop wallets so I recommend you download and install it in your Linux (in Windows is OK, but security of Windows can compromise that of your wallet) www.electrum.org (http://www.electrum.org)

3. Hardware wallet is the best choice, which ever you choose, you have made the right choice in my view.

PS. based on your username on the forum here, I guess you should have no problem in using Linux :)

OpenBsd is only one operating system that works most with security than all the bling bling stuff most other operatings systems like to do.
Would install wallet on OpenBsd and split the bitcoin profit between different wallets, if pc gots hacked you still have money on hardware wallet if some genius hacker figure out how to hack your hardware wallet (well no one will hack hardware wallet if you are offline) then you still have paper wallet.

The most important thing don't share with people what operating system you use, i personally have extra layers of security and i would not like to talk about them.

To ensure your wallet security, you must first have a secure operating system. My recommendation would be Linux systems.
You can use Tails OS for this. But here are some things you need to be aware of. Everything in the tails operating system is executed via RAM. All of your time information that you started from the computer will be deleted.

You can also check out the recently released BitKey Linux distribution. It comes with some tools ready for Bitcoin.
Here's the topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1777596

I think,  Blockchain is safe enough since it has a feature that is unique/ganuine. Its identifier isnt easy to be known, it has a security which rquires passoword, email confirmation, and mobile number confirmation. It keeps hackes to prevent hacking.
I think, this is the best wallet enough to secure huge amount of bitcoins

According to Me If you are Using Online Bitcoin Wallets Like Blockchain then I Will Suggest you to Enable E-mail Verification Every time when you login into your Bitcoin Wallet and also you can enable 2FA Verification for the Security Of your Funds and your Wallet.....
That's all for the Security Of your Bitcoin Wallet..........

Hardware wallet is the most secured wallet for bitcoin. However, you need to save it in a computer and can not be recovered once it's lost. Web wallet I think is secured enough like Blockchain since it has a features of anonymous ID, password, email confirmation, and 2fa. Web wallet is also convinience that once you want to withdraw or deposit, you can easily just do  it by signing in in any computer, phones, or laptops.

That should be your concern when using online wallet is to have access to the private key, and always use 2FA is good for your security. But it would be better if you have the desktop wallet like Bitcoin core, Electrum and Multibit write down the seed and save in the safe place and always save your BTC with a huge amount on Desktop wallet. If you use Online wallet always double check the URLs when login to your account.

curently i love coinbase now because not charge fee for tranfer to other wallet
but think to good for desktop application wallet could be more safe and powerfull for personal usage

Some exchanges provide you interest because they can work with the money or other users need it for margin trading.
I advise you to be careful if you find a wallet that gives you interest (mostly smaller wallet providers) or give it a try with just a few Bitcoins to start/test.

Web wallets are never safe and even if you install the 2fa security if the web wallet itself shut down then you can do nothing as you dont have control over the web wallet address, so it is always recommened to use desktop wallet and store the passphrase key or wallet.dat file in multi place so that you can recover it if any problem occurs.

run on secure linux :)

I use web-based wallets. You can use the site Blockchain.info. Generally, they do not recommend online wallets.
But since I do not have much BTC, I can take this risk. If I do have much BTC I would definitely use a hardware wallet.

A hardware wallet is the best and safest approach to a wallet for the best level of security.

However, if you also take actions to help prevent your PC from being compromised with malware, you should be safe running a normal wallet with an encryption password.

For me the best security as of now is authenticator (Google). I used it not only on my bitcoin wallets but also in my e-mails and different sites that supports it. You just need to keep your phone safely, don't let it steal from you or lost it. It is also important that your phone is secured so even it was lost accidentally no one can access it.

Im a huge fan of Ledger wallets  8)

https://www.ledgerwallet.com and very cheap for such security.

Ledger Nano 39 €