Bitcoin Forum

Hi guys, new member, new to bitcoin. It looks like this hasnt been posted yet.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-08/bitcoin-site-hacked-founder-says/5078148

Any thoughts about generally speaking using online wallets is a bad idea for this reason?

Welcome!

There are plenty of threads about the hack already, don't know about that particular link. Thanks for it.

Indeed online wallets are a bad idea. Call me suspicious/paranoid, but I didn't really need this to happen, to think so. It's convenient to hold, say, 10 or 20€ worth of BTC for immediate online purchases, but not as storage of funds

i had an online wallet for some time but was too lazy to transfer out.. learning how to use electrum was fairly easy and now i feel much more secure. if you are too lazy to learn how to cold store your coins (like me), then you should be prepared to lose everything you have. i know that i am very uncomfortable with leaving my fate in someone else's hands.

damn son. not good :o

Never store your Bitcoin with a service(exchange, app, online wallet) that is run by someone who is completely anonymous, this should be obvious... imagine depositing money in a bank that was run in this way. Use trusted services run by legitimate business people who can be held accountable if something goes wrong.

It's very unfortunate for the people who will lose a lot of money but hopefully the story will serve to educate others and not just be used to make Bitcoin look less secure than it actually is...

So is blockchain.info a safe wallet for me thats what Ive been using

blockchain.info is an online wallet, so your fate is in their hands.

look up electrum or armory... it's not entirely difficult to figure out how those clients work. your coins are safe and secure if you use cold storage.

Hello, first post.

I fail to see the advantage of an online wallet. Isn't this against the base principles of bitcoins?
Bitcoins are designed to work without a centralized authority, yet people dump thousands of $$$ into a website.
People should be more careful with money in general. You would never give a complete stranger your money without any advantages in him keeping it for you.

Tulak

Welcome.

Indeed. Bitcoin is about de-centralization, pseudo-anonymity, operating with low trust, "being your own bank" and so on.

Folks sending all their BTC to online wallets lose that in exchange for "convenience". Why not sticking with fiat, CC or paypal then?

And that's the danger. People are getting lazy. I'd rather spend 2 minutes more per transaction than let someone else keep my bitcoins in HIS storage. I really hope this has a learning effect. But I doubt it.

I'm from Europe so use an exchange called Bips.me, the owner has done interviews online, his name is available, it seems to be a secure and legitimate company but still I keep only 1 Bitcoin in this online service just to donate small amounts to friends or Bitcoin related projects.

Any other Bitcoin I keep in paper wallets. If I'm not going to use the Bitcoin why leave it in someone else's possession.

Another analogy: It's like putting all your cash into the most secure bank vault ever built but then letting the Mexican cartel run the bank or someone who's really incompetent... one might steal the money the other might leave the vault door open.

Relevant: If you have a balance on Inputs.io that's more than a few bitcents, send an email to support@inputs.io with a local (preferably cold storage) Bitcoin address.