Bitcoin Forum

I need a good and reliable offline wallet. I've heard and read on electrum and bitcoin core, the one that is the original one if I am not wrong. I also read good things about armory. But which one to use, and why?

I need something that is simple to use but with good security, and something that I don't need to update the software each and every day.

I'm using bitcoin-core.

it's password protected (20+ ch4r p4s5w0rd).

wallet.dat is copied at least 3 places. (phone, flash memory etc)

I use bitcoin core but just for storing my coins all the gambling funds are in blockchain because i think it's most secure and i don't know how
to setup armory tried it never got it to work.

Using bitcoin-core too. Take up really a lot of space...

I use Brainwallet html pages.It's small, simple and Compatible for all OS, and itprovides all functions as a cold wallet.

I use core because it is reliable, for the funds I won't plan to move for at least a few days

For everyday use I use blockchan wallets

I also use the core as offline wallet.

Problem is the sync process

the only thing that helped me choose is the hard drive size requirement
bitcoin core needs to download an initial 26 GB of data (blockchain) and to download more every time you want to update your wallet which is necessary when you want to send and recieve
but electrum uses online blockchain which means you only download the wallet without that 26 GB and growing it will only take 60 MB of your hard drive and won't take long to synch with network

I use Bitaddress.org as my offline wallet. It is opensourced and pretty easy to use and generate. Paper wallets tend to be much more durable than those stored on electronic devices.

That's actually pretty cool and here I was slaving away doing it manually myself.

Bitcoin-core, its not really offline wallet but I installed into a fresh window 7 laptop and make it offline afterward. So does that consider offline wallet?

Just use any lite client that doesn't download the entire blockchain and then keep the wallet.dat file offline and backed up several times and you should be fine with that.

Lots of people vote for bitcoin core but it takes a lot of space, don't it?

I am playing with electrum now, it seems cool and not too advanced. I read somewhere on the forum that someone lost like 1.5 BTC in just fee, and it was a human misstake. Not the wallets fault.

So my question is, can I be safe by only using electrum and back it up? Is it the default_wallet file?

I also downloaded bitcoin core just to test it out, and I guess that one is downloading the entire blockchain but what does that mean exactly?

I am a bit new to the offline wallets, thats why. Thanks for all replies.

If you only need the wallet, you don't have to download the blockchain. Just export your wallet.dat and you are good to go. If you are looking to send and get balance, only then you have to download the blockchain. Otherwise, addresses are created without the need of internet connection.

I use armory, it works really well.  I'm sure electrum is fine too.

I use bitcoin core too. The blockchain's size is the only draw bag of it. It means that file keep all the history of transactions that has happened in
bitcoin and the current size of my blockchain is 26.8Gb completely synced.

I think I kinda get the hold of it now finally, lol.

I am using electrum. What if I uninstall my electrum wallet, but still got the seed. Will I have my bitcoins if I download the wallet again and insert my seed?

And if I use Bitcoincore, can I just use it for storing the bitcoins without needing to download the blockchain? If I am going to move bitcoins from one wallet to another I need the blockchian or is it not needed? Could I just generate an adress and receive the btc's?

Yes your seed is your paper wallet. From this seed you are able to generate again all your addresses.



Nope, Bitcoin core is full client and requires blockchain. But you can once generate an address, keep the privat key and delete core incl. blockchain from your HDD. (your generated addy will remain valid and you can still send bitcoins to. But to be able spending you would need to import private key to any wallet.


Two options:
1 - send them by regural transaction -  blockchain required
2 - move whole addy to new wallet (import) - no need of blockchain.

I appreciate the answers, thank you!

I got another question tho. I saw on a guide on how to import private keys in electrum, but when I tried to do it, electrum said: Warning! imported keys are not recoverable from a seed. If you ever need to restore your wallet from its seed, these keys will be lost. Are you sure you understand what you are doing?

I don't understand much about import private keys and what that warning message is meaning. A bit of explain would be highly appriciated.

Also, is it ok to have the portable verision of electrum on an external harddrive, instead of the PC? And with a few copies of the wallet.data of course.

I'am using Electrum because it's protected , no need to download that blockchain thingy , and you don't need to take backups ;D you should check electrum.org for more informations mate  ::)

The seed won't be able to generate your random private key, so you'll need to keep a backup of the seed and also of that private key you want to import.  It's better if you just send (sweep) the BTC associated with that private key to an address in your electrum wallet, rather than importing the private key itself.  That way it's backed up by the seed.

is blockchain is offline?

can be, but then it became out of date and have to synchronize when you connect to the internet 

Both Electrum and Armory are good.
Electrum is more simple to use, while Armory offers better security.
You don't need to worry about software update much, as backward compatibility is taken very seriously in bitcoin software.

If you are talking about the blockchain.info wallet, then it is not.
You could create a paper wallet with it, but still it shouldn't be considered an offline wallet as you must be connecting to the site to create the address.

Thanks a lot of explaining this to me man! :)

Sounds good. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

Is there many people here who use two wallets? Just in case something happens to one?

I'm considering using an Electrum wallet. Any risks or downsides I should take into consideration with this particular wallet?

When transfering BTC to my electrum wallet, can I shut down the computer or does it have to run with the electrum software on?

After I transferd some BTC to my electrum wallet, do I have to save and make a new copy of my wallet, each time? Or will the file automatically be updated with all the btc I get? I mean if I have a few backup files on some different places, do I need to touch them or are they automatically updating them self?

The risk lies in the fact that you're trusting the electrum servers to not lie to you about your balance.  They can't steal any BTC, but you get your balance information from them, that's why you don't have to download the blockchain.

The only backup you need to do is write down your seed when creating the wallet.

Electrum due to its simplicity and armory too :)

Yeah I did write down the seed. But I was just thinking of backing up my wallet file to a few places. So I can shut down the computer and electrum and the transactions are working until they are verified and completed?

All transactions happen on the blockchain, not on your computer.  So you don't need to do anything or have anything on to receive coins.

I prefer to use an online wallet like blockchain.info, safer, more familiar, and quickly receive and send bitcoin, I hope you enjoy the facilities provided by blockchain.info, hopefully ...  ;D

I don't think it is right to call blockchain.info wallet safer, but it is definitely a very user-friendly wallet for new bitcoiners and for handling a small amount of bitcoin. It is better to use an offline wallet to keep the majority of your bitcoin safe.

you can use bitcoin QT its good, its easy to use and you have the security.

Yeah you are right. Not sure why I thought I had to have my computer on while doing transactions in electrum. Its strange that electrum download was smooth, but for bitcoincore it had to download the whole blockchain. Why was it like that?

Many questions, I know, but I am trying to learn. Thanks!

The blockchain is kept on electrum's servers.  All your electrum client does is contact the electrum servers and get your balance.  It's the same as typing your address into blockchain.info, it'll tell you your balance without you having to download the blockchain.  The bitcoin core software doesn't contact anyone, it does everything on your computer, so you need to have the blockchain.

Dogecoin desktop wallet. Small size for my small drive space.

Or in order words, when you use Electrum, you need to trust the Electrum server isn't giving you some incomplete transcations data. But with Bitcoin core, you don't need to.

Best offline wallet is paper wallet. You can insert it in a safe baggage and forget it for many years in total safe from all type of thief  :)

I am interested in this paper wallet but have no idea about this can you give me information or any link about this I need to do work on this one if its works for me then hope I will keep this one

Please take a look at https://blockchain.info/wallet/paper-tutorial and http://www.coindesk.com/information/paper-wallet-tutorial/, and you should have a better understanding on paper wallet. :)

use bitcoin-core, its a great wallet!

Valuable information. Thank you

The private key to your address controls the bitcoins.  If you write that private key down on a piece of paper then that's a paper wallet.  That's all it is.  The benefit of a paper wallet is that instead of keeping your private key on your computer, which can be hacked, it's on a piece of paper that can't be hacked.  (But of course it can be stolen or lost, just like cash)

Thanks for your all this informative reply now I am going to try this hope its works for me

Bitcoin-QT (Core) is a great client which you can download for any platform (Win, Mac, Linux) and you actually become a node so you have a copy of the blockchain on your computer and have a record of every transaction.

Thanks for the reply.

Thanks for the explanation man!

i use multibit wallet because I do not have to download the blockchain

Electrum is simple but uses another server. Multibit is simple and connects directly to BTC network.

Armory is a heavy wallet but offers security. It is the best wallet yet in terms of security! ::)

   ~~MZ~~

The question is, why would you need an offline wallet ?
 
Try TREZOR, it gives you the security as an offline wallet but allows to spend coins in an easy and safe manner as well.

It is expensive. If you are storing many BTC, it is better. Now I think, there is an offer. If you really want, then you can buy BTCCHIP, it is a good one and not expensive. ::)

   ~~MZ~~

I agree that Trezor wallet is very secure and easy to use, but it comes at a price of $119.
If you have 1 btc to keep safe, that $119 price tag would be 36% of your bitcoin investment. If you have 10 btc, it would still be 3.6%.

That's why many people choose to use paper wallet or offline wallet instead.

How do you make a good backup for your wallet? Do you just write down the seed and thats it, or is anyone doing anything with private keys? I am using electrum just in case anyone thinks of a good backup solution for this type of wallet.

I also assume that not many people save all their bitcoins in just one wallet. Am I right?

I use bitcoin core, but store my hot wallet funds on blockchain.info with 2FA. :)

The seed can generate all the private keys, so you just need the seed.  It's nice that way because with bitcoin-qt you have to back up all your private keys (which increase over time)

Go print the private key on the paper wrap it up in the aluminum foil put it in something that is thick and dig it in the forest you'll be pretty safe than.

If you haven't imported any private keys to your Electrum wallet, just the 12-word seed is everything you need to backup.

I keep my 90% of my bitcoin in an offline Electrum wallet and the rest in my bitcoin core hot wallet.

So just the seed is the best possible back-up right? How about saving the wallet file in different places? But that doesn't matter really, if you just have the seed anyway.

How do you encrypt your electrum wallet? I tried 7-zip Encrypt but I am not sure about how it really works. If you type in your password one time, the file opens everytime without you needing to type the password again.

I want something like google authenticator or some other ecryption where you always have to type a password then access the file. What are the solutions?

Do you save that 90% of your bitcoins in just one electrum wallet or in serveral wallets?

Bitcoin core is good, but it downloads the whole blockchain while Electrum doesn't. It's good with a hot wallet but not sure about the security, although you have a 2FA enabled. You store less than 1 BTC on hot wallet or more?

How about the original wallet file, do you still save it or do you delete it, after saving your private keys in a paperwallet?

Delete it. You will no longer need the original file as you have the private key printed and hidden so it defends you from getting hacked or someone that has physical access to the file.

Just one.
If I use 3 different wallets, I would need to keep them on 3 different places and I will likely forget where they are in a year or two.

i don't like electrum anymore. since you can not send with custom fee, ive tried everything to change it but i couldn't!

So just one wallet will be safe, just by saving the 12-word seed on a paper and in another place just in case. But how do I encrypt the file? I've used 7-zip encrypt but I am not really satisfied with it. I am testing AxCrypt, it's encrypting a file with a password. Is this enough of security or should I use a 2nd encryption software?

I haven't seen anyone writing something about AxCrypt here so I can't tell if this is giving any good protection, but anyone who have some experience from it, let me know!

I am a bit confused. Does people encrypt their wallet file or just the whole wallet software? The wallet software loads the wallet file automatically right? Anyone care to explain more about encrypting a wallet?

Wallet encrypts wallet files mostly using AES. Just lock your wallet with a strong password, there are many softwares available to generate a random password. There is no need for external software and sometimes it may cause errors.

    ~~MZ~~

Why and how would external encryption softwares cause errors, do you care to explain?

When I open my electrum wallet, my wallet.data is loaded instantly. I want to protect this, so it doesn't load instantly, or even if it does, I want to type a password or so before I can access anything in the wallet.

Have I missed out how this really works or am I just confused. I just want to make sure the bitcoins are safe, reading too much about people not backing up or encrypting etc.

7zip use AES256 which is very safe.

I first encrypt the wallet within Electrum with a long password, and then use 7zip to encrypt the wallet file with a different long password.
I keep the encrypted file in my offline laptop and an USB as backup.

I use Electrum because it doesn't download all the blockchain and it's also easy to recover ( by the seed ) if something goes wrong.

But when I use 7zip to encrypt the wallet file, I only need to type the password once. After that, everytime I open my file I don't need to type the password. I want to make sure that everytime I open the file, I need to type the password.

Also, when you open electrum, it loads the wallet file instantly right? So how do you encrypt it with a long password? I just have one password for it and no encryption.

Not sure what you mean by that. Every time you want to open/extract the .7z file you need to type the password.

Yup you don't need to type the password to open electrum and see the balance and addresses, but you need to type the password to spend the bitcoin or see the private keys. So, your bitcoin is still safe if someone has your wallet file only but not your password.

So thats how it is! Thanks for your explanation, I appreciate it.

So there is no point in backing up the wallet file right? Only keeping the seed safe on some papers would do the work just perfectly fine, right?

Also, can I prevent someone from opening the folder, where the electrum wallet is and the wallet file? Like I said when I used 7zip to encrypt it, I needed to only type the password once. But you say that it is every time, for me its not. I just right click on the folder, and choose the Add to archie optio. Then I get a zip file, and when I open my wallet, I have to type the password. So yeah it's correct until here. But my wallet is also in the folder. And I want to have passowrd protection each time before the folder opens, wether its in the zipfile or not. Just to protect the wallet file. Is this possible?

I think on windows you have the option to create a briefcase or passwordprotect a file folder.

I am using Bitcoin Core.

I have seen something like that but I don't seem to find it now, and it feels like I wouldn't trust that lol. Have you had any experince with AxCrypt or File Locker? Or how do you keep your wallet and wallet file safe?

Electrum and Multibit

A paper wallet is a mechanism for storing bitcoins offline as a physical document that can be secured like cash or anything else of real-world .

Bitcoin Core is best offline wallet for bitcoin.

Thanks to everyone who share their thoughts here.

I now want to know how to protect my wallet in the best way, and encrypting my wallet file. Could you share thoughts on this? Appreciated!