Bitcoin Forum

Often, when telling people about Bitcoin, the questions arises: OK I wanna get into this and start acquiring some bitcoins. Where or how do I start?

Here in Europe it's relatively easy to acquire bitcoins without having to deal with exchanges etc. People can literally buy them using online banking (what everybody uses here) in a minute. But they need an address, hence some wallet of some sort.

My 3 suggestions so far:

• Download and install MultiBit
• Setup a blockchain.info/wallet account
• Generate a brain wallet

Each has its pros and cons, but I'm curious to what other experts think in terms of advising newcomers. What would you recommend to, let's say, your (grand)parents?

Note that it's just something to start with. I do mention they can always switch to a safer, more versatile & advanced alternative later on, if more money becomes involved or if they want more functionality or safety.

I would go for Multibit and/or Electrum...
Pleanty of features & very reliable

Multibit or Electrum would be my recommendation. The Blockchain.info wallet keeps you reliant on a website, and brain wallets are very dangerous for novice users (pick a passphrase that is in some dictionary that is being monitored by attackers and your coins are gone almost immediately).

Plus, with Electrum, if you take the time to get into it, you will discover some nice features.
One of them for example, is the possibility to have a mirror wallet: you can have a cold storage wallet on an offline pc; install Electrum on a general network-connected pc; and still be able to see your offline stash. This newly created wallet will only have read rights, no spending is possible.

I have used Electrum for six months - thoroughly recommended - multi-platform - no need to download the blockchain - brain wallet

It depends on their personal needs. A lot of people swear to never keep money (or not much of it) online, but Blockchain.info is pretty sound as long as you take advantage of all its security features (2 factor auth second password etc). Most wallets are only as safe as you are at the end of the day.

Still; I like my Bitcoins in my own hands, regardless of ease of use / possible security of a 3rd party.

It's considered secured until it's target of an attack, I agree with above, I like to have as much control as I can with my money and if I don't I usually want to get a premium on "lending"

Paper wallet for the money you'd keep in a safebox in a bank.

Electrum or multibit for the money you'd keep at home in a safe.

Blockchain.info/wallet for the money you'd put in your shorts to go to the beach.

I like this method of thinking.

Agreed, this is a nice way of putting it :)

OP question is a great one because I believe it keeps many people from investing in Bitcoins:  People are very intimidated by the complexity of wallets.

Yep, great summary.

Yeah, but I'd just keep all my savings on a password protected paper wallet with several back ups and skip out the wallet client.

Its a trade-off. The more secure you make your "scheme", the harder it is to do. The easy option is just using a web-based wallet and hoping when you wake up the coins are still there ;)

You can spend but you have to sign the transaction from your offline PC which has the seed.

To make a transaction do the following:

[Online PC] Go to the send tab and make a transaction. Instead of sending it, Electrum will detect a seedless wallet and query for a location to save the transaction. Select your USB-Key.
[Offline PC] Go to Settings -> Import/Export -> "Load raw transaction". Select your transaction from the USB-Key. It will detect it's not signed and will prompt you to do so now. Fill in your password and sign the transaction. Save the new, signed, transaction to your USB-Key.
[Online PC] Go to Settings -> Import/Export -> "Load raw transaction". Select the signed transaction and it will ask you if you want to broadcast it.

http://electrum.org/tutorials.html#offline-mpk

BTW, I had my LTC QT crash on my XP desktop computer the other day.  It was a wallet that I never did the "mandatory update" to.  I have the wallet.dat file backed up on a thumb-drive. I also own a laptop with Windows 7.  Any suggestions on what to do?

maybe this kind of storage?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=406997.0

In the USA, I use my Coinbase account for the 3rd one.  I can spend from it using a cell phone.  But I only keep less than $100 in it.

Install the LiteCoin client on Windows 7 and then close it and replace the wallet.dat file with your backed up one?

(On Windows 7, the location is C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming\LiteCoin)

. I'm on the road right now, but I had the same idea about installing LTC QT on my laptop w/ Win. 7. The very first thing I will do though is make copies of my copy of the wallet.dat file and keep them in a safe place - I have about 30 LTC in that wallet.

I was and still am a noob when I followed Armory's Offline Wallet Tutorial - https://bitcoinarmory.com/about/using-our-wallet/

It's the shit really, I feel like such a boss now. Safe and secure ;)

Best user friendly wallet so far is KryptoKit

Info: http://www.coindesk.com/ver-buterin-join-bitcoin-browser-wallet-kryptokit/

I'll wait till its "tested by everyone for security" before giving it a go. Doesn't pay to be an early adopter with wallet software ;)

Electrum is really easy and no x hour wait for the blockchain to download.

That's definitely good advice. Wouldn't dare be one of those 'early adopters/testers' of wallet software.

Blockchain.info is ridiculously easy to use given that it just requires a sign-up and the rest is done for you - you don't need to download a blockchain, you don't need to generate addresses, you can set it up to back up to your email/GDrive/Dropbox and the wallet is already encrypted so you don't need to worry about doing that. However, as with all hot wallets especially online ones I would be wary of storing too much in them. My advice to newbies starting out would be to use Blockchain temporarily then move into looking at cold storage options of some kind for large amounts of BTC.