Bitcoin Forum

Why do people not put their Bitcoins in Cold Storage? It's pretty sad when you hear people losing 5-10-20 Bitcoins because there online wallets got hacked. Please stop risking so much money to be stolen, if your new to Bitcoin or you don't know how to put your bitcoin(s) into cold storage I've put together 5 Steps To Place Bitcoins in Cold Storage (http://www.probitcoiner.com/5-steps-place-bitcoins-cold-storage/).

Does anyone have any thoughts on why people don't put them in cold storage?

It's a hassle.

Since smart phones got really big people are used to technology streamlining things and making everything work smoother.  THey expect technology to just work and require minimal intervention from themselves.

Cold storing your bitcoins may be smart but a lot of people just can't be bothered with the extra steps.  Also, to actually use the bitcoins you got to make them hot again so what's the point unless you're planning on spending them all in one go?

Volatility.  If the majority of BTC you hold is in cold storage and the price starts plummeting it takes a considerable amount of time to get your BTC out of cold storage and onto an exchange.  Price in USD could be down another 20% by the time you actually move your coins.

I understand the hassle but if your going to invest a large amount of money into Bitcoin people need to make these steps. A couple weeks ago there was a story on /r/bitcoin of a guy that had 30+ bitcoins stolen from a hot wallet, I don't know about you but almost $30,000 seems worth the hassle.

You have to ask yourself the question are you in for the short or long term. If your in for the short term best of luck I hope you make some money. If you choose long term put your bitcoins in cold storage, there is going to be crashes/bubbles just like there has been i think 8 now and if you keep selling at those lows your never going to win.

 f their computer is infected with trojans or keyloggers they can get your money off a paper wallet before you even send it or when you try retreave it.

This is why its best to use a computer that has never been online before.

Or use a linux boot CD. Wallets are only as safe as you are. Blockchain.info is very also safe as long as you remain so and take advantage of all their security features.

Cold storage wallets store private BTC keys offline but that's not something people wanna do.

People don't print paper wallet because it's still "difficult" to do.
It's not practical if you only want to trade on big swings and ATH as it takes time to move
And then you have the problem of the paper (now partially resolved with card made of aluminium?): where do you store safely your paper wallets?

I agree it seems like more people should use cold wallets. https://www.bitaddress.org (https://www.bitaddress.org)
Here's the link for more information: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=43496.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=43496.0)

Yeah this is what we suggest you use in our 5 step guide that is linked in the original post

it's something very unusual to put your btc in cold strorage but its so more safe

I agree it  :)

it is not reasonable to use cold storage. if bitcoin's value starts dropping fast you will need a lot of time to pull out your btc from the cold storage and sell them. you will lose a lot of $ while doing that and probably  you will get much lower price...

what does cold storage even mean?

“Cold storage” refers to keeping your bitcoins out of reach of the internet(hackers) and computers that could become potentially infected with malware or viruses.

Hassle and volatility.

cold storage = on a flash disk stored in a safe

you will win a lot of £ while doing that and probably  you will get much high price

I don't understand what your saying.

They don't put all their Bitcoins in Cold storage for the same reason you don;t put all you money in a safe deposit box.  If you want to have access to it so you can use it, it only make sense that you would keep it out of cold storage.

This guy was either a spambot or posting jibberish and has now been banned. Just ignore his posts because they're nonsense.

What I should say is, you don't need to put all of your bitcoins into cold storage. You can keep the coins that you want to use in a hot wallet. If you own 10+ bitcoins do you need them all out to use?

This sounds a lot better than printing to paper. What if paper quality degrades and you won't be able to scan the QR...

What if the USB breaks or becomes corrupted and you lose it?

Then just like paper the whole cold storage talk is not secure as well as hot storage if one can't secure the online wallet well enough.

Also remember to have a copy on another continent in case of major asteroid strike.

I hide mine in Justin Bieber MP3s so 50 million pre-teens back them up for me on the 'rents Dell. ;)