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Title: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: norgenorge on September 03, 2013, 12:00:41 AM Im currently running a business where i take payments in bitcoins. Luckily for me business is good for the time being. I would like to just keep my money in bitcoins, but now i feel like i need to consider the safety of my coins. What is the safest option for someone who is not a computer wiz?
Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: grue on September 03, 2013, 12:05:00 AM 1. save https://bitaddress.org/ to a usb stick
2. go to a secure workstation and disconnect it from internet 3. load up the saved webpage and print off a few paper wallets 4. stash your bitcoins in those paper wallets Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: ajw7989 on September 03, 2013, 12:06:18 AM I just have my bitcoins on multibit with a password on it. This gives a double security. I would avoid any of the online wallets because if the site goes down so does your wallet. Store in on your computer or a usb flash drive and your good to go
Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Dabs on September 03, 2013, 01:45:44 AM What grue said.
Although mine is modified to use the vanitygen address generator, and I make it spit out compressed keys. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: bbit on September 03, 2013, 03:17:25 AM 1. save https://bitaddress.org/ to a usb stick 2. go to a secure workstation and disconnect it from internet 3. load up the saved webpage and print off a few paper wallets 4. stash your bitcoins in those paper wallets this is a good idea ^^ Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Operatr on September 03, 2013, 09:22:51 AM Paper wallet is the best way to go, preferably in some durable format if you intend to store them long term.
I just have my bitcoins on multibit with a password on it. This gives a double security. I would avoid any of the online wallets because if the site goes down so does your wallet. Store in on your computer or a usb flash drive and your good to go Your coins are just as vulnerable on your PC or a USB stick as they are an online wallet. One drive crash or Bitcoin sniffing virus and you are SOL. An offline paper wallet (preferably stored in a real firesafe or off site) is the safest way to store Bitcoins. Best practice is to keep most of your stash offline until needed, and keeping some online as a hot fund for purchases. Keeping all of your coin hot is inviting problems. They can't steal from the blockchain itself, but they certainly can use security holes to wipe out wallet accounts. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83794.0) https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/ http://piper.pw/ Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: smoothie on September 03, 2013, 09:33:19 AM Depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
In your brain might be the best if you can remember a phrase. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: wopwop on September 03, 2013, 09:53:51 AM Deep inside your rectum
Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: frankenmint on September 03, 2013, 09:57:09 AM Deep inside your rectum ;D ;D ;D I opened the thread to type that! get your private key tattooed onto your inner lip (backwards so it can be read in a mirror) and your wallet address tatooed to your Palm ---- You'll never lose it again ever. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Dabs on September 03, 2013, 11:08:16 AM get your private key tattooed onto your inner lip (backwards so it can be read in a mirror) and your wallet address tatooed to your Palm ---- You'll never lose it again ever. What happens if your key got compromised and you need a new one? You'll have to remove the old tatoo first, or your could just tatoo another hidden body part.Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: LiteCoinGuy on September 03, 2013, 11:46:25 AM Deep inside your rectum thats the best idea i heard so far. very safe! Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: kik1977 on September 03, 2013, 01:05:55 PM 1. save https://bitaddress.org/ to a usb stick 2. go to a secure workstation and disconnect it from internet 3. load up the saved webpage and print off a few paper wallets 4. stash your bitcoins in those paper wallets this is a good idea ^^ +1, That's what I do.. plus on the usb stick I put a live version of Ubuntu Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Rassah on September 03, 2013, 06:22:54 PM Bitcoin Armory running on an offline computer, with a couple copies of backups printed and stashed in safe places. You can create a new bitcoin address for every new deposit you receive (thus not showing that you have a lot of coins), and you can still safely spend them when you need to without any exposure to hackers.
Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: davidgdg on September 03, 2013, 06:52:28 PM 1. save https://bitaddress.org/ to a usb stick 2. go to a secure workstation and disconnect it from internet 3. load up the saved webpage and print off a few paper wallets 4. stash your bitcoins in those paper wallets this is a good idea ^^ +1, That's what I do.. plus on the usb stick I put a live version of Ubuntu This is what I did, too. But it is a bit more technical than the original steps 1. to 4. Like the OP I am not a computer wiz. The additional step took me a couple of hours to sort out. You have to find out what Ubuntu is and what version to get, download it, get the computer to boot off it, work out how to run bitaddress.org via Ubuntu, and finally get the printer to work with Ubuntu. The last step was particularly frustrating (!!!). Definitely safer though if the OP has time and is not computer-phobic. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: davidgdg on September 03, 2013, 06:53:25 PM Deep inside your rectum thats the best idea i heard so far. very safe! Unless you are passing through a UK airport :( Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Valle on September 03, 2013, 09:39:52 PM This is what I did, too. But it is a bit more technical than the original steps 1. to 4. Like the OP I am not a computer wiz. The additional step took me a couple of hours to sort out. You have to find out what Ubuntu is and what version to get, download it, get the computer to boot off it, work out how to run bitaddress.org via Ubuntu, and finally get the printer to work with Ubuntu. The last step was particularly frustrating (!!!). Definitely safer though if the OP has time and is not computer-phobic. It can be done more easily and safer - take paper wallet for android and write down a generated key. Just make sure that device is not rooted to prevent external access to app memory. Oh, and the minikey could be tattooed faster and more easily than a QR ;-) Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: tclo on September 03, 2013, 11:22:04 PM I still say that encrypted software wallet like Multibit is better than paper wallet. Of course back it up...on the cloud, on multiple USB sticks or microSD cards, etc. As long as it is encrypted with something like PGP or True Crypt, you can name the container anythign you want and no one would know it's bitcoin and even if they found out, they couldn't do much because PGP has not been cracked.
Paper wallet can be found and seized and if it's not encrypted, then there go your BTC. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Rassah on September 03, 2013, 11:44:40 PM I still say that encrypted software wallet like Multibit is better than paper wallet. Of course back it up...on the cloud, on multiple USB sticks or microSD cards, etc. As long as it is encrypted with something like PGP or True Crypt, you can name the container anythign you want and no one would know it's bitcoin and even if they found out, they couldn't do much because PGP has not been cracked. Paper wallet can be found and seized and if it's not encrypted, then there go your BTC. But a keylogger or malware can steal your password when you decrypt it. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Valle on September 03, 2013, 11:46:43 PM The only keylogger possible on a not rooted phone is keyboard, so it is pretty safe to use default keyboard. And it is much easier to have offline small android than an offline PC/MAC.
Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Valle on September 03, 2013, 11:48:17 PM Oh, you are about an encrypted wallet. It's correct.
Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: silversurfer1958 on September 03, 2013, 11:48:35 PM Use a Brain Wallet.
https://bitaddress.org Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Rassah on September 04, 2013, 12:05:25 AM Use a Brain Wallet. https://bitaddress.org You can get hacked by Alzheimer's. Make sure to save paper backups still. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: Valle on September 04, 2013, 12:17:09 AM Use a Brain Wallet. https://bitaddress.org You can get hacked by Alzheimer's. Make sure to save paper backups still. You still have to remember where do you keep the backups ;D Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: teukon on September 04, 2013, 02:02:12 AM For me, memorising the private key was the only way to go.
The safest place for you will depend on your circumstances. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: teukon on September 04, 2013, 02:05:42 AM You can get hacked by Alzheimer's. Make sure to save paper backups still. One must weigh the probability of forgetting vital data against the probability of having your paper backup read by someone that knows what it means. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: viboracecata on September 04, 2013, 09:10:20 AM Encrypt your wallet, then burn your wallet into a CDROM, finally destroy your PC disk wallet completely.
And hold your CDROM carefully. Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: jantenner81 on September 04, 2013, 09:34:35 AM CIYAM safe - offline tx's using QR codes for comms
so there is no need to plug any USB device etc. So the hole process of signing transactions etc. works with QR codes ... see ref post... https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134833.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134833.0) Quote Another milestone towards CIYAM Open's 2013 mission has been achieved with the publication of the CIYAM Safe LiveOS on SUSE Studio: http://susestudio.com/a/kp8B3G/ciyam-safe Using the distro as the LiveOS and after installing ZBar on your online computer you can create addresses and sign transactions in a manner that does not require USB (other than the live distro itself) as long as both your online and offline computers have webcams. All source code is included - several various scripts and utilities are included from https://github.com/ciyam/safe and a slightly modified (just command line args not algo) version of "scrypt" from https://github.com/ciyam/scrypt. If anyone would like to help test this it would be greatly appreciated (please consider it to be a "beta" at this stage and only test with very small amounts of BTC). It should be noted that this is *not* trying to be an offline "wallet" in the same vein as Armory (although I guess it could be used for that purpose) and is not suitable for the technically non-savvy (you need to construct raw tx's) or for performing large numbers of tx's quickly. It's a bit more of a "nuts and bolts" type solution that was put together for the purpose of being able to create "paranoid" levels of security (as CIYAM Open intends to make sure its donations do not go anywhere apart from where they are meant to). It has been tested with real transactions and testing also included re-installing the LiveOS (i.e. as if you'd lost it). The documentation is serviceable but far from "great" and the whole package could certainly be improved with some polish (if others are interested in using this and would be prepared to donate some funds towards adding more functionality then I will consider opening a project for it on CIYAM Open for it). Of course others are welcome to copy this (or add QR comms to their own offline wallet projects). Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: WSDN on September 04, 2013, 04:35:15 PM The safest way to store your wallet i think is buy a server with a raid array for obtein redundancy from the disks and power redundant power supply look like this if you have more than 1 server so cool, you are having a cluster.
HP ProLiant DL580 G5 64-bit 4×Six-Core Xeon 2.4GHz + 32GB RAM + 16×73GB SAS RAID http://i.ebayimg.com/t/HP-ProLiant-DL580-G5-64-bit-4-Six-Core-Xeon-2-4GHz-32GB-RAM-16-73GB-SAS-RAID-/00/s/NTU1WDc0Mg==/z/7RcAAMXQd75SImka/$T2eC16F,!zoE9s5nc3tvBSImk,m9y!~~60_3.JPG http://i.ebayimg.com/t/HP-ProLiant-DL580-G5-64-bit-4-Six-Core-Xeon-2-4GHz-32GB-RAM-16-73GB-SAS-RAID-/00/s/NjY2WDY2Ng==/z/DH0AAMXQ7j1SImke/$T2eC16dHJIYFHOH0EUNYBSImkeCk+g~~60_3.JPG Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: qwk on September 04, 2013, 08:17:39 PM On an offline computer, create a split wallet 2 out of 3.
Keep one of the fragments at home for reference, and store the other two in separate bank vaults (here in Germany those cost less than 50 EUR per year). You probably won't get much safer than that. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149820.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149820.0) Title: Re: Safest place to store bitcoins? Post by: davidgdg on September 06, 2013, 08:27:18 AM For me, memorising the private key was the only way to go. The safest place for you will depend on your circumstances. Or maybe even better, use steganography. Take some random document (e.g. a mailshot). Use some part of it as your brain wallet passcode (maybe the third paragraph). Put the document in a bank vault. Then all you have to remember is "third paragraph". |
