Bitcoin Forum

All the topics I read about "how or where to save and keep bitcoins" suggest that stay away from online wallets.
They give two main reasons to avoid the online wallets.

1. Any wallets can turn in to scam anytime. That happened in name gained wallets too in past.
2. Hackers may steal your BTC.

Well, lets ignore all the online wallets and consider blockchain.info

Bitcoin born with this where we can have our own wallet.
Is not this safe enough to save / keep our BTC for long term?

What if our hardware wallets get defected.. or broken or happen something like that? but if our wallet is online then we need to remember only our password.
We can access from anywhere and anytime.
Hassle free.

Paper wallet can be burnt.. can be a meal for paper mites... or we need a bank locker to keep in..

Explain please..

Among web wallets Blockchain is buggy, but in terms of security they are good, access to private keys, 2FA, passphrase, advanced options. Compared to online wallets that are prone to hacks and having no absolute control over your funds, paper and hardware wallets are always way too better, almost unhackable.

Paper and hardware wallets are means of cold storage. If you have a good number of bitcoins and don't spend them regularly then they are the best. If you have a good number of bitcoins and spend them regularly then keep a small amount in hot wallets, be it Blockchain, Electrum, android wallets like Breadwallet or Mycelium and store the large amount in paper or hardware wallets.

Paper or hardware wallets getting lost/damaged/burnt is as possible as your online wallet getting hacked, wallet service turning scam, DDosed and going offline, messing up with password or recovery phrase, account getting banned or locked with funds.

Hassle free sometimes proves costly.

Any wallet you have you will want the private key to. If you don't then coins inside the wallet is not yours. Blockchain.info is relatively safe I see no reason to ever be worried bit still having the private key is always better.

What you really want is the private key that has your wallet, the paper wallet usually is a document that stores that information and the private keys can be used to easily import the Bitcoin to another wallet.

Sure hardware wallets can break or become defected, but both Ledgerwallets and trezor have good quailty hardware wallets that will only break if you do something stupid. Just keep it in a safe place and when you need to make a transaction, carefully take it out and make the transaction before returning it to where you keep it. You don't need to always have the hardware wallet on you.

Would totally recommend getting a hardware wallet, way more secure than online wallets.

there are a lot of what ifs, and if you just sit around and think about them all day you won't get anywhere. just think about a way to avoid them.
like saying "paper wallet can be burnt", how many times the documents at your home have been burnt? you see it is not a common thing at all. besides if you are too worried then make a backup from your paper or hardware wallet or anything else. and then keep that backup some place else.
for example if you are holding a considerable amount of bitcoin you can simply put it in a safety deposit box in a bank.

I think this is just a simple problem. Which issue is more secure is how our needs are against BTC. If we have a lot of BTC, we can save it by dividing some BTC into Bank, and some we keep in online wallet. The problem is safe or not, that's our risk as a user of BTC.

Hardware wallet is best.

Why?

You can use it to do transactions so better than paper in that regard. And you have you seed from which that wallet kan be restored, so jast keep that seed on paper locked away oder encrypt it with password you keep in your head ;)

Comes at a cost though.

Generating keys offline is always safer but not always as practical.
Although Blockchain.info is safe, it's far from 100% secure.
My advice would be to have both. Keep your HODL coins in cold storage (paper/hardware wallet) and the coins you want to move around on an online wallet (where you have control of the peivate keys) - (Not to be confused with an exchange wallet).

Of course, if you know, paper wallets and hardware wallets are cold storage and they are mostly offline and that makes them more secure and better than blockchain.info wallet because you don't need to stay online or store your data online because they are mostly offline and they can be just be online if you will deposit or withdraw a coin.

I think that in some way they are all the same. I mean there is possibility for them all to be stolen or hacked, i do not think that any of them are safe. With wallet in your pocket, well before pay cards you needed to have it, this day all you need is card. And bank accounts are same as bitcoin wallets, it can be hacked and your money can be stolen. Difference is just that in bank you can get your money back, if proven that is was hacking (which is not so tough), and i am not sure how does it go with bitcoins. Therefor, be careful no matter how good wallet you have.

I would rather choose up hardware wallet than on paper wallets speaking of security.Im not against on blockchain.info wallet usage since this is my first web wallet and until now it still serves me well without any problems as long you do have the phrases or keys. You bitcoin would really be on the safe side as long its not being compromised but when we are already speaking about huge amounts of bitcoin I would not tend to put it on online wallet and its better to choose up hardware.Its your responsibility to keep important informations of that wallet.

simple. even if blockchain.info itself is secure, access to your coins is only as secure as the machine you're using to access it. no one can guarantee that so it's best avoided.

I use Coinomi mobile wallet, i recommend it to everyone ^^

You are not ignoring online wallets, when you still use Blockchain.info, because it is a online wallet.  ::)


The hardware wallet comes with a seed and you just use your seed to regenerate your old hardware wallet. {export the

coins and move the coins to the new hardware wallet.}

The online wallets {most of them} have access to your private key, so they own your coins. { Blockchain.ino does not }

Even though i use blockchain i really dont feel 100% secure with them , I have always preferred hardware wallets, they are very secure and in the event of it getting stolen, thieves will have to deal with the password that is then protecting your device.

Same as you, I use blockchain wallet, I feel too secure with this wallet, as it's the first wallet and high recommended when we talk about web wallets.
In few months before, I was use xapo wallet, but i quit them after they start to increase highly there bitcoin transactions fees compared with other wallet, and the most problem is that you can't control your fees. you can't set the fees as you want.

Having both is not a bad idea, it will lessen the risk of losing and if something happens in one only half will be affected, but it will be hassle for someone who doesn't have much time.

For paper wallets, it's best that you also save a copy in another location, possibly a bank vault or something like that.
Also, you'd better laminate that paper wallet, it will last much longer and, that solves the paper mites issue, I think.

You also don't have to use paper as a medium, you can make a 'paper' wallet out of different kinds of materials.

But coinomi is an online wallet and its a multi signature wallet. I already tried this one and its good.
But of course I prefer storing my coins to hardware or paper wallet as I feel safe when I use this and I think if you handle it properly nothing will happen to it. Our wallet is our own liability.