Bitcoin Forum

To my hypothesis, there are a lot of crypto enthusiasts who are fond of keeping their private keys, Keystore / JSON File, seed words, mnemonic phrases etc to their wallet on cloud storage platforms like google drive and the several others. From my little research and experience, I personally think to keep these sensitive data isn't the best due to its nature of proneness to unauthorized accesses.

I'm positive there are individuals in this forum with profound knowledge regarding this topic. We would be grateful if you share with us your experience, tips, advice and most importantly, secured ways and means we can manage our private keys.

Thank You!

Well everything is hackable. There is no promise guaranteed 100% safe whichever wallet you have but  some choose their valued cryptocurrencies stored in a cold wallet. This way no body can access your wallet but only you.

I am probably an old fart, but I like to store my private keys on a simple piece of paper written by myself. I have used hardware wallets but came back to paper storage since that isn't depending on trust other than myself.

The only potential downside is that you might face certain threats when importing the private keys, but that's a problem for later since I don't plan to redeem any coins unless there is another Bcash like fork happening.

It's important to realize that we will always expose our coins to a certain risk since there is no central authority involved that will refund people in case of coin loss. Once your coins are lost you lost them for ever.

Would be interested to know basic opsec (operational security) regarding storage of private keys observed by crypto pros. Not storing keys in a digital or electronic format would represent a basic fundamental, I would have to think. Keys would likely be written on a piece of paper or stored stenographically, concealed inside another file. In more extreme cases, I could imagine keys being written on a piece of paper and sealed inside a weatherproof container before being buried or stored in a place where they are unlikely to be found.

Electronic storage methods are suspect in that many routers and hardware platforms contain built in backdoors utilized for state surveillance, consumer data mining, et al. There was a case in 2017 where "700 million android phones" had a backdoor installed which could forward data to china. Windows and presumably other OS could have similar measures. The recent intel security "bug" could have deliberately been designed as a feature: built in backdoor.

I would think electronic storage would be avoided but to be honest, I haven't put much thought into this.

do not open suspicious sites and keep your private key in the safest place. if you can do these two things I'm sure your assets will be safe.

There is a lot of other ways you can manage to keep your private key safe.
If you have a lot of money in crypto. Buy an usb, copy the private key into it and keep your usb somewhere safe.
Or you can print out on a paper.

I think it is risky to put your private key in such cloud based services because you truly don't know if a rogue employee could snoop around the files. Though since it's extremely unlikely, until you find an alternative I think it's better than not having it backed up at a different location at all.

I'm thinking that hardware wallets are one of the most secure thing around, and also you need to have special programs like password storages, it usually would be helpful.

If you are willing to keep your coins in cloud storage, you should at least split the seed in two and keep half in each storage.

However, I don't think that's safe enough. Ideally you should just write it down on a piece of paper. Keep the paper in different places and you are safe.

Lets not push it too hard. We only have man made options to store our private keys and crypto graphs either in the google storage like you said or simply download the files and store them in the personal computer somewhere safe. I would say the first option is always best because it highly impossible that google cloud will ever get hacked or their information will ever get leaked out. As far as the personal computing is considered, it can be victim of hacks easily if you ever turned on your PC with public IP's. Thats like 90's trick and we are in 21st so its far easy to do that. I guess cloud storage seems to be perfect one.

Same here. BCash pushed me to the absolute limit with creating new backups and whatnot, and I'm certainly not looking forward to do that again. I kinda regret having done so with my 2013 backups. It was some sort of a trophy for me knowing that these coins haven't been moving for more than 4 years. Currently I still have nearly all BTG (and 100% of all other forks) and looking at the latest price, I probably won't ever have to create new backs for this fork.

Correct. Imagine how many times systems have been acting weird where people and businesses thought it was related to a virus or whatever. They probably kept secure erasing their drives or even buy new equipment, but the problem kept popping up.

The main thing is that we shouldn't fear that what we know about already (because we can relatively easily weapon ourselves against that), but that what we don't know about.

My advice, keep your private key in various places and do not combine Walled address with private key, separate them to save them.
Save your private key in 3 different places, eg in Email, WhatsApps and print on paper. that's what i do, you can try it if you want :)

My advice, keep your private key in various places and do not combine Walled address with private key, separate them to save them.
Save your private key in 3 different places, eg in Email, WhatsApps and print on paper. that's what i do, you can try it if you want :)

There is still a lot of unawareness in people interacting with crypto, some may be storing their private keys in their online wallets and some keep it in pc notepads.
Whether it is any place, since all these storages have connection to internet, your data might be compromised any time. I feel better to write my keys down on a paper

Cloud storage platforms is also quite secure.  But I do not think I should save your private key on it.  my way is.  In addition to using a hardware wallet I store my private key in a usb. And that usb is only used to store the private key.

That's a big no no. The sole purpose of a wallet being called a "cold storage" is to save it in a place where no one but the owner can reach out to, when needed.
Storing private keys on cloud storage revokes that sole purpose.

Nowadays there are so many ways to save your private keys as a cold storage. One such example is having Cryptosteel.

Why the fuck would anyone have their private keys in a cloud storage? Might as well deposit a million dollars in an exchange and get your account blocked or even invest in a scam.

Store your private keys and other important stuff in an offline data storage, like a USB drive. That's the easiest way. Have your working antivirus installed in your pc all the time and be careful on which websites you visit and just don't get phished.

I hope for you that you sold them in a way you haven't lost much privacy.

The problem with these forks is that they incentivize people to redeem their coins and to have the free fork coins be sold on whatever exchange, but people don't realize that it severely affects their privacy.

It's not smart to move old coins with how regulations are being implemented today. Coins that haven't experienced any activity allow you to claim that you miraculously gained back access to your private keys.

Currently that's not possible because you already transferred the coins. If you report your coins right now and your tax department demands more information, you'll find yourself in an uncomfortable situation.

And then we have not to forget that to keep your private keys on google drive and other platforms it means you are trusting GOOGLE. What if one fine day Google should decide to steal your funds? Never say never.

Not a single issue on any of the wallets that I've created since 2014, and I kept them on 3 devices: my personal computer, a regular USB stick lying around and my old smartphone that I no longer use. The last 2 devices are never connected again to the internet once they received the files while the PC I use regularly with the internet. I don't do stupid things such as watching NSFW videos, (you know, those things) clicking on suspicious links, downloading illegal software which has more backdoors than any government-created apps and regularly cleaning my PCs OS by reformatting once every 2 months. Idk if reformatting would help that much knowing that you still keep the same files and malware can disguise as a normal file but again, same wallet files, nothing ever lost or stolen so I think I've done better than some people.

For me, you just have to secure your computer if you really put all of your KEYS or anything important to any of those software. But I really like keeping those in a piece of paper.

Today we have hardware wallets, they have so far proven to be a safe way for keeping coins for long term or for daily usage. In this way your private keys are always secure in device, but we need to secure our seed in proper way. I think that there are countless ways to do that, only human imagination is the limit. When you think best way to secure private keys/seed then try to imagine from whom or what you want to protect them.

Fire, water, earthquake, dirt, thieves - your cat or dog maybe, all need to be considered.

I am strongly against ever keeping private keys on any online platform let alone on cloud storage that can easily be hacked into or assessed. As for me, I suggest you keep your private keys or keystore json file on an external  flash drive drive and only connect it to your system when you want to log in.

It is better to keep your private key on the hard wallet because it is much secure, also you can put your private keys on flashdrives that is also effective thing to store your private keys also you should avoid going to unknown sites it might risk your pc.

if you are doing some bounty and visiting some sites for airdrops refrain from doing that if you have wallets on your computer just do that in a different pc and avoid downloading some suspicious files because some malware might infect your computer that might lead to lost of important data like private keys and other information related to you.

meaning airdrops sometimes is a treat for some point like directing some link that can be a malicious file that can acquire some details on your personal computer. it is better to keep it on your USB rather than keeping it on your PC.

the best way of storing your bitcoins is always going to be cold storage on a paper, metal,... something physical. i don't even like hardware wallets because it is not 100% cold.

when it comes to storing it in the "cloud" then there are ways of reducing the risks of losing your funds. it still is not the best method but it is used. the obvious thing is to encrypt it with a strong encryption method and a strong password. for example a 20 character long password with AES-256 encryption. additionally you can always split it into multiple pieces and encrypt each piece separately and store them on different cloud services.

Personal key security is not completely 100% secure. it all depends on how you manage it. Storing software is easily affected by viruses or corrupted. so I wrote it down on a piece of paper and in laminating.

I have read different ideas on how to store your private key and your bitcoin as well, they right, I much prefer if we used cold storage than an online wallet or they called cloud wallet which no totally safe. Although cold storage is not free you need to purchase on this in a trusted store which is available. It's your responsibility to keep safe your private key and you know that is safe.

One thing I have heard in keeping private key by using a microchip implant and place into the part on your buddy and the best part to place is in your underarm. Do you think it is the best option in keeping the private key? No side effect?

I agree that we can't get rid of scammers and hackers around us but we can't do something no to be one of their victims. Securing our private keys is actually a helpful tool for us to stay away from these kind of people and to stay safe during unnecessary situations.

 I store all of my passwords and piles in my special place which is secured and located on another personal computer without having an internet access after all. I think this is more secure because none of remote control can be applied.

I try to help as much and in accordance with the experience that I do, private key save on email that is connected with no mobile phone and every time I open and close the email I change the password, it's one way that I usually do on private storage may be useful and successful for all of us

Yep storing your private keys on a keystore, json file, seed word, other mnemonic phrases is actually bad because it can be stolen through MITM or man in the middle attack. This happens when the attacker has manage to get into your network and sniff all your data from that network. I've heard that a cold storage is much safer.

I think it's ok to upload them to sites like Dropbox and your email, so long as you encrypt them. Even if someone else gets access to them, they won't be able to use them.

I always believe that storing private keys in any software is always prone to unathorized access just like the OP said. Even storing it in your mobile have the risk of misplacing or lossing your phone. Even if you set the strongest pin, it will always bother you.
In my opinion, just like everybody said. Storing it in a paper wallet is the best way to get rid of the hackers or unauthorized access from random people. Keep that piece of paper where it cannot be harmed by all natural disasters, or you can store it in a storage box.
There are still plenty of different ways on how we think of our financial security, we just have our own views and decision that we make.

It would actually be really stupid to store your sensitive private information about your wallet on an online cloud storage. The chance of your account getting hacked is extremely high, so it is quite unsafe. The best way to write down all the information by yourself and make multiple copy of it. Store it somewhere safe which will not be possible by other people to reach. Even storing on any kind of hardware is also risky since the electronics tend to wear out as time goes by.

Try not to store private keys (seed phrase) in cloud storage, it is very likely that these data will be visible to other people.
If this happens, then you need to at least split the Seed phrase into two parts and archive them with a password. Thus, you minimize the risks of theft of your funds.

almost all digital platforms are prone to hacking, especially cloud drives, yeah, it was a bad idea to save your passwords and keys, who would actually do that nowadays? if there are some guys who still doing it, better thinks twice, even cellphone cameras are hackable, what more if you store all your important keys on a cloud drive, i think the simplest way to store is the basic one, write it on a piece of paper, get a vault and put the paper in it, as simply as that, i think it is more safer, just bear the long characters or mnemonic keys.

Everything is hackable but... if you're using a cloud storage with a good password and 2FA authentication, you should be enough safe.
I also suggest to use an hardware wallet

Whatsapp and email are vulnerable to hack. I also have fear in the discussion thread cause even the hackers on the forum are reading this

I`m just trying to not to keep over $1,500 on a single wallet, so that it will not be interesting high for the hackers, so. If they will hack one of my wallets then - I will be still living on the same.

The security security is not currently an absolute because the export out of them that has many problems to comment. When security to be carefuled security security, no duplicate with personal information, very easy detected. Encryption special characters and breaking the networking connection of account hack account.

When creativity produces electronic technology for human life, the benefits in life. Personal information is taboo in today's life, it is the image of people. That is their legal basis in life, but to steal information to do bad things are not good. Once they have access to their personal information, acts of piracy and possession of property should be punished under the law. They should not exist, harm the community.

my advised is just save it into your safety notes like in your fb or try to print it and try to copy this like 2 or 3 its more good to sure than to copy it 1 time because we will not know if one day your private key will stole or it will gone so be careful always save it into safety store.

That is wrong, very wrong. I don't know if I'm going to make fun of you because you didn't do your own research on how to backup privatekeys or believed that you are a newbie in the world of crypto. Personally, for my privatekeys I wrote it down on a piece of paper and make a lot of back up copies. I store the copies on different places not just in my home but somewhere else. But if you have tons of bitcoins I would suggest to really get a good hardware wallet such as Trevor or Nano S to protect your assets.

I probed to save a private key wallet by storing it in the cloud Google Drive and Flashdisk. And every time I open or check the contents of my wallet, I use metamask. Because the wallet that I use is Ethereum wallet.

I though that you mostly will need to worry about all those stuffs when you’re making use of a private wallet that stores on your device, but that’s not true. And those that are making use of Google drive to store their private keys are taking a big risk if their Google account is hacked, information can be stolen and used to also get to their wallet. I will advise anyone to better make use of paper to write down their private keys and keep it somewhere safe.

I have not yet heard about a cold wallet, I only know is our digital wallet. If Cold wallet really exist then just like digitsl wallet it is prone to hacker because in this year hacker knowledge is unlimited in ideas and they have their ways to explore inside the internet. If I were choose between cold wallet and digital I still choose digital wallet because it is convenient for me to used it.

I agree. Therefore, since you should not trust anyone or even the system and the program to safeguard your account, which holds a user's coins. Then, such person must safeguard the integrity of his wallet address by way of cautiously opening it, especially when out in the public. When doing crypto-currency related activities to public computer hubs, then he must avoid, as much as possible, logging in his wallet to avoid the keys being hacked or key-logged. Also, in terms of keeping the address and information, he should not keep it online where it could be readily hack-able by those shady characters.

Well, I honestly don't believe in the security of cloud storage platforms, like google drive. I trust my pen and paper better than these storage platforms, since the secret keys are still stored online. Though it's true that nothing is unhackable in this crypto realm, even these online and offline wallets, this doesn't necessarily mean we won't take extra precaution. If you have large amount of crypto to store, it's best to get yourself a cold storage wallet like Trezor and Ledger with high security features, where you can generate private keys offline. This minimizes the risk of hacking amplified when connected to the internet. Thse are quite pricey, but the safest of all, so far. If you don't have the money to acquire one, make sure you generate addresses with private keys from a legit online wallet website, and be cautious to enter your private key in any phishing site. And remember also to always have a hard copy of your private keys stored in a safe place for your safekeeping.

Everything can be stolen, including your wallet. No one can stand a 100% guarantee that your wallet will be safe. So, you are the person who protects your wallet, in my experience, you should use cold wallets, because no one can access except you.

I'd think durable thumb drives are best in keeoing your access to your wallets. Consequently, i think that isinf the cloud to keep access are ok so long as you need somesort of password to get in plus the access such as JSON files or whatnot. I think that i saw it here in the forum that banks offer such services though.

I have all private keys, seeds and passwords to all my wallets on paper.
I also have them on an encrypted USB drive. These were created on an
old laptop which was destroyed after creating the files.
(The laptop was end of life and didnt connect to the internet)
Keeping sensitive material in the cloud is a major risk.

using lots of wallets is certainly much better to avoid robberies that make you lose all your money, but make sure that you remember all the passwords and save all the private keys for backup. I also use many wallets for several functions. such as hardware wallet for long-term saving, online wallet for spending at any time.