Bitcoin Forum

Any advice would be helpful. I have read multiple posts, but none directly answer my question.

If I want to buy 4-5 bitcoins and store them for 20-30 years, what is the best method?

Paper wallet or offline/cold storage?

Would a site like Xapo or itBit be a smart place to buy? If then bought, what is the best cold storage device to use, a ledger or trazor? Do you just buy one and then follow the directions to store the coins?

I am using bitcoin as a part of my portfolio, not the whole thing or for everyday trading.

Thanks everyone.

many will advice for paper wallet, but i actually like the simple way of multiple usb stick or an hardware wallet like the nao, or in alternative a dedicated desktop

may appear a bit overkill, but you can see it as your personal bank server, obviously you need to run only the client there and nothing else

I am not a computer programmer by any means.

Can I simply buy, for example, the Ledger Nano, buy bitcoins from a site like itBit and then just store them on Ledger Nano. Can it be that easy? Then just place them in my safety storage?

I feel like if you are not computer saavy, then buy and safely securing a bitcoin its rather difficult. So much information with no clear answers for just long-term investing only.

I see no other option than paper wallet, you don't know if all the storage devices will be obsolete in 30 years.

You also must take extra precautions to ensure that your private keys will indeed survive for decades

Is there a dummy guide to buying and storing bitcoins via paper wallet?

Well, the best method is hardware storage (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0) but it is only recommend for professionals. The second best option is paper wallet indeed.

Yes, google is your friend;
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Paper_wallet

Now there is nothing wrong with using a hardware wallet, but its not cold storage which properly done give you 100% protection, short of getting your thing physically stolen, or you kidnapped. This is where encryption comes in handy i guess.

Anyways, unless you're storage a fortune in BTC, a hardware wallet would be fine. Or a wallet on an offline computer could work too.

Edit: I dont really think this would get rid of spammers. But it would reduce the spam here about the bot not working all the time.

paper wallet is a good option for an amount like this.
but make sure that you have more than one copy for this wallet and hide each copy in a secure place so if you lost a paper, you can use the other one
you can also write your private key in one of your favorite book in several lines. no one will know it is a priv key

Yobit has a good user interface for buying and selling, also providing good value. You can have a try. Also search for relating sites and conclude for purchase in which you are satisfied with trader after interaction regarding your purchase :) For storing have a paper wallet and blockchain wallet which is morethan enough for secure and scheduled transaction.

You can buy bitcoin from cex.io.You can use a visa or mastercard to buy safe bitcoins.
Also you can keep your bitcoin in a pc wallet for security.

Paper wallet is a valid option just make sure you do it right, if not you can be compromised from when you made it.   Make sure to keep it somewhere secure.

On hardware use one the the well known ones.  And the important thing is to store the seed words somewhere secure.  Normally you write them down and store in a safe place, safety deposit boxes are great for this.

But seed words are just like having a private key if you have then from a hardware wallet.

can you define to me about "safety" and "not safety" as you think?i just wondering why are you so worry about choose bitcoin wallet or storage,do you will store so many bitcoins?if that true,you can divide some amount of your bitcoin to some wallet,i am sure all popular wallet that mentioned here,is safe.

too long to wait until 20-30 years and only store 4-5 bitcoin, you have to save more. or you can grow it while walking for 20-30 years.

Although I would recommend getting started by buying from either Circle or Coinbase, I generally do not recommend that you store your Bitcoin on sites. Coinbase does offer a multi-sig vault, but buying, moving, and storing Bitcoin is not hard. I wrote a website, Incorporating Bitcoin (https://incorporatingbitcoin.com/), and it has several tutorials (https://incorporatingbitcoin.com/tutorials/) that can get you started in Bitcoin.

keep in mind that paper wallet is only safe if it is created in the correct way.

two important factors to pay attention to:
1) using safe code/app: it means downloading the code/app from its legit place not some random place on the internet and checking if it was downloaded correctly (like MD5 signature)
2) creating the paper wallet in safe environment: on an offline computer which is "clean"

Coinbase or Xapo are good choice for buying bitcoins as well as for storing them for some long period.
But I always suggest for going with desktop wallets for storing your bitcoins, or paper wallets are better.

I personally use coinbase cold storage but I would not use it for 100's of bitcoin.

https://www.coinbase.com/join/TheBitcoinMiner

I use localbitcoin plenty, works very well. And ofcoarse a cold wallet :)

paper wallet will be the best thing just print the private key and leminate it and place it one of your book and just forget tge coins

LBC you are going to pay a higher rate then say coinbase.  Yes some love it due to them not having to turn in anything proving who they are/or link to bank account.   But overall coinbase is much cheaper.  I use coinbase I have nothing to hide as far as my bitcoins go.

But if you really wanting more anonymous... yes you can pay higher prices on LBC.  I figure if you ever want to use it for goods or services... good chance linked to you.  So not really that perfect unless you plan on not using the BTC.

Don't store bitcoins on website. Use desktop wallet/paper wallet, its good advice i promise :)

I advice you to use paper wallet for stored your bitcoins 20-30 years. But are you sure you want wait 20-30 years ? it's really long time and we don't know is bitcoins still exist or not on that years.

He's looking to diversify his portfolio.
Your logic could be applied to companies as well, are you sure they will be around in 30 years?

@OP, it is as simple as buying off a site and storing them on a hardware wallet.

DO NOT store your coins on a site, store them on something only you control.

Op, where are you from? If you are looking for good place to buy bitcoin then it varies. If you are located in US then you have huge variety of options.
BitStamp, Kraken, Gemini, Coinbase, to name the few. Don't store your coins online for extended periods of time. Coins stored online are not fully under your control.

Coinbase is the good way to buy bitcoin, it's easy unfortunately not all countries are supported, if you country is suported then buy through this site, just suggest

You can try the ledger and buy the bitcoins from circle.com until you get that 4-5 bitcoin with the 200 usd limit per week, or use the currency exchange to buy the bitcoins and then store them on your ledger and then keep it away. Initialize it on an offline computer after downloading the chrome app and then format that computer for maximum safety without connecting it to the internet until you erase everything and properly flush the ram (the computer is restarted)

I think there's a way to don't format our laptop or computer use virtual machine or install os in vmware so that you have fresh install os in virtual machine and install everything as offline and then store your bitcoin there 100% safe because you are the one and only can access to your os unless you set and on the connection for internet in VMware...

Considering to buy, you can buy it through localbitcoins site. It has got good trading network along with trust rate which makes your buying easy. Also for storing Blockchain is good than other wallets.

Using blockchain is not safe. Keeping bitcoins in online third party services is not safe.

Yes your buying option is good. You can use offline wallets like Ethereum to increase the safety of your bitcoins.

Also hardware wallets are a really good options if you need use of coins.  It allows you to be protected even if used on a compromised computer on most.  Such as Trezor it is really a great tool.

I still see future where more and more use hardware wallets.

yes, trezor is good but it also is expensive. so it makes it not for everybody.

people like me who are just planning on holding their bitcoin in a cold storage, add to it from time to time and also have the option to sell if the price went up should use other offline wallets especially if you don't have like 1000BTC

If you want to buy Btc through fiat currency then i think you can go with localbitcoins.com site where you will get good rates with escrow service so that you should not get scammed , and if you are living in the place where their are local sellers of btc then you can deal with them but take precautions before dealing, and to store you can use desktop software like electrum or online web wallets like coinbase this are some storing bitcoins which are good in my knowledge.

coinbase

Buying is made simple with the use of localbitcoins.com. It has got most security feature for making trade and has got convenience. The nearest trader can be found and trading can be done. Only after transaction of money the bitcoin transaction can be done.

Expensive all depends on how much you are storing.... I don't look at 100 dollars as a expensive item to keep my active wallet secure.  If you were holding a single bitcoin then yes that would be considered expensive.

So all relative to how many coins you will be using it to secure.

With buying them, I have seen many use these exchanges to buy and then trade them. But you don't need to use them for that.
You can just have them hold those bitcoins for you in their exchange wallets.

Both have downsides. Using a paper wallet, the paper could become waterlogged and become useless, or the hardware wallet could become watterlogged and become useless. Considering our normal lives, I would buy a hardware wallet and put one of those fancy little wifi trackers on that you can monitor on your phone if it ever gets lost or stolen.
Hardware wallets, at least some, can "hide" transactions, but eventually a transaction will be broadcast and be on a website.
Do not ever use an exchange to hold btc. You know the mt.gox scare, and an exchange could shutdown anytime and steal your btc.
I would suggest a hardware wallet with a tracker stuck on to monitor its position, but its up to you.

Yes but hardware wallets you have seed words..... so if it is broken or "waterlogged" you could always recover.  I suggest putting seed words in a safty deposit box.  If ever a problem with hardware wallet not working, or unusable you can use the seed words.

So still very secure and very usable on hardware wallets.  Only barrier is price for some.