Bitcoin Forum

Okay, so you see, I am all about breaking free from all the chains of all the governments and their banks that are watching our every move and every asset we own so they can tax the hell out of everything they can. But you see, if I put everything i have onto an offline wallet or in drive wallet and put it in a vault, or anywhere you guys can think of, what then would i do if something happens to that place where i stored my drive containing almost everything i have? What if a fire happens? A war? A natural disaster? That would mean i would lose everything i have! And the worse thing is, i can also not go putting money on online wallets because i just don't trust them.

I would like to see some thoughts. Thanks.

then think ahead and keep a backup! it really isn't as complicated as you may think.
most wallets these days are deterministic (HD) so they give you a master private key and that is the only thing you have to keep. you simply encrypt it with a strong password, print it on a piece of paper, laminate it and then put it in a bank's safety deposit box (yes banks are useful sometimes).

you can also encrypt it with a strong password and store it in the cloud. any of the services like google drive, dropbox,...
you'll save something like this:
this is AES256 encryption of an electrum seed available on the docs

and you just remember the password. and if it is strong, nobody can ever break it in a thousand years.

the password is this by the way:
;D

Finally!! Someone had the guts to ask this kind of question! Lol. I have had this thought running inside my head for quite some time back then. Just didn't bother to ask because was afraid of becoming a laughing stock for all the people here. haha but really, Kudos for your bravery man.
Sad thing is, you mever wouldve asked the same question if only you have just tried using an offline wallet yourself and tried to read the things that they actually offer to draw their customers in on their website. But good for you though, because you have saved tome by asking and i know a lot will answer. Congrats mate haha.

Wow, i never thought that was possible, let alone storing it on a cloud drive. And actually using a bank for storage. Plus that master key you are saying. How do i get that? I mean, even if my wallet got lost i can open it with a masterkey? And where do i find those options? Are they on the wallet?? And what is this thing called seed by the way?? Sorry for asking too much, I get easily excited, specially when i get to learn about something new. Thanks in advance.

The question has been asked by many people before and the answer is always the same. Make several copies of the paper wallets that you are going to store away for the long-term. < metal or laminated printed copies >

You do not have to hide this inside safe deposit boxes or somewhere inside your house. Dig a hole in a field and store it in a time capsule.

If you have to store it in your house, then dig a hole in your basement and fit a ground safe. There are countless methods to do this, just be creative. ^smile^

the master private key is usually a list of words like the example that i gave you above which is called Seed. you have to check the wallet you are using to see how you can get that. and to see if it is even possible.
but for example in Electrum you get it when you create your wallet for the first time, or you can get it from menu by clicking on "Wallet > Seed"
blockchain.info (which is not recommended) calls it "recovery phrase".
i believe hardware wallets also have this so you can back it up.

the master private key in deterministic wallets is what the wallet uses to generate all your private keys ever.

go here: https://iancoleman.github.io/bip39/ and play around with Generate button to see what things look like. you can click on the links named "... specs" to read the details.

Whooa, that's a great option but there must be multiple copies of backup on multiple platforms which should not be associated with each other.

P.S - I checked the security of your password (on howsecureismypassword.net) and it is too much high then your estimation.

It will hardly take 117 Quintillion years to crack that password, lolz.

what a quick and sensitive thought, although we don't always want to assume bad things but I think it is sometimes needed to put oneself in proper shape and safety ahead. I will also suggest that you print, laminate and keep in the safest place you could ever think of.

your thinking is very valuable. I am also thinking about that. All our data are stored in a server. Unfortunately, if happens any accident all data will be destroyed. You can store all your wallet info & privet key by printing on paper. The paper should be laminated after print.

In my opinion i think every walllet nowadays has got a private master key? So its probably safe enough in case some accidents just like you mention above happened, well if we think about it even banks got their database backups not only a vault full of cash and gold. So its best to get a backup too whether its database or a note in a piece of paper, and i think if we are serious enough to keep our hard earned money keep floating and moving, we will think about any possible chance before it lost forever  ;D ;D

How about this ? put all your money in the online wallet and backup all your accounts on notepad along the secret keys, then put them in a zip with a password, send it to your email. I hope this will help you ;)

OP, always have good, multiple and encrypted back ups, keep them in different places then you have nothing to worry about. But it is a pain if you need to update your back ups.

I also would not recommend using cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive. Always keep your back ups offline.

The answer is pretty simple. Electrum cold storage.

1. Put Electrum on an USB stick. Then copy the seed and the private keys to a sheet.
2. Repeat this process as many times as you want. You may put electrum on 3-4 different sticks and write seed and private keys on different sheets as well.
3. Memorize the seed in your mind.
4. Give the sheet with a seed on to a trusted person (if know one  :)) or put it in another place different than your house (maybe another house, or a car, you know it...)

If your house burns, you'll recover all your funds from the seed. Same for natural disasters. As long as you have the seed you can recover all your funds.

In my opinion the best you can do is to memorize your seed like a poem... repeat, repeat and repeat it every day until you will remember it easily. Everything could burn, be destroyed,or broke, except your brain...

just save it on the wallet online and save the password on the computer or save the password on your email.
do not worry about storing everything online because it will be safe from disaster, it is important you do not tell the password to others.

You can create as many copies as you want and store them in separate places - at  your house, in your backyard, somewhere in the woods, you can give it to some third party (just encrypt in with a strong password so they won't bruteforce it), you can even store it in a cloud. But my favorite method is just momorizing Electrum 12 word seed, so your brain will become your wallet. This can be a very strong backup, you just have to repeat the phrase each day to make sure you will not forget it.

I guess, a multiple online wallet could be one of the options, or maybe use the coin instead add for investments ;D

just simple.I'm suggesting you a simple method which i follow.Just download electrum wallet from its official website Electrum.org.Just after that,you choose a strong password for your wallet.A seed containing twelve words is generated.Just copy paste it or take a print out of it and keep it safely.In case you laptop gets damaged,you could just use this seed to recover your wallet.This is not at all a matter of serious concern as how you feel.

If you are speaking in Hypothetical terms,even bitcoin isn't safe then.Like what happens if there is a massive earthquake which kills all the mining operations and there is no electricity around the globe  for a few weeks,what happens to bitcoins then ? Purely illogical,purely hypothetical.
If something happens to your place you lose access to your bitcoins and there is no ifs and but's or an "interesting question".I'd think twice,consider all the conditions if I'm that insecure about where I store my coins.

Op would probably ask you what happens if the back-up wallet also sets itself on fire. :o

Why are you so afraid of taxes when your assets have a lot ... every good citizen will give taxes on their wealth ....

Then put it maybe to a brain wallet. There are many wallets, that allow to make a seed from private keys for example mycellium. They can be restored to wallets that support importing keys with private keys, I guess. But I dont know how secure that is.
About taxes: As soon as you cashout btc or buy sth with it you are in with taxes. Only to store btc and doing nothing never makes no sense for me.

You make copies of the wallet.dat and store it in multiple safe places (including renting a bank deposit box, if you have a lot of coins).

If we are good prepared, we wouldnt need miners in worst case. We only need to exchange wallets with fitting amounts.

Just one question if you do that how will you survive? Be realistic if suddenly you remove all your money, how will you explain them where it went. I would suggest use a wallet like electrum, let the place burn, country burn, go somewhere else and just get your coins, secondly paper wallet but if you store and it burns and you don't have your keys it's a waste. Treezor is one option but if you loose then what. I understand why you would like to so it, so I would suggest electrum that's the best wallet and easily use any where anytime irrespective of where you are.

if in my opinion better keep your money in bank safer. if you are afraid of taxable for what has a lot of money. as a good citizen you have to pay tax on wealth owned. not so friends?

OP just print many copies of your paper wallet so you can have more back up and don't store it in just one place and use vaults that are high quality and fire proof.
And use offline wallets and diversify your coins into different wallets so you can have more.

He is talking about his cryptocurrencies, not money. So the point is to store the private keys safely. People pay taxes on their income, not on money/wealth. So why unnecessarily drag in the 'good citizen' bit?

Taxes are meant to be paid about i would like to know exactly what these taxes are used for, they just take them like it's their money in the first place and give them to other countries whiles we have problems that really need solving in the country in the first place, we have no obligation towards other countries.

Diversify. Keep backups in all kinds of different forms. Never not make any. You can never have enough backups. CD, DVD,USB,HDD, External HDD and on paper in the safe. Also... And this isn't really something we want to talk about but give your family member a copy to keep at their house should you happen die the btc won't be wasted. Also if your house burns down you have an extra copy.

Don't put all eggs on one basket. Actually you can have a xapo.com account and store some on the vault, hardware wallets (trezor + ledger nano s), paper wallets and store 1 seed on your email service...

Not only one but I have a lot of questions about bitcoin. But the most interesting one is that what if a person invests all of his money in bitcoin and it disappears from the market tomorrow, and then what will he do? I think he will be mentally disturbed forever. Si I want the solution for this question. Because it is very important and everyone wants security for his life earning investment.

@Similificator
If you have the entire valuation in your hands then you must be responsible enough to make sure that you have more than enough back up to your assets and that you have facilitated them in a safe place,like a bank locker or something like that which can sustain these sort of natural disaster and these are the things you could do in order to safe guard your coins.

download Core as a offline wallet. if you store every bit of your bitcoin in there and some disaster happen you will recover it as it have a private key that you as the only one knew about it. you can print the private key in a sheet of paper and store it in a safety bank [Yes in the bank] others are using it for storing there treasures. or you can store in online I store mine in Google drive. it is not complicated as you think. very good question by the way ops. as my mentor said before " think evil so you can prevent it..."

Encrypt your wallet, back it up, rename it to something like HumanResourcesTraining.PPT and email it to yourself using various accounts like Gmail, Outlook.com and others.