Bitcoin Forum

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet. Why are offline wallets the safest? What are your recommendations?

Offline wallet means if you're not need to connect your computer to the network if you're trying to checking your amount on your wallet. That means you can try to check them everytime with just clicking the icon on your dekstop. I will give you a recomendation to use hardware wallet and offline wallet. The hardware can be intergrated with offline wallet.

Offline wallets are something where the secret key is not shared with anyone (only if such wallet is generated in a safe environment and trusted source). The cheapest way to an offline wallet is to finding an old computer and generating a paper wallet through that machine (and that machine should never establish a connection to internet or devices such as a printer that connects to the internet). There are some other ways too but this is the one which I trust the most for the paper wallet.

AFAIK, there isn't much difference between the safety level of:
- a paper wallet
- a cold (offline) wallet
- a hardware wallet

the difference is in the price and usability.
- a paper wallet is allmost free (the cost of a piece of paper), but can only be used to collect unspent outputs. When you need the funds, you have to sweep the paper wallet and throw it away. It's also a bit tricky to make a paper wallet in the correct way

- a cold (offline) wallet costs a lot more, since you need an old PC that can never be connected to the internet as soon as you start using it to store your funds. However, if you set it up correctly, it's not that hard to use, and you can send and receive as much as you want, but you can also access the full feature set (like signing messages, creating raw transactions, broadcasting,...)

- a hardware wallet (trezor, ledger nano S,...) is actually pretty cheap, can be used to send and receive, can usually be used in different places,... It is my personal favorite. you are bound by some restrictions tough (for example, if you use the official ledger chrome plugin, it can not be used to sign messages)

Cold storage are the safest as long as you have the contol on your private keys, My bitcoins are now stored on an exchange wallet for 3months but it's not recommended to stored your funds on a wallet if you dont have the private keys

You might want to read the post's in this thread Which Hardware Wallet is The Best? 2017  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1910873.0) Feedback from that thread Trezor is a good wallet to store your Bitcoins but there are also people here saying that paper wallets are also a good option  to store and save your Bitcoin. Here's a link about paper wallets Paper Wallet Questions (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1628128.0). But if you ask me I'll go for Trezor

Actually online wallet and offline wallet are both safe, both have good security I think so as long as it can keep up well, bitcoin will remain safe. But it is true that many people who consider storing bitcoin in online wallet are very risky because it requires internet and the possibility to be hacked larger, so should be more careful if you want to store bitcoin in online wallet. And offline wallet are considered more secure because it does not require the internet so chances of being hacked are very small. I think that's what makes offline wallet safer than online wallet. But safe or not it depends on each of us in keeping the wallet.

I don't think you understand what an "offline wallet" means.  It doesn't mean that you don't need the Internet to send transactions - how do you think miners and nodes would find your transactions?

The difference is that an online wallet's "online" element is that in order to access your Bitcoin, you have to be connected to another person or organisation to spend your Bitcoin for you, instead of spending it yourself like in an "offline" wallet.

Therefore, an online wallet is only secure if:

-The organisation is heavily government regulated

-The organisation is public enough that it's difficult for them to run off

-It's extremely difficult for them to get hacked, because they hold most of their Bitcoin in cold storage

In most cases, it's not possible to verify that these conditions are all met, and it also contributes to centralisation to be giving a large company responsibility for your Bitcoin.  Therefore personal offline wallets are always the safest and best.

Having offline wallets are much safer than storing your Bitcoin in online wallets. Storing your Bitcoins or other currency in your own wallet means that you are in control of the currency you have. You will not worry about running with your coin. Not unless the wallet you are storing become corrupted.

Now, storing online can cause you less security with your money. In the sense that if you deposited that money in a company which is not legitimate, they can close anytime and run with your money. Or, you can be a victim of Phishing and they can take away you hard earned coin. But, legitimate online wallet are safe in keeping your Bitcoins as they offer multi level of security. Just need to have some time finding legitimate wallet to store your Coins. 

If you were to use an online wallet, it opens up another attack vector. Since your wallet can be access anywhere in the world, people can easily get your coins if there is a vulnerability in the web wallet or your password from leaked database. If they don't generate the cold wallet securely or keep it in a safe place, the probability of them losing it is substantially higher.

I don't see how anyone would want to use an online wallet at all.

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Offline wallet is secure because the environment that it has is airgapped from the outside world. It is impossible for a hacker to get your offline computer if you have done everything correctly, at least without physical access.

The best way for a beginner until to an intermediate user of bitcoin is the hardware wallet. They have the 2 factor authentication which is impossible to crack, for example the security card in the ledger hardware wallet which gives you 3 alphabets and numbers and below them the corresponding cryptography , i.e A with capital letters in reality is number 2, b with low letters is D with capital and so on. Only the user with the security card can send money from this wallet. It is important to set it up the first time in a Linux environment and then you can use it wherever you like, as long as you have the physical hardware wallet together with the security card.
This kind of cryptography was used by Julius Caesar in old times, when he sent a letter to some other person he started for example from the 4th letter of alphabet, i.e D was A so only he and the receiving person knew this kind of cryptography, the messenger did not, or if the messenger was attacked the attackers could not decipher the letter.

I store my bitcoins in my segate external hard drive , i have invested some of my bitcoins in different altcoins and thus i manage to get profit with them.

Hi!

I think the safest way to store Bitcoins is through cold storage or paper wallet because it never connects to the internet, thus, there is no chance it can get hacked unless they brute force your private key which is theoretically impossible. The reason for its advantage is that cold storage is technically creating a system that does not connect to the internet.

They are not safest, because they are vulnerable to physical stuff like theft, robbery etc.
Safest is to encrypt it on offline computer probably, because so few people can handle computer security at level which allows to keep bitcoin on online computer.

My safest way to store my Bitcoins is Electrum desktop wallet, as it is very easy to use and only passphrase is enough to keep it in safe as with this passphrase i can reload my wallet any time and any where. Web wallets are not safe as you are not in control of that wallet address.

I am using Electrum wallet since I joined the bitcoin community and I have not had any problem with it. It is one of the most secure desktop wallets they say and I think they are right on this. It gives you many addresses so you can use different addresses for different purposes and this ensures the user better privacy.

I don't have a hardware wallet so I cannot tell you how good or bad they are but people here say they are one of the best methods to store your bitcoins.

thank you, now I know how to store my bitcoin safely, I just lost 0.5btc yesterday.

Yep you heard right that is why many service providers use them to store their large amounts of Bitcoin.

because they are not connected to a network @mocacinno explained
choosing the right wallet comes down to how security conscious your are with your funds and i would recommend something easy to use for yourself and has been around for a long time like blockchain.info ,
then there are desktop and hardware wallets which will be the most preferred for the security conscious users the only downside is the time is takes to sync if you do not regularly use it.

Well i personally use Blockchain Wallet, and i must say that i am happy with how it works. For now i did not have any kind of problems, and i think they have good protection, maybe i am wrong, but even if i am i do not store too much of bitcoin in wallet. I have heard about offline wallets, but if i got it right they server to transfer bitcoin even without internet connection. There are some useful topic that talk about wallet security, maybe you can check them out.

I think Offline wallet or computer it's more secure you possible payment is received online, but all funds and private keys are still secured and stored on the computer offline.

You can start storing your bitcoins from an offline wallets like paper wallet and if you can afford hardware wallets like trezor then buy that bitcoin it is the best hardware wallet in the market and you don't need to worry about the virus and malware because trezor has a proof for that.

If you don't have how to download a offline desktop wallet, just split your funds among some online wallets and sites you usually use. It's impossible to have all the sites being scammed at same time and losing all the money at once. If you lose money in one site, you will still have more money in other sites. And choosing well where to store it you decrease the risks a lot by using trusted sites.

I think buy a hard disk / stick / or something and keep it to that

Offline wallets are safe from hacks but can easily be physically stolen by someone and if your system is compromised when you finally make the transaction then you are just as vulnerable as with a non-offline wallet.

My suggestion which is unpopular here is to use well known exchanges or online wallets with 2FA, as others have said you can easily split it across exchanges if you fear they might one day scam you.

Offline wallet will give you more security more than others online wallet. Online wallet always at risk and anytime gets attacked by the hackers or others essential issue are included this system so we're the user want safety that's why maximum ppl will advice you use off line wallet.

I would recommend a hardware wallet since it's the safest method for storing your bitcoin yet. You can find a decent one for around 50$ I believe, wich is quite cheap if you're planning to store multiple bitcoins on there. It's also offline so it's nearly impossible to get your bitcoin stolen.

For me the safest way to store your bitcoins is via a wallet address with a private key you control. I would recommend electrum for storing bitcoins long term and blockchain.info web wallet although your safety still depends on how you handle your private keys or username and password for blockchain. Any wallet with private key you can control is safe I think depending on how users use it may it be online or offline.

Yeah if you have huge amount of bitcoins then you can afford to spend some money for buying hardware wallet as no one will prefer to loose their hard earned coins and if you have hardware wallet then it will become impossible for hackers to hack your wallet and steal your coins.

A good video by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Bitcoin Q&A: Hot vs. cold wallets (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aji_E9sw0AE)
Check it out.

thanks, good advice...

When i get payed, i would definitely use cold storage. It is more safe than web wallets since online wallets are prone to stealing. We must be careful because we talk about money here. We dont knkw when hackers might slip and steal from us.

There is no offline wallet for crytocurrency you can use apps/software but its not update you if you don't give internet connection. I think you want to say apps/software but you can't use without internet for this reason its not offline wallet.there are so many wallets for pc and mobile I suggest you can use bitcoin core or armory wallet for pc and for mobile I use coinbase and blockchain.

Use offline wallet is more safe than use online wallet, Online wallet is only for easily to access your fund, the important thing is you have control over the private key, then it is safe, but you must be sure first that your computer is clean from viruses.

the safest way depend from your behaviours, mostly..
what's i mean?
i meah you shoul not store your bitcoin wallet.dat in a pc where you download and install kracked software... with the possibility to get a virus inside,,,
i meah you shoul not store your bitcoin wallet.dat in a pc where you read email and you click over link of videos, jpg's and other Dangerous software....
i meah you shoul not store your bitcoin wallet.dat in a pc where you don't update you OS and without a decent Antivirus installed..

You can use paper wallets or device like ledger. They are offline wallet. These will help you store your bitcoin. I recommend these for huge amount of bitcoin. If the amount you want to store is just small amount. I think wallet like electrum and mycellium is better for you. They're easy to use and secured. But its not fool proof tho. You could still lose your btc if you're not careful. Make sure your pc is well protected.

You can protect your coins in an online wallet as long as you have the knowlege how to make it secure. Putting your huge amount of money is not advisable in exchange or trading sites because the possibility of scam activities.
I am favor in an offline wallet, just use an old PC which is clean from malwares/viruses and you don't connect on internet anymore.

You can make some offline wallets (using vanitygen without internet connection) and split all the bits there...

no matter what you do, it is not safe to store your coins in any online wallets, even if you have 1000 layer of security on your account, you can't do anything if the service shuts down right? so it is still better to store your bitcoins to a wallet that you are the only one having full control over it

Paperwallet (real paper) is the best and safest way to store your bitcoins.

I think cold stroge  and paper wallet is the best to stor bitcoin. It use without internet. So no feir to hake your bitcoin.it technical support is very good.

hardware wallet

Thanks for very useful info. I start thinking of making offline wallet or even buying trezor...

Coldstorage (paperwallet, hardware wallet)  is always the better option regarding security. However I today saw on steemit that making a transaction on a trezor wallet had a very high fee so I'm not sure what's going on there.

I have a wallet trezor for me is the best way to save my bitcoin

Offline wallet, and don't forget to backup the keys.

No Arguments off line wallet are the safest wallets. this is because the system that holds them are more closer to you. When you keep your wallet information offline your worries reduce down to just two things
1.) The security of the pepper, hard drive or were ever you keep the wallet information off line which depend totally on ( you are in control)
2.) The security of bitcoin itself (block chain) which if you don't trust in first place we should not be talking about this because you would not have consider putting your money there.
  On the other hand having an online wallet on exchanges or were ever adds at least two more worries.
 1.)your network node (computer, smart phone etc ..) can be hacked since it is connected to the internet. recent ransomeware attacks shows how nodes can be hacked
 2.) The exchange site you are storing your wallet on can be hacked for example bitfonix was hacked and many btc wallets were lost
 
 if you leave your wallet at a bitcoin exchange technically speaking it does not belongs to you

I think hardware wallet is the safest way to store your coins. Check https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-nano-s and https://trezor.io. I use the first one and absolutely in love with it.

Thank you good info friend

Hopefully i can apply it
😁😁😁

I am using Desktop Wallet Electrum which is very good and strong only passphrass is enough to store the wallet and when ever you want you can restore the wallet using this passphrase only. Only you have to check that the computer which you are using should not be affected by any virus

The safest way to store the bitcoins are Cold wallets,  store the coins in the cold wallets and dont ever connect to internet until you use it again.

Offline bitcon storage is the best because if someone does rob your house they not looking for your bitcoins they looking for your TV or phone PC and jewelry. Online stuff is safe for offline storage. It's online storage you must look out for. When you transferring Bitcoin and using private​ keys make sure you safe on a safe network and sufficient protection. Esspecially if you don't leave a trace it should work well and be very safe. Offline is also generally for long-term storage because of this.

Guys in earlier posts are right. My 2 cents - never keep crypto on an exchanges

This is so true, there are some ways to secure your wallet with bitcoin but this is the right choice if you want secured wallet, but only if you are storing huge amount of btc, if you onpy have sone penny  then I guess storing it on  desktop wallet are much better,  store in web wallets are okay, just dont use any exchange to store your btc, even if you balance on it, if you can send it then send to your wallet.

In storing bitcoin for safe keeping it is the best to keep it free off internet connection hence the offline wallet is the best option, This will not be accessed by anyone wishing to force and take your bitcoin

My safest way of storing the bitcoins is desktop wallet Electrum, as it is very easy to use and very light weight and just passphrase needed to rebuild the wallet.

Offline wallet are good too but when your about to send you need to connect it from internet i suggest too not to use any phones wallets how if you lose your phone mostly of people we put all important things via phones how if its lost? Also the safest one to use is desktop wallet or the wallet that has cold wallet.

I would suggest electrum. Electrum is a great wallet that is highly versatile and secure. It offers cold storage and refund abilities. I use it and I will definitely recommend it to you.

Isn't it kind of risky to hold, let's say, $1,000,000 USD in BTC on an piece of paper? I think I would rather risk getting key logged by a hacker, or company giving up my private keys.

You can store bitcoins safely in many wasy.
Some of them im mentioning below.

1- On a USB Drive or other data storage Medium

2- On a paper wallet

3- On a bearer item such as physical bitcoin wallet

4- Bitcoin Hardware Wallet

      Many more other ways may be there to store bitcoin safely. But i knew these four.
Else you can safely invest your bitcoins in altcoins.

Offline wallet are the safe way to store bitcoin because nobody know than your ownself.