Bitcoin Forum

If I backup the keys onto my phone's sdcard, don't other apps have temporary access to that file before I delete it? I'm using a Micromax phone and I'm concerned that the phone contains pre-installed malware.

Is it better to just move the money to a wallet on my PC?

It deoends on what apps u have installed and what kind of permissions the apps have. If you want to store btc, I would create a bitcoin wallet on a brand new computer and then print out the private key and the passphrase a several times and secure them into a safe location. Do not store something on usb sticks, they will get corrupted after some time and your private key will be gone.

I don't know how much money you are talking about, but I wouldn't feel secure until the majority of my coins were permanently stored offline (from address creation forward).

Only if you give them permission to do so (Android 6.x).

If you are concerned with pre-installed malware then it might be best to avoid using Bitcoin on that phone.

Yes. In general it is best to use Desktop wallets (in comparison to mobile and online wallets).

It's not safe to be honest. You carry your phone daily, so it's a daily possibility that you can forget where did you put your Bitcoins at.
If you have good encryption, then they should be safe even if you lose the phone, but of course, you lose the Bitcoins that are inside the phone. In general im too paranoid to carry Bitcoins in my phone.

What if you lose your phone, which happens...

I'd rather store it on a web wallet and upload the private keys to gmail.

I use my phone exclusively to store Bitcoins. Well that's only the half truth. I watch all of my Bitcoin addresses on Mycelium but 99% of my Bitcoins are on paper wallets I generated on an Ubuntu Live USB. I don't really use a computer this day and age, other than if I want to create some new vanity wallets or a new paper wallet.

So depending on how your setup is, smartphones can be a very safe way to 'watch', and to a lesser extent actually store Bitcoins. You'll always need a hot wallet anyways it might as well be on you at all times with a few mBTC ready to be spent.

To store the coins on your phone is not that good.
Either a PC without internet connection (or which you rarely use for that) or get some hardware wallet for instance.Keepkey and Trezor are good to go.Another option is to print the keys on paper and store them safe somewhere no one else knows about it.

If you use Iphone and bread wallet, its fully secured. The Security of Iphone is the best and you will never lose your coins

i never recommend to store bitcoin in any phone system (android or iso) , it is very easy to lost your phone because it is more attractive than old desktop using linux system secure &offline.

Generally speaking if you machine is linked to the internet and you are using it in your daily activities - there is always risk of infection.
But again, from what I noticed mobile wallets tend to be easier pray than desktop wallets. Most of my friends have very liberal way of handling security of their mobile devices.
They link to every WiFi they can find, they don't check apps before installing it and don't have antivirus and anti malware installed on their mobile device.

If you can maintain healthy security - I am sure that your coins will be relatively safe on your phone.

But again - don't use phone as your main wallet, ever. And never keep in your mobile wallet 100% of your coins.

Fine for small amounts needed for transactions but keep any large balances in cold storage or on a very well secured computer

Besides the risks of connectivity (a phone is designed to be connected to the network), you can have the device stolen. Just fine for small amounts, but I'd only use apps that have web redundancies/web interface so that in the event of device seizure or destruction, you can recover you coins. Save the keys on something OTHER than your phone  ;D

The cheaper android phones i have read that have pre-installed malware and if they are chinese they should know about bitcoin and can steal them, i would suggest to go with a hardware wallet if you can't afford a desktop wallet.

Nothing on a run of the mill phone is fully secured. Breadwallet is a decent wallet for iPhone but you should never store more than you can afford to lose on a phone wallet on either Android or iPhone.

If you really need to use bitcoin securely from a phone the only way is to use a phone wallet that works in conjunction with a hardware wallet like Trezor or Ledger. That way your private keys are stored off the phone safe from malware or hijackers.

Right now the only hardware wallet you can buy that works with iPhone is BitLox. For Android you have a lot to choose from. Breadwallet does not support any of the hardware wallets at present.

well yeah, i guess if you dont use a lot of bitcoins then you dont need anything special for holding your bitcoins and you can use a variety of online wallets or mobile bitcoin wallets

i think that it is not safe for big amounts of money, for that i use a hardware wallet called trezor as i can do transactions with it and it is really safe to be honest

Dont save the wallets at your phone isnt safe,if the cellphone get into the water it will make you loose all,there is
malwares easy gets into the phone as well.Use online wallets or create an wallet at your computer that are the most safe way to protect yours coins.

That is the only correct answer! For any significant amount of coins, offline storage is a must.

Generally I would use online wallets (PC or phone) only to store funds that are likely to be spend soon. In addition to security vulnerabilities a phone could easily get lost. You should think of it as a traditional wallet. If you loose it, the money is most likely gone. So never carry more Bitcoin with you than you are ready to loose.

Of course it's also possible to use paper wallets for in-person payments if the payee can import the private keys...

ya.ya.yo!

I mainly use mycellium to store my btc and.so far it's all right and good for me. But I it's not as safe as having a cold/hardware wallet.

I have used Mycelium wallet on all of my Android devices and I haven't had any problems with it. I think it's safe to keep some coins on a mobile device but not all of your stash. I don't recommend backing up your private keys on your phone though as it may get stolen and the thieves will have access to your Bitcoins on top of that. Also it's best to password protect your mobile Bitcoin wallet just in case. You can export the private keys to a couple of thumb drives or write them onto a CD or whatever else method you feel safe using. Personally I have them encrypted in a password manager for quick assess if needed.

It is more safe when you move your money to a wallet on your desktop. your phones SD card might corrupt and you will lose your private key.
try paper wallet, store it in a safe place like banks. or bury them.

In our case majority of us in phillippines using web wallet that owned by a company, and they have wallet bitcoin app and were using it and i really can say its very safe because no reports that it is been hack by the hackers or someone breach their security, not mentioned thosr get victimized by phising, and thats why i can really safe to store your bitcoin in your cellphone,

well for OP it is not really recommended to save it from your cellphone because the risk that cp might be corrupted anytime and the stability of sd can't assure you that you can handled it properly, desktop wallet would be much safer or placing it in a paper wallet. you can rely more on it mate.

if you have large amounts you should always use a safe and known way of storing your bitcoin in a cold storage, try not to innovate new ways that you are not completely familiar with. that is how you lose coins.

General rule:

Use your mobile device as bitcoin storage only when you are using your bitcoin in your daily activities, your need quick access to your BTC or trade with it etc.
There is absolutely no need to use your phone as your wallet and storing all yours coins on it is very bad idea.

I guess in the future, when bitcoin adoption by merchants will be more developed and you will be able to buy some necessities for BTC etc.
Keeping coins on your phone will have more sense then, but for now it is rather pointless.

Good rules to follow. Ledger is doing some interesting work with their Trustlets (https://www.ledgerwallet.com/beta/trustlet) which may solve the problems of keeping your private keys secure on an Android phone. The beta is finished and you can download the Trustlet from the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ledger.wallet.bootstrap) but will work only on specific Samsung phones.

Well you can have a vault on coinbase if you connect on another device such as a phone so i guess your bitcoins are pretty safe but then again one can never be sure. I think that phones are less safe than computers as it is harder to collect a computer than quickly snatching a phone.

First of all, I would suggest that you do not use an Android phone to store your bitcoin. Although it would probably be fairly safe to do so, it is much easier to jailbreak Android phones, which leads to more potential security issues. When you download an app on the Apple App store, you generally know that the app is not malicious, to the extent that you trust Apple, and the same can not be said with downloading Apps on an Android, as a fairly decent number of apps have made their way onto Android phones via distribution channels. I also believe that Apps on an iPhone are insulated from each-other while this is not always the case on an Android (I am not 100% sure on either of these).

I would suggest that you not store more bitcoin on your phone then you would normally carry around with you in your wallet and/or pocket. If your phone gets stolen from you then there is a fairly decent chance that all of the bitcoin stored in your phone will also get stolen. As mentioned a couple of times above, you will also want to backup your seed (or private keys, whichever applies) somewhere off your phone (and not in the cloud) so you do not end up loosing your bitcoin when you drop your phone in the toilet.

As Quickseller said, Android operating systems are fairly open source and can get rooted/jailbreaked. iPhones are a better option than Android in this particular sense, even though you're basically putting your BTC in the hands of the Apple company. And there are a lot of hacks/leaks originated from Apple.

Also your phone would be connected to internet most of the time, which makes it prone to hackers and attacks.

A much better idea would be a completely offline storage option, like paper wallets or hardware wallets. Paper wallets are probably the best.

your mobile phone can easily be stolen, because it is something that you are carrying around with yourself. and if you want to keep it at home and use it as storage then again there are better method, why use a phone instead.
besides as long as it can connect to internet your coins are in danger. in fact IMO anything that is not cold storage is at risk.

If you are storing large amounts of Bitcoin, then I definitely recommend using a hardware wallet like a trezor or ledger wallet. If you don't want to spend money, then you could just a software wallet.

It's getting safer but I don't access any coins on mobile as a matter of principle. Nor do I store any private keys on mobile.

Had some BTC in a Blockchain.info account linked to my phone via the app, for nearly 3 years. Had no problems.
But storing private keys of meaningful value on your phone, is a bad idea.

i think its good for saving backup keys on smartphone SDcard,but its all depend on security in your phone,and you should make sure that you will keep your phone safe,not sstolen or maybe lost,it important thing you should consider.

yeah maybe for a small amount can still be tolerated to store in a wallet phone. because you know the risk of storing bitcoin wallet phones are quite large. there may be a friend who intends evil to borrow your phone and steal it
or it could have lost your cell.

I would not do it because allot can happen with your phone. You can lose your phone or it can break so I suggest that you do not store any of your coins on your phone.

Just sharing my experience here.

I have been using Mycelium Android wallet since October 2014 and have never encounter any lost coins before. I uses a vanity address that was generated on my computer (not really). I then transferred the private key to my Android smartphone. So far no one have access to my vanity address yet. :).

It's not safe to store the bulk of your Bitcoins on a mobile device like your phone that is constantly connected to the Internet. And there is a chance that you may lose it somewhere or it could get stolen and if you have made a backup of your private keys or mnemonic words in the phone's memory or on the microsd card you are basically putting the key to your money in the hands of strangers. I would recommend printing out a paper wallet and use that as a cold storage for your main Bitcoin stash.

I only keep small amounts on Mycelium and I have very few apps installed, just some apps like Firefox and VLC, but I think they're pretty safe.
Don't think it would be wise to keep coins on a phone ordered from certain Chinese manufacturers and malware can also come from apps installed from the Play Store.

I dont really trust any phone or pc enough for longish term storage of btc, even though I have got away with just that in the past.

now I keep a little on my phone for spending using mycelium, but paper wallets and trezor are the go to solutions for main storage needs.

BTW rooted phones would be far less secure than stock, all else being equal.

Don't do it, is the answer. A few years ago, people kept getting their coins stolen from their blockchain.info, and in every case they were using a mobile app to access the coins. Desktop users were perfectly safe.

I would not recommend it because if your phone breaks or you lose it or something else happens to it then you have just lost your phone and your Bitcoins.
You could have used those Bitcoins to buy you a new phone if you do not save it on the phone.

Desktop as well mobile wallets give higher security. I believe Blockchain app in phone is highly secure and also gives ease of access in transaction than desktop as you can use the mobile phone to transfer bitcoin when you suddenly saw a shop accepting bitcoin for their services.

For everyday use I think I trust my android wallet very much. It's an HD wallet with a seed that can recover my funds on any device.
For storing safely BTC holdings probably it's not the best solution and to do that I will go for cold storage.

I could say it is safe and it really matters on how the owner use his wallet and if he is lame enough and log in phising site well he can really victimize by hackers, and either wallet or pc both are them is safe they have there securities featured and it cannot break easily.

You are right. malware can came from apps. and one important thing do not save passwords in your browsers. specially in mobile browser. as you said you have firefox.. less apps on mobile can also safe you from malwares.

I would install any wallet into the computer or use blockchain to store your main portfolio and i would just store at the cellphone some low ammount that wont be very risked to has ,several programs comes with malwares soo you may be risking loose your coins .

so far just use online wallet the blockchain either in desktop or my android, and it's prety easy to use it on my smartphone, but dont recommend any android wallet to store high volome, as for me i use android wallet only for spendable amounts

Using a mobile wallet is no more different than using it on a PC when done right. Android does have reasonable security compared to Windows which is the major operating system that most people uses. It is possible for a service provider or even the manufacturer to pre-install malware onto your devices; most can install whatever apps they want.

I would recommend getting an open source rom that is well tested flashed if you want the maximum security possible. Open sourcing the rom does reduce the possibility of having malware on the device. Having a good security means that you must not install apps that aren't trusted by you personally.

Due to the portability of mobile phones, it is very possible for one to misplace or get their phone stolen. However, the loss would not be significant if you backup the seeds and use a pin code to unlock the wallet and/or device.

Probably not the safest thing. Like others have said, cold storage is best. Mobile is a big target these days, so unless you develop a system...

I honestly think its very safe to but them on a mobile phone, you just have to be very good with your phone security.
Always be secure to put you wallets on a safe wallet...

My suggestion for better private key is printed, because it could be your phone is lost or get stolen.
But if you don't have too many btc, blockchain android wallet is safe enough to store all of your bitcoin.

It isn't entirely safe to store bitcoins in your phone wallet. The risks are higher than storing it in a cold storage.
I assume you are always connected to the internet with your phone. Hackers are relentless when it comes to spying phone details and your wallet information isn't an exception.

I go the exact opposite route that people are suggesting above.  I always want to use an android phone and it has to be rooted.  That's literally the only way that I can remove all of the company spyware, override invasive permissions, etc.  Ie, it's the only way that I can ensure that the software I'm running is not malicious.

I also only keep small amounts on mobile phones, the kind of amounts which are useful for buying a beer or a meal.  But as to security: if you don't have root, then you know that someone else does.  



Seems like you weren't around or weren't paying attention when the blockchain wallet was losing everyone's bitcoins by using random.org as a source of entropy and not checking the http status of the reply before hashing the page.  Literally, I think you just recommended the one android wallet with the biggest known security problems to date.  Good job.

I also back up the information of my wallet into my phone . Even it is there in my smart phone note (but still i hide it carefully). But i think as far as no one borrow or hand my phone it is safe enough. Moreover I locked my phone with difficult password.

Yeah agree with this guy, store amount to spend daily only on your mobile wallet apps, I never feel secure stored 2 btc on my wallet for long term I've experienced it even nothing wrong it's still I feel insecure. No one knows yeah there is something evil installed on your phone and have ability to control over your money? Keep your most coin on pc / paper wallet.

mobile phone or smartphone has become one of most secure devices to store your assets,bitcoin or other currency set up to safe and secure in your smartphone,its why almost all online wallet have good feature in mobile developer.

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i would only store very small amount, just the amount that i need to purchase something while i'm out around

probably less than 1 btc in any case, because it's really easy to get infected, since your phone can go easily on the hands of someone else

I wouldn't recommend storing BTC on a mobile phone. Just as you said, the phone may have preinstalled malware. Another reason is that the size of our modern-day phones make them very easy to lose. However, I wouldn't feel that my BTC is safe either until it was stored offline. I would recommend a Ledger wallet to store your BTC.

I always set up passwords for my mobile Bitcoin wallets so in the event of my phone ending up in someone else's hands for a brief moment they won't be able to get into my wallet fast enough to do any harm. Of course they could reset my master seed but I keep my private keys backed up in external locations so in theory nothing catastrophic could happen. But I do not recommend backing up the private keys to the phone memory or the microsd card.

i think a security code will be there on  moble phne but still it is not good to store bitcoin in mobile cell. so i think it necessory to store the coins in a best security option so as to avoid the stelling risk\

I trust my mobile to store few bitcoin cents, i now security isn't the best but if you don't install not trusted apps i think its secure enough for small amounts. For bigger amounts i don't trust mobile wallets.

It is absolutely not safe. You should have used other means to save your private keys.

But if you are holding a very minimum amount of bitcoin, then not a problem.

But if you are holding a decent amount of bitcoin, then I will suggest you to use paper or hardware wallet. It is the best way to secure your money.

Since mobile phone is a device with small size, I think it's not be a good place to store your bitcoin.
Imagine if you're forget to take your phone after you're going toilet , And yes PC much safer than phone

The must be underlined word is mobile. Since we bring mobile phone anywhere we goes, of course it will be not safe to store our Bitcoin there. Unless we just keep the mobile phone in our home, that's probably safe.

See the strange thing is this.... the majority of the responses on here, seems to think it is unsafe to store coins on a mobile phone, but we encourage people to use Bitcoin and to use it with their

phones on a daily basis. We will need to find a more secure way for people to transact with their phones, for Bitcoin to go mainstream and to enter the third world countries, where people access the

internet via their phones. Most people there do not have access to desktop pc's and hardware wallets are too expensive. How do we solve this problem? 

it was very easy, I just need to install the application on android blockchain my wallet and use it. Well I am currently using my android as a mobile phone

I use a mobile Bitcoin wallet on my smartphone because it's very convenient to have some Bitcoins at hand when you are out and about and want to purchase something in a hurry, you can just take your smartphone out of the pocket and make the transaction. Also being able to scan QR codes is very useful because you don't need to write and making a mistake while typing is avoided. But I don't recommend storing all your Bitcoins on your phone. Just put whatever amount you need to do your daily business and put everything else in a cold storage.

It's safe till you will lose your mobile phone with open wallet. In other cases it's really safe. Just be scared of scammers cause they will try to stole your coin even if you will delete it.

Overall I think its pretty safe but keep in mind a paper wallet is of course way more secure, with a mobile its maybe pretty secure but it still can be hacked.

Of course paper wallet is way more safe but you can also not compare that in my opinion, I think that a mobile wallet is considered to be safe but I also think its depending on how you secure your mobile..

As far as i am aware it is very safe espeicailly Breadwallet on IOS.  I am sure there are other very safe wallets out there..... ;)

It is beter to copy your private keys on paper wallets rather than upload it to gmail, IMHO.

More safe, store your savings in paper wallets and use mobile wallet for daily spending just like your traditional wallet.

True, any Sophisticated equipment that we use there is definitely a gap to hackers, as well as for the wallet in a mobile phone. There must be a gap that could be searched by the hacker, I hope if you did do a cell phone inside the BTC storage, do not use the mobile phone to open a site that is not yet known.

Im using my mobile phone where i store my wallet and its pretty safe i dont see people claim that there mobile wallet is beinh hack not mention those hook by phising sites maybe it depends really on users how they handle their wallet tonbe safe

I personally save bitcoin on my phone, the safety is not 100% that these coins will not be touched every by anyone, but even if you store on the phone try to ask for 2FA, lock the screen, lock the apps with an additional password or mazelock

yeah save bitcoin wallet phone is basically similar to the store in the wallet in general. but it may be more easily stolen when others people borrow your cell. therefore you should add some authentication such as passwords or other authy. it will make your bitcoin safe in the phone

For me i dont use 2FA  i find it hassle when im  trying to login my wallet, because i beleive 2fa can be bypass if your email is being hack, it really matters on wallet holder on how he makes his wallet safer,

Use 2FA and a gmail account with a phone number added to it. i use 2fa for better security and sleep freely.

Same here and I've had no trouble thus far.   But I don't have a lot anyway,  so if I lost it all I wouldn't exactly be ruined financially.

100% not safe.. if you want to store your bitcoins on mobile use 2FA, Screenlock, Fingerlock and other apps to use before they can open specific bitcoin wallet. It's better safe than never. Being handy is not bad but you must be responsible on your own way. It's your money it's your life you must keep it safe at all times. Don't put your phone or leave it anywhere else even your drunk. put it where you not gonna loose it.

I cannot assure for 100% but when my mobile is with me all my funds will be secured. I'm using mycelium android wallet. And i've backup my wallet 3 times on different places and different methods. Also i've set password for my wallet as well as to open the app.

Mycelium is a good Android wallet but it is only a matter of time until there is Android malware stealing bitcoin through key logging or transposition of bitcoin addresses. I would never store more than needed for a days shopping on Mycelium. That is just asking for theft. The good thing about Mycelium is it works perfectly with Trezor.

I think working with bitcoin is anyway safe if be attentive to scammers who want to get your money for free  ;D
I have wallet on my iphone and i have no problem for 1 year. And i hope it will not happen

use the wallet phone is basically similar to an online wallet. so it will be safe if you use multiple verification and lock your wallet application with a password. then it will be more secure dude

I think all of this depends on the user. We wary of malwares on mobile phones as well as we wary of malware in our pc (especially laptop because of its portability like mobile phone). We encrypt the mobile wallet as we encrypt wallet in our pc. So it depends how you secure your mobile phone. Will necessarily be different it feels bring a mobile phone that contain 5 BTC anywhere with only contains $10 in your mobile phone.

if you have some clue what you're doing i guess your phone wallet is fairly safe
but its by no means a long term storage solution.

For me it is safe ,from now and then i only use a mobile phone to earn ,to trade coins etc . But safety of our bitcoins i think it will depends on the apps that we installed because some of the apps have a permission to browse our hisyory and some passwords yo be stealed . So for me installed only the apps that is trusted.

I wouldn't store most of your Bitcoins on blockchain if I were you, as that is quite dangerous.  Electrum is a good alternative to other online wallets though.

if I do not have a transaction that often every day. I would prefer to keep on the desktop bitcoinku online wallet or purse like blockchain. because I thought it would be safer in an appeal using an online wallet

In my opinion it is better to move it to computer or laptop and store it in offline wallet, laptop provide a more secure security

U mean mobile offline wallet or online wallet ?

Totally agree with this. Storing your bitcoins on anything online is risky. Since it can be hacked. The hacking part is worse, but since it can't be reserved you can lose all
Which is 1 reason to not store it online..

The answer is simple. If you lost your phone, than you're done.
But if you could erased the data of your phone (by any method) before someone's using it it, than you're pretty safe.

I dont think it is a good suggestion to save bitcoins on mobile since mobile data can be erased as well as mobile can be stolen as well which will ultimately create problem for the user itself. so no recommendation from me in this regard.

What's all this stuff about losing coins if you lose your phone? Write the seed down and put a pin on the wallet. Your worries are over.

Well it makes no sense to back up your private keys on your phone because you can lose it or it can get stolen or it can simply stop functioning and your coins will be lost forever. I would suggest using a mobile Bitcoin wallet that can spend from cold storage like Mycelium. You have to create a paper wallet that will hold the majority of your Bitcoins. Then when in need you will be able to dip into that stash and spend coins from there and it will be safe because the data only exists in your phone's RAM memory and after the transaction is complete all the tracks will be erased. So in this way you will have a very safe cold storage at home and a phone that can act as a credit card of sorts to your cold storage.

It's save enough to store bitcoins on phone. I've done it several times, and nothing's bad happened. maybe for the tips, don't download too many applications and don't klick links, be careful of these things. It's same tips if you want to store your bitcoins on PC.

it is safe to use a mobile wallet if the application has a security code like in mycelium so not everyone get the mobile can spend your btc. you also should have a backup because you may lose you smartphone or it broke suddenly

if the wallet phones have the private key backup system. then there was no need feared when your gadget is lost. you can easily redeem the private key and all of your bitcoin back. using a mobile phone wallet safe enough

I don't think that 2FA can be bypass with a password reset!, if the hacker know you password of the Coinbase account then to make transaction (if you have setup 2FA for every transaction) then a 2FA code will be required.

yeah no security is secure. all can hack or bypass. but using 2FA for all accounts like email and wallet account. certainly it will give little chance for hackers to steal your money.
might seem very complicated to keep 2fa to all your account but it will make you safe 

for the moment wallet in the PC somewhat more secure. you just have to save your wallet as secure as possible. the important thing is secure your computer from viruses. do backup wallet at all times. securing your computer together with securing wallet.

I personally keep mine in Blockchain.info, which has a moble app that lets me access my wallet on my mobile, which is very convinient, however i wouldn't keep them on your phone in a way that it is the only way you can access them. You never know if it will get lost or stollen somehow

yeah I think so too. bitcoin wallet pc store will be more secure than storing it in your wallet phones you know why mobile phone is very easy to get lost right ? and many other reasons
I would prefer a wallet on pc for any reason.

Try not to. I've had a wallet with no money inside and it's never been hacked.

Guys Ledger is selling a contactless Bitcoin wallet called Unplugged which is basically a credit card shaped piece that can communicate with NFC enabled mobile devices. With that Ledger Unplugged wallet one can safely pay via mobile Bitcoin wallets transferring money out of the Ledger to pay for things. I think it's pretty cool check it out  ;)

It is convenient, but convenience almost always comes with a downside - security of your coins.

Your phone is always connected to the internet, which makes it especially prone to attackers. I mean, if you keep small amounts, that's fine. I don't think a small amount of coin stored conveniently would be a big matter.

But if you're storing large amounts, I suggest you do with something completely offline like a paper wallet. Or a hardware wallet.

It is safe until the mobile is in your hand, and there is no virus.. You didn't get any problem because you didn't lost your mobile and softwares. but it is highly possible that mobile fone can be stolen and the operating system can be corrupt. if it happen you'll loose all your money.
so I don't think that it is 100% safe.. 

lock your phone, lock your aplication, lock your file transfer, and use PIN (xapo, coinbase, blockchain, mycellium have this feature.

yes i'm agree with that,maybe for security reason dekstop wallet is better than online wallet or mobile phone storage,but for easy used and carriying,its still matter for dekstop wallet,wecan't bring our PC anywhere. and also i think dekstop wallet should haved by people who really know about malware and virus or phising,becaue if not,newbie will easy to lost their bitcoin on dekstop wallet.

for wallets and purses on pc phones have advantages and disadvantages. perhaps the wallet pc safer and more secure, and wallet phones have high flexibility both have their respective advantages
I think any wallet safe unless a third party #IMO

I don´t think it is that safe to store bitcoins on your phone. It also depends what kind of phone doe you have. I think if you have
a apple iphone i think your coins would be many times saver over there then they are on your android phone.

I think its not safe if you use phone wallet because there's a new virus called monkey virus and also sexy virus that can destroy all system program o your phone or it can remote or monitor your phone.. honestly i have a phone which is infected of monkey trojan virus and also sexy icon.. If you notice your android phone is automatic install any apps in your phone or its always unfortunatey program has stop or something like if you see this problem in your phone its infected of engriks or monkey virus..
So for me its not safe to use mobile wallets.. its better to use desktop wallet and its secured than using phone wallets..
I tried to install anti virus at my phone but it can't treat or remove the virus because the virus is in system files and cant deleted.
Unlike in desktop that you can easily remove the virus or disinfect using kaspersky..

I agrre with the most people here - it is not safe to keep your coins on the phone. Ypu might lose it, or could be broken (some softvare errors), attacked with malware, especially because most of the people still don't protect their phones right. Also, it's good to use deffernet kind of wallets (desktop, cloud etc.) and not keep all the coins at one place. Especially if you have larger sum.

I believe that it is pretty safe and I am sure that nothing will happen to those Bitcoins. But the only thing I am afraid of is when you lose your phone or it breaks or something.
Then you have just lost your phone and your Bitcoins.

Exactly what i thought of. If someone found out about how much money is stored your mobile phone after you lost it, you can say goodbye to it.
if you however just store few coins to it, its fine.

Thats easily solvable, just use Mycelium wallet for Android phones, make sure you write down in a paper the backup code (seed words) and then put them on a safe USB in your pc. If you ever lose the phone, you just click restore and you have your bitcoins back even if you lost the phone, unless the phone was lost and is in the hand of a very knowledgeable person in the bitcoin area, he can get them before you.

Always put a PIN on your mobile Bitcoin wallet so in the event that you lose your phone or someone steals it from you you will have enough time to log into another wallet and empty that Bitcoin address. Thieves nowadays will search through your installed apps for valuable accounts before selling the phone and any Bitcoin wallets apps will be a prime target.

if the stealer don't even know the PIN number or the password, how dare he can access to whole bitcoin wallet in the phone?
a few wallet in the smartphone have a feature that can sync itself to the desktop wallet,so still can recover it when phone get lost

I think keeping bitcoin in your mobile is as safe as keeping them on your computer.In both case you must take some safeguards to prevent hacking/stealing your device

Yeah I agree with you it is pretty safe to store it on your phone because your phone is something you always have with you and never loose out of sight.
But if you lose it you have a problem.

Logically its correct,basicly smartphone and computer have same scurity for bitcoin wallet,but we should considering about chance to losing our device or broken,mobile phone have more chance to lose or broken,its why people choose computer or dekstop wallet.

Duuuhhh... It is on internet, isnt it? So it is safe.

Hope you dont keep your btc password on mobile, cuz thhere can be snooopers anywhere... :P

However store Bitcoins via pc it safer. You can secure the PC via Bitcoins in several ways such as storing the private key using a notepad. Also It's better if you keep it on the desktop wallet.

I thought about the same thing when you lose your phone you will lose your Bitcoins, losing both important things at once is not a good thing to happen.
So I recommend that you save them somewhere else.

It will be not the safest method that you can use but it will be safe and of course there is always a chance that you can be hacked or stolen or something so that is bad.
But the most safest way to store your Bitcoin is just at an online wallet and that is nice.

the breaking or losing the phone is not the biggest concern here because you can easily make a backup.

this is a bad idea becaue a phone is something that you carry with yourself so you are carrying your bitcoin with yourself everywhere also it can connect to internet which is bad without any explanation.

Mobile phone wallets are good only for mobility (hence, mobile) in which you can access easily anytime anywhere as long as you are connected to the internet, of course. However the risks are high.
Forgetting and losing your phone somewhere, snatched out of you, being bricked, hacked, spied, steal your information. It's fairly easy to do that when you're connected to the internet so only place in small amounts in phone wallet for small transactions and stuff.

Well i've got the blockchain app on my iphone and so far i am very happy with. Security is tight with a lot of security features. Not that I would store over 3 bitcoin on my phone, that's asking for problems if you ask me.

I think people have different tastes any vote for comfort in the transaction and there are choosing the security of a wallet.
some are storing bitcoin wallet phones.
I think it all depends on your desires if you feel comfortable using the wallet phone then you can make it to be safe

I keep between .10-.20 on my phone wallet and I think it
is safe.


That said I would never put a bunch of bitcoin on my phone.
The stress alone worrying about it wouldnt be worth it.

I store my btc on my mobile phone too. But i only store like less than 1 btc because it is very danger. I mean that when phone got stolen or there is some virus, say good bye to my bitcoin.  :-\

Store your bitcoins in online wallets, it is safe.

Ita not really bad to store your bitcoin in your mobile phobe because thats what we are doing most of filipinos using coins.ph app where you can secure and use it with less hassle i dont really bad and i dont encounter hacking issue ever since im using this application in my phone the only really matter their is how wallet owner do to protect his wallet security,

I think before you use a wallet phone you must have backed up the purse or the private key of the purse and when you lose your phone. You will not lose your bitcoin and make sure you provide the password for the application on your wallet in your phone

its safe if you can make sure you will not losing your mobile phone,and also you should put maximum security on that mobile phone,use 2FA verification and its make you have better comfortable to store your bitcoin on mobile phone.

It depends on how much do you store in your mobile phone. I would suggest you can have a number of storages so you won't lose all of your bitcoins if ever it happens. Storing bitcoin in your mobile phone is just like bringing money with your wallet. It can be lost or stolen anytime if you do not take precautions. :)

The bad thing of Bitcoin is that you dont know what can happen and of course you can be hacked and that is bad because than you lose a lot of money.
But the safest method that you can do with Bitcoin is that you have to save it in your online wallet.

I think is not a safe method to store wallet/ or personal data.
For e.g. yesterday I receive an sms with a strange link. So I don't click it, but is really simple install a fake app or click on fake banner and download many some trojan or other viruses.

well, that is true about any computer system and as long as you are not careful and connected to internet you will be in danger of getting infected.

that is why there is this thing called "cold storage" for bitcoin, you cut all the internet connection to a new and clean system and then store your bitcoin there to save it from attacks.

Yeah, the hackers have many ways to take other people's personal data. They can only provide an application that looks safe but actually in it there is a Virus that can take your details. If you prefer to use a mobile phone as storage should you give a 1 mobile specifically for placement of the Bitcoin and Bitcoin wallet installed only

I think that it is pretty safe but remember that your phone could also get hacked but I believe that that chance is a little smaller then your pc getting hacked. The bigger problem is not to lose your phone because you will also lose you bitcoins.

It is not safe, as you can simple forget somewhere your mobile etc. Better is to keep BTC in your desktop wallet.  ;)

I think it depends on the holder the people itself first for how it is stored on a mobile phone. ALso it depends on the apps who can see the apps and accounts log in on that phone .it will safe if it always secured by installing unknown files is manageable .downloading with softwares etc..

If you lose you mobile phone somewhere then you have just lost two important things at once which is not a good thing. So I think saving them on a HDD somewhere it home is a bit saver to do.

If you intend on keeping your mobile phone at home (all the time), there's a small chance that you'd misplace it. But you run the risk of endangering your bitcoins if your phone gets stolen in the street, a common occurrence in many of the streets here in my country.

Losing your phone while you have Bitcoins stored in it is a perfect example of a worst case scenario. You could have bought a new phone with those Bitcoins but if you have them on your phone and lose it then not.

Yes this is correct if your bad you left your mobile in any where means it's gone so better don't take chance who know what happen tomo so better choice is to keep your Bitcoin in your system that is the safest place instead carrying your every where keep it in one place. This is same as credit card once lost that's it gone there atleast you can block your card here that facilities not there.

I used to store about 0.3 BTC on my mobile phone. But my phone got wet and its internal was probably damaged by a thunderstorm, and you guess it, my phone died, along with my 0.3 BTC. I did not keep the seed or private keys else where.

Generate your private keys in a secure, offline environment (besides small amounts stored in a hot wallet).
Create backups of your private keys or wallet seed ensure that no small accident causes a loss of funds.

This is actually some pretty good advice; I think that storing it in a phone has the same risks to storing it in a computer; they both have chances of being affected by malware. Also when it comes to being stolen; if you carrying a laptop and a phone; its highly likely that your laptop will be robbed and your phone will still remain on you. But if you’re worried about your phone being stolen just keep it safe where you know no one will find it.

Better to keep multiple copies on a safe place. Well, as for me I have funds on the Blockchain wallet plus I have the private keys printed and stored here at home.

I trust my mobile to store few bitcoin cents, i now security isn't the best but if you don't install not trusted apps i think its secure enough for small amounts.For bigger amounts i don't trust mobile wallets.

i personally wouldn't recommend to save your bitcoin into mobile phone because I had a bad experience my smartphone has died because i was dropping my smartphone into the rivers when i was on vacations several month ago and i can't access my wallet and all my private data was gone and i think if you want store your bitcoin especially for huge amount my advice is just save into your private computer or laptop and don't let someone else use or access your computer

Not if you have saved your private key or made a backup. Your experience with storing (small) amount of Bitcoin in mobile based wallet will be very different if you did what I just wrote.

I believe most smartphone based wallet have at the very least a backup option. If you have made a backup, you should be able to retrieve your Bitcoin with a internet connected computer - or even smartphone. Since it was dropped into the rivers and you already got the phone back, I doubts any can steal your Bitcoin.

Guys I think it's better to focus our attention on where we are keeping our private keys to the Bitcoin wallets we are using and how secure the place where we are keeping them is. We need to take into consideration that it doesn't matter on which device we have our Bitcoins as long as the private keys are in a secure environment. Storing our Bitcoin on a laptop rather than on our smartphone doesn't mean that it will be automatically 100% more secure because our laptop's storage device may die or a power surge can destroy its components while charging etc. We need to make sure that in an unfortunate event like this we have back up copies at hand to log into any other Bitcoin wallet and restore our funds. We are not talking about cold storage here, we are trying to secure the coins on mobile devices we use for actual Bitcoin transactions daily and the first step is to back up our private keys and keep them safe off the device and not keep copies on the device  ;)

If you put the bitcoin on phone the risk is lost of phone its self. That was my experience and i am still luck because i still have back up priv key on another place. And my bitcoin is still save.

If you are sure that you will not lose or broke or smth else bad with you mobile phone, you can use it without any problem, but if you have problems with your hands, better not to ;D

I don't think it is the wisest thing to do, the chances of leaving your phone somewhere or breaking it are too high, desktop or an offline option would be the best solution.

as long as you keep a backup of your private key can still open the wallet and I think it is the fault of your own is not a major problem in storing bitcoin in mobile phone.

You are right about that but I think it can be okay for low amounts, if you have bigger amounts you should just use a offline wallet instead.

   
I agree mycelium comes in handy here. I also don't have many apps on my phone; i only use satoshi convertor to calculate the current conversion rates and yourfreedom for when i have no wifi area around me.

How many of you has 2 separate phones? One for Google 2FA, another for daily use?

I do! I use a phone solely for security purposes such as 2FA and a normal phone where I do my daily things on. I like to keep things seperate.

With indeed small amounts its no problem at all but if you are using larger amounts its gonna be a problem for sure indeed.
Large amounts always need a offline wallet in my opinion.

yeah I would suggest to use desktop wallet. of course it will be more secure than using the phone wallet. if you do not have the urgency to use the wallet phone. it is better to avoid it dude

yeah i think it does not matter if you only save a little bitcoin in it using a mobile phone wallet of course there is an interest. like you have frequent transactions. and you're always outside then the wallet phone good for you. the note also that you have to add some security authentication

It completely depends on how safe your phone is. Do you encrypt your files? Do you go on sketchy websites? Do you have malware? Did you scan for malware recently/constantly? Well depending on ho you answer these, yes it's safe or no its not. There's no blanket answer here.

Its in my a okay way to store them but only for small amounts for some transactions, for big amounts a better secured wallet is needed.

I think store bitcoin in the mobile phone very high risk. Because the phone can be lost at any time and if there are bad people who find it and know what is bitcoin then your can dissapear :D I suggest using an online wallet. thank you

i dont think that it is safe to keep your  violet in moblie phone. i think its too risky. if you lost your mobile phone then what wil you do. even the pc is not good to keep to violet. if you print the on a paper and keep it on a safe place where the access of other people may not be easy.

I use mycelium, but not in the way most do. I use it in tandem with my ledger wallet. Without my ledger plugged into my phone (through an otg cable), it's like a watch-only address. As soon as I plug it, I can send bitcoin without a hitch.

Well, i never stored my bitcoins my mobile phone because i think it's risky and can easily get lost if your phone lost. It will safe if you don't do something wrong.