Bitcoin Forum

Perhaps when a hardware wallet and other security measures become standardized ?

I'm sold on the idea, i see bitcoin as a nice compliment to gold/silver. But what's a computer-retard like myself (not afraid to admit it) to do until then.

Are there any services out there that advise or better yet can safely set up an account for you for a fee ?

Im terrified of investing any large amounts, only to get flushed cuz of not knowing how to properly back up stuff or getting hacked.

Hedge funds are in the process of using bitcoin.
mtgox is becoming more regulated.

there are instructions for a paper wallet on here.
many people will offer to set one up for you.
do it yourself is safest.
do a couple small transactions, to get to know it.

I suggest this. It works really good if you're okay with not being able to access it right away without a little bit of effort.

1) Burn a linux live-cd, i suggest tails or ubuntu, or alternatively create a boot usb live cd.

2) Boot from said CD.

3) Point browser to www.bitaddress.org

4) Go offline. unplug the ethernet cord and router power if you're really paranoid.

5) Use the "brain wallet" function of that site to create a SECURE password that you can either remember, or write down.

6) Write down/memorize/secure the password (and the private key as a back up to that if you want), and write down the the public address that got generated.

7) Without going back online, turn the computer off.

You now have an address to put your savings. You have access to it through the password you made, and/or the private key you wrote down.

The address has never seen the internet, so there is 0% of a hacker getting to it unless they trick you into giving your password in real life or something.

Make a new one to send your remaining balance to if you ever send money out of it by importing it into a client, like blockchain.info

It can be slightly daunting - it's easy once you know how - but try Bitcoin Armory for the 'cold storage' of your coin collection.

Bitcoin Armory can be downloaded here: http://bitcoinarmory.com/ (http://bitcoinarmory.com/)

Then follow the step-by-step instructions here: http://bitcoinarmory.com/using-offline-wallets-in-armory/ (http://bitcoinarmory.com/using-offline-wallets-in-armory/) (read the whole page)

to secure you Bitcoins. It's worth purchasing maybe a single coin, or a fraction thereof and then practicing with transferring a small amount with your newly configured 'cold storage' wallet and a hot wallet. For example - a free wallet you create on blockchain.info (http://blockchain.info)

Is there any way to buy physical bitcoin and have it flown offshore to a private vault ala gold ?

Do you have a private vault??

Yes, you can buy them on ebay.

Physical Casascius Bitcoins

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/OTC-BTC-Coin-1-BTC-Physical-Casascius-coin-Bitcoin-/00/s/OTM5WDg0MA==/$(KGrHqNHJCkFCbQvSgBRBQnSZwS6w!~~60_12.JPG

The coin has a peel back tamper proof hologram sticker which reveals a 'Private key' which is accepted by the major bitcoin dealer MtGox.com where you can convert these physical Casascius Bitcoins into normal digital Bitcoins. Using the "Redeem Private Key" feature under the Funding Options menu.

The only "problem" is that you have to trust the guy who makes them.  But given that there's $5M worth of coins that have been sold, and I haven't heard of problems with a single one of them, I'd say he's built a nice reputation for himself at this point.

You have to turst MtGox who do 80% of all Bitcoin transactions anyway.

Well it is different, you only have to trust mt gox for the transaction, but once you bought btc and you transfered them to your address, you no more have to trust them

For these coins it is different, since of course who made them, know the private key

I have a 30 chars long password and wallet.db is automatically backuped 4 times a day to an ftp server. I think its enough at the start.

I think it's already fairly mainstream. Big names in the financial press (Wall Street Journal, FT, Forbes, etc.) have all picked up on this. There are Bitcoin users in every country around the world.

For Bitcoin to be used in day-to-day transactions, the value of the currency must stabilise first. When the BTC/USD rate is still rising at 100%+ per year, people have a very strong incentive to hoard them instead of spend them, which grows the Bitcoin economy.

This is cool and as a newbie i will do this but security is a barrier to entry for mainstream.

If someone comes up with some kind of secure $10 priced wallet/service where all the work is done for you then great.

It can hardly be said that its mainstream at the moment.

Wherever I go and talk about it - no-one has ever heard about it.

I had a meeting with a financial adviser who owns an investment company in south Germany last week - and neither he nor his colleagues had ever heard of it. However they were on the look-out for a new opportunity and will look into BTC.

It is still too complex for non-techies to use safely - I mean downloading the blockchain takes for ever on a normal computer - and that kind of barrier puts people off.

However there is rapid development now to overcome all of these barriers to adoption.

There are a number of forces acting in the world to propel BTC into the mainstream however - and in the process to propel a unit BTC to a high value - perhaps $1000's.

The idea of a global currency which meets no barriers in international transfers between individuals is an idea whose time is about to come - its that clear - its that simple. At the same time it is clear to all those observant enough about world affairs that national fiat currencies are rapidly losing their function as a store of value and as a measure of value - inflating base currency amounts is simply too easy when all fiat currencies are no less virtual than BTC.

There are holders of huge wealth just looking at the next opportunity to move into something with real potential to the upside - and now many of them are eyeing up the BTC world and trying to get their heads around its seeming complexity - soon they will move in with a sure-footedness and a determination that will surprise many - there are simply no other games of this kind in town at present.

These combinations coupled with increasing media interest will converge - I guess in 2013 sometime - to give BTC a massive boost and launch it into the mainstream in quite an unexpected way.

Then we will see something which makes the last tech boom seem like a mere blip on a past horizon.

As soon as we see some really big players come into the mix which will really lift the price, at the same time i agree people are too hesitant at purchasing and just expecting the bubble to pop. however even a small shift in price down will just cause a rally in the opposite direction.

On the consumer side we badly need idiot-proof hardware wallets. Generating a secure address without these is difficult, expensive, and perhaps still not as secure as it could be, and something a 'norm' user would despair at trying to do.

On the business side, I think Bitpay is taking care of it nicely and will cement themselves into that lovely position.

We've had our FinCen legal ruling, that basically opens the floodgates. So what we need now is a US exchange to come online.

Hello Coinlab!

There are alternatives to downloading the entire blockchain already, like Electrum.

But the concept of an anonymous, ethereal, near-instantly-transferable gold analog will be attractive to a lot of people... It seems the potential of the Internet has not yet fully unfolded.

great info, thanks guys.

still alot of people are skeptical, i am telling alot of my friends and they not taking it seriously, i am trying to help them out. they gonna regret it.

They will come back to you when they have to pay 1k a BTC then u can say" i told u so" and then u drive away in your lambo gallardo.... 8)

Could casascius not potentially redeem ALL of the bitcoins he has shipped if he saved their code?

Why not use blockchain.info/wallet? Everything is done in the browser and then send to the server. The only problem is how safe your PC is, but that's not a problem if you use Linux (and good Open-Source browser like Firefox) :)
It's at least as safe as normal e-banking is, maybe better IMHO.
(Yes, yes I know that you can use card encryption when dealing with banks, but that does not really solve the problem, there were security breaches in that too.)

Nothing is 100% safe in the IT world...

BTW the main problem with BTC being accepted in real stores is the possibility that government will ban them and arrest everybody who ever used them (so only online anonymous traders will be OK...) IMHO.

I found the combination of blockchain.info and multibit as a local client quite good as they are interchangeable - I also like that blockchain.info isn't a shared wallet and passwords aren't stored on site.

It took me a while to understand how it all works though and I have a technical background. I think a lot of sites are intentionally vague to make it seem straight forward however that just leaves questions unanswered, particularly regarding the all important private keys.  It would be nice if there was some kind of standard documentation available on all sites laid out in a structured way - from a brief overview to get started quickly including how to secure your wallet, right through to every other detail for the sceptics among us.   I was getting tidbits from a range of sites to piece it together and I think that would turn a lot of people off.