Bitcoin Forum

Would developing your own Bitcoin Wallet be safer than using known ones like Electrum? It would obviously be much simpler, with no GUI, worse overall security but no one could get their hands on its source code. I have enough programming experience myself to make it but I'm wondering if it even makes sense to do so.
 Thank for your help!

I wouldn't say it's particularly necessary, since some wallets offer a lot of features anyway and are quite secure.  You could even just buy a hardware wallet like TREZOR which is nearly completely safe and would still take a lot less work than developing your own wallet, especially if you needed some of the features that major wallets have.

It doesn't necessary.

Having a program open sourced does not necessarily mean that the program would be more vulnerable. Known wallets are open sourced to allow the user to review it themselves and search for any bugs. A zero day exploit is not all that likely.

Developing your own wallet can in fact be very dangerous to your Bitcoin. You must understand the ins and outs of the entire Bitcoin protocol, down to the byte level. Screw something up, and you could lose all of your Bitcoin or be vulnerable to an attack. If your wallet is closed source, then you won't get any review from experts who can tell you whether there are serious bugs in your code. Furthermore, security through obscurity both doesn't matter here and is rarely any security at all.

I have to agree. Although i prefer to lose money, because i made a mistake rather then lose it because somebody made a mistake. In this case it would be an unnecessary risk. If you have the skills to make your own one, then you should be able to check the code of a wallet you would like to use. In crypto OSS is preferred since everybody can check and not the system/software is keeping your data safe, but your keys. 

What are you thinking of developing?

I agree with achow. Really, think about it, if u miss even a minor detail, then u are screwed up. Small errors like casting errors (may turn 1.7 btc to 1 btc) and other stuff can pretty much impact your software in a huge way. I think most major wallets are secure on their own. You will be safe with them as long as u use them with security in mind.

Would you give your fiat currency wallet to someone else to look after, or would you keep it in your pocket. I guess if you are the sort of person who keeps losing things, then maybe you should get someone else to look after it. :)

Correct. Private key must be saved and shouldn't be known by others, hence your bitcoin would be secured. Don't make an online copy of your private key, always save it to your note or write it down. Thus, no one can access your account but only yourselves. Keep in mind that if your copy get lost, you can't recover it and that's the risk on using paper wallet.

Do it and, if your wallet is better than other wallets, you will can share it.  8)

One of the most important and tricky parts of developing your own wallet would be the PRNG.  There have been a number of cases where the PRNG had problems and people lost bitcoins, so while developing your own wallet would no doubt be interesting, it is a minefield.

It's a fun project, been working on my own for fun... Definitely not safer.

I choose not to create and develop my own wallet, because if there are problems that can't be repaired, then I would lose total existing bitcoin. Private/public key is enough for wallet security. But I'm optimistic wallet technology continues to evolve, I expect wallet has three different keys such as private key, transactions key, and backup key. This will provide a layered security levels, more robust than using 2FA features.

A wallet that has been around for a couple of years, a couple of developers working on it and more people contributing to the code and checking it for bugs,... and thousands of users using it and reporting any possible bugs and helping the development.

Versus

A wallet that you build, only you code, you test, you secure. All alone.

---

P.S. If you are worried about these stuff there are other ways of "generating a private key" without using any of the wallets, or without a computer even. Check out how to get a random number offline using dice.
Here is an article about it: http://www.swansontec.com/bitcoin-dice.html

I have developed mine for a while, can't say it's safer, but I learn a few things.

it is worthwhile! Really, don't get discouraged.
You learn alot about "how the system works". There is a testnet, that you can play with, so don't even need to fear loosing money while in early stage of dev.
You never know where you end up. Maybe one day you're in, and we have a new core dev :-)

Hint1: you can't make money with wallets

Question: what do you intend to do, and what language? I think this was not answered ...

encouraging you, rgds,
Volker

Electrum is very safe, you don't need to develop a new wallet in my opinion  :-\

He said that he has enough experience to develope his own Wallet software.
Well to my mind despite the fact that electrum is open source project, that doesn't make any fear fact because think about online wallet websites, ehat do you think, are they using their own developed software? Maybe 1-2 will use, maybe, but as I know and also my local bank is using already created and mostly used, public software.

I know a few developers who built from scratch a node to learn how the network operates.
Those days there are great open-source projects in many languages you could use as a node, no reason to develop your own (the same goes to every piece of code)

The chance you will create a security flaw is pretty high considering the complexity of today's nodes.

I doubt very much that developing your own wallet would be a god idea, unless you are a serious developer with great skills.  However i reckon that if you were a great developer you would be doing it already and wouldnt be on bitcoin talk asking if it was a good idea.

The established wallets have been around for years and have been thoroughly tested and reviewed which means they are secure.  i know i would rather trust them over my own abilities to create a wallet.

Bitcoin wallets like Electrum are being developed as open source. More than one programmer is bug-fixing.

The software you are developing on your own may contain some bugs. Your app must pass through a good testing process.

Especially work as a team on a project like bitcoin will be more accurate.

I don't here any one on here telling us what is the best wallet provider to use so let me ask what is the best option for third party wallet?

First off, you'll need to have full access to your server, because you need to be running a Bitcoin-node (constantly) connected to the Bitcoin Network. So a simple shared server won't cut it. You could connect to your remote Bitcoin-node. But in that case, you still need a server to run that node.
The programmer's way:

1. Install and run a Bitcoin-node on your server. HOW
2. Learn how to use JsonRPC in your preferred programming language.
3. Use the API to program your own virtual wallet.
(basically how all online wallets more or less function)

The lazy programmer's way
1. Install and run a Bitcoin-node on your server.
2. Use a third-party DIY self-hosted wallet, like Coinpunk
(Note: as indicated on the website, such projects are still very beta. Careful.)

If you code EVERYTHING yourself it will be, BUT if you use some libraries, methods, etc which are not written by you it will be more vulnerable  ;)

Good point stated, as a matter of fact it will be more safer if you yourself create your own wallet if only you have the skills and the knowledge in doing such. But if you really dont have any idea about coding and the likes you should seek for the trsuted on.

I prefer to save the wallet in a virtual machine and protect the wallet file with a zip password ;)

Developing your own wallet is a great idea specially if there is not much competition in your country. You could buy and sell bitcoins to your currency in a low price.

Just read up on how many "secure" schemes developed by those with insufficient knowledge of security failed catastrophically.

I suggest just taking an open source wallet already known for being secure and auditing it to be sure.

Basically a duplicate thread to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1751382.0

Since the boom of cryptocurrency there has only been about four software's made that were half-way worthy of public use, and they were all for LTC and BTC.. Out of those they all have sketchy development at best. Core has people fighting and leaving and very little auditing; that's the best..

Stuff in the realm of alt-coin is mostly just low-ball investor guys paying the lowest bidder to modify source then doing cheesy marketing campaigns. It's typically just pre-mine schemes on top of all that..

Contract a math grad student and hire a competition-programmer unless you know what a buffer overflow looks like in a disassembly and took a differential-equation exam at some point in your life. Else you're just another person trying to capitalize off a problem..

You would be very foolish to try to develop your own wallet, without having extreme knowledge of the blockchain,programming, and encryption.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the electrum wallet. Learning to use a wallet is very important as well, or you can be subject to attack, even with a good wallet.

Is developing your own Wallet safer?
I dont think so

Anyways, the biggest threat is still Malware. Your own Wallet or a public one, if ur Systen is infected u are in big trouble.

Being Safe in the Bitcoin World -- > Use a Live System (USB,DVD) and do ur stuff there.

Writing everything yourself alone is very hard and when we talk here about bitcoin wallet. I already said here that electrum, bitcoin core and etc some very known wallets are safe bacuse they are developed from many people. Also you both said that it's better to build yourself without any help of already written codes. You are wrong, putting that useful codes for creating wallets are perfect, there is high risk that yout written will be full of bugs.

The first thing most programmers do usually before they contemplate in coding anything, is, find out if anyone has solved the problem they want to solve. In this case the answer is yes. There are more than a handful of wallets that are secure.

I don't see a need to code your own wallet, unless you want to do it as a project for the learning experience. The electrum wallet is a great lite wallet, and there are others.

so why would you do it if it would be a worse UX with worse security.... just to have your own source code?  for what? I don't understand. unless security and safety are 2 different things to you.

I wouldn't suggest you to do that. I can't say that there is absollutely no sense in that, if you are a good programmer you can make it very simple and useful. The question is: does it worth that? I mean, it is a huge risk, even though you have skills you must remember that there are other programmers 
who have skills and they seek for vulnerable systems. So, I think it is better to use not as much convenient wallets, as you wished it to be, but at least know that your money is safe.

would be great to have some page in internet, where people can find only time-tested tools for decentralized networks.

Developing your own wallet is not a bad idea until you are not strong on the security side if not anyone can hack your wallet and steal your coins. So it is upto you that how much good you are developing your wallet

like where how to inflate itself?
I want to really but there must be a friend let me not seemed to work themselves and can exchange opinions, respectively.

I'm more positive about it. It can be a great learning opportunity. You will definitely learn a lot about bitcoin and blockchain technology in general. And obviously, you will learn so much about digital signatures and security in general. You can then use this knowledge in other projects. Not only blockchain-oriented ones. However, it wouldn't be wise to make your wallet publicly available. Even wallets, that have been developed by many programmers for years get hacked. Yours will be hacked at best in a matter of weeks. As long as you don't publish it and operate it at your own risk (therefore store in it only as much as you are willing to loose in case of unexpected behavior of software), it can be a really good learning experience. Good luck :).

Well I won't recommend that because it might happen that the wallet you design  may be perfect from your side but it makes ghr have some hidden issues like incorrect hashing..that cause you serious pain in brain ....incorrect hashing may lead to transCtion malleability....well if you reeLly wNt to keep you btc safe then you can use for ne wallets like trezors

I agree with achow since there are some script for output and input if someone knows about your wallet and they can not access it
they can do something about requesting script or something that they can inject a code in your site or wallet that can send your bitcoin from his bitcoin address..  So i think it is not safe unless if you have a knowledge like behind the code or  punnycode js or any good script just to hide access to your main account.
Not good idea your vps will not stay for a long time unless if you have lots of money to pay for yearly and its still needs backup your wallet.. better to use common wallet in your pc.. and make a backup in your drive D.

choose to collect the results that have been sourced from the open program vulnerable. wallet also known open source to enable users to review his own.

If I had skill I would develop my wallet to be more easy to use, rather than secure... but actually also to figure out a way to do something with my coins if I lose it. Self-thinking wallet.

I think is very difficult, electrum become famous wallet for easy and believe, not only that electrum also have licenses good for programming. if the OP wants to create a wallet without a GUI then OP should also have the same licenses as programmers electrum.

Just a heads up: VM doesn't add security to your wallet. If I execute on that host I still have your wallet, and if I get on the host of the VM I have your VHD..

Hardware wallet or watch-only on things with networking or don't bother..

Virtual Machine (VM) != Virtual Private Server (VPS)

And not none of these are better, you are still using a hot wallet no matter if you move it to drive D or VM or a VPS. Just use cold storage and be done with it instead of making it too complicated for yourself.

Cold storage is useful just for storage. For normal use it's better to have a desktop wallet at least, or a mobile wallet.

I would NEVER trust a VPS though. Anything that stays online can disappear. You need to back up your private key(s) no matter where you store the addresses..

Yeah...Virtual Machine (VM) != Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Great post.
If you have enough programming skills, it might make sense to do so.
Moreover, there is no harm inh trying.
Just give it a shot.
Regards.

Even if you know programming, it is going to take you many man hours to code one since you don't just have to plan on how to code it and program it. You also need lots of time to test it out for any potential bugs and solve them. Just my 2 cents worth, use an existing wallet. There are many wallets out there which are packed with features, safe and free of charge most importantly.

Helllo Sir ..


I want to create a own coin company .. Then you tell me.. How much help me about this.

You would have to consider lots of details you are probably not aware of now.
There might be some security advantages by not having the code opened to everyone (security by obscurity), but on the other hand, as soon as you have open ports, there may be other kinds of attacks on your client that make it even more vulnerable than the proven standard clients, such as memory leak attacks. And furthermore, you can see from the protocol that your client will behave slightly different than the normal one. So an attacker may detect this and focus even more on attacking your client, so it might evoke even more attention than if you just go with the masses and use a standard client.

Vps isn't too expensive for yearly and everyone could really afford it when we talk about yearly payments it would be also a good way on storing and for Op making wallet would be possible but making a standard one isn't really appealing on the public and for sure they will use most used wallets than yours so it would be useless unless if you just use it for yourself then it would be fine.

How can I have my own wallet as well? lol but the function is the function and the code is the code, you set a fee and an amount to send with address plus private key then you send but have you thought about how to send out or receive if you don't have a full node?

I want to know how could I have my wallet not of my own code but just electrum only connecting it directly to my full node and maybe I could even access my funds on full node wallet while I'm at home and Core running 45 miles away?
Or am I asking too much here? or maybe I need to put a few lilne of codes/ commands in Core wallet and set the Core IP as server in electrum?

Not exactly. The cryptography part (generating a true random number, getting the public key and signing transactions correctly and without messing up) is the hardest part.
There have been enough incidents leading to losses because of poor implementation of what seems to be easy.

That, my friend, is the easiest part! it is a simple code making an specific kind of message and sending it to other nodes. I say it is easy because I have done it and I am not even good at coding or Bitcoin!

Google JSON-RPC+bitcoin

Thanks For Information.  But I think its not necessary For Us.. At This Time Bitcoin Wallet account is save now for Use We don't Need to create slimier Bitcoin Wallet. If we Need for other thing then we Contact With You.


Thank For your help.

Here is how you make a hack proof wallet with current tech: Android: TEE wallet query interface with lockout or timeout, IOS: TEE wallet query interface with lockout or timeout, Intel x86: SGX, AMD x86: TEE wallet query interface with lockout or timeout. AES or EC signing on all. Don't have memory corruption(hand written assembly since it's so small)

Future vulnerability: Bypassing signing in isolation loader with silicon manipulation. This is what game consoles and Apple do and except where they have memory corruption it doesn't get hacked.

You said it yourself. Worse overall security. Most people nowadays who use a local desktop client will use a customised directory to store their wallet file. A virus capable of searching through the contents of files will easily be able to sift through your private keys, if stored in plaintext.

What I would say is to simply buy a hardware wallet, but if you're really dedicated, fork electrum and try your best to obfuscate the code. It'll make it harder for malware to get through that, but it still wouldn't be 100% secure.

Hi!

Considering that you have a fair experience of being a program developer, I think it would be ideal to develop your own wallet because you will be in control of your money in terms of transactions, safety and security. However, it is hard in the sense that you would have to solely deal with its disadvantages as well. It is common knowledge that everything is possible in the digital world which means your account is still reachable worldwide amidst the tough security you have put your money in. Well, there are pros and cons. You just have to weigh things accordingly and align it with your expectations. 

Exactly this, as with the recent outbreak it seems obvious people take advantage of any exploit, finding it on your own is extremely difficult.

I would have to say no, as implementing a crypto wallet can be tricky and one small mistake and the private keys could be stolen or worse become unrecoverable.

You said it yourself. Worse overall security. A virus capable will easily be able to sift through your private keys if it is stored in plaintext. In general, I doubt the wallet would be 100% secure.

Absolutely not. Security by obscurity is the lowest form of security and results in compromise *very* quickly.

I'd point you to the wikipedia article on Kerckhoffs's principle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerckhoffs%27s_principle)

Probably a cool project to learn about Bitcoin but not a good idea to store BTC in the longterm.