Bitcoin Forum

Hi all,

Newbie here. Is it safe to use MtGox as a wallet to store bitcoin? Do they charge a fee for using it as a wallet?

I went the Dwolla-MtGox route but now I'm looking for a place to store some bitcoin safely that won't charge a transfer fee.

Thanks in advance!
-Alex

Haven’t been using them to much but I only know of trading fees. It’s safe to store in any online wallet as long as you trust them not to get hacked or steel your BTC. I personally consider mtgox safe.

No fee , but you'll get annoyed by their AML team...   :(

Do some reading on the forums - some consider it safe (see previous post), others don't trust them as there are mixed experiences.  

Even if it is 100% safe, some regulations may come and it might go down or transactions get blocked or something...

I think it's best to use personal wallets, this way you'll get hurt only if whole bitcoin community gets hurt.

Cheers!

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I am a relative newbie with Bitcoin (less than 2 months), but I pretty much split my eggs between Mt Gox wallet and Personal home computer wallet at the moment.

As far as I know, MtGox like most all bitcoin trading sites doesn't charge fees for depositing and withdrawing bitcoin.
Note that if MtGox gets hacked again (like it happened half a year ago) all your coins are lost.
It is better to store them on your HD and have a properly encrypted backup of your wallet.dat on another PC or on the Internet.

I`m using it (mtgox) as a walet. Last month i stored there 100 btc. Than selled. So, i think its trusted and verrifed.

Last day, I stored 1 million dollar below my pillow. At next day the money was still there. So I think it it secure to store money this way.

The exchanges sometimes have problems with certain withdrawal methods and their AML and fraud policies sometimes mean that people don't have immediate access to their accounts.  I wouldn't use them as an online wallet if not being able to make immediate transactions (including sending your Bitcoins from your MtGox account to another address) would seriously inconvenience you.

codymanix is right.Fact, that sommethink works for 99 ppl, does`t mean, that it will work for that last one.
I`m personally using mtgox as a short time wallet. BTS gets in once a day, i`m seting orders and than, once a week or so, i`m taking money out.
for me - simple.

IMO the safest way to store bitcoin is on your own computer. You are then responsible and accountable for your own security and nobody else. If you store bitcoin in brokers, try and diversify your risk by only carrying a proportion in 3rd party wallets and storing as much as you'd need until you have access to your own computer.

This dilemma prompted me to learn to use TrueCrypt. I'd recommend it. It's easy. First I mount my encrypted volume which contains my bitcoin data directory. Then I double click on my Bitcoin shortcut. My Bitcoin shortcut is modified to point to this: "C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin.exe" -datadir=T:\Bitcoin

I store just a small amount of bitcoins at mtgox, as I am afraid I can't withdraw them if needed - or just a small amount of them. Furthermore, it was just a few month ago that they got hacked...

I occasionally leave small amounts in my MtGox account but there is no better place to have your wallet than on your own PC. Providing you have secured it properly, that way only you can have access to your BitCoins. I personally run my BitCoin wallet on my Linux box under my desk, it runs an encrypted wallet file and the whole disk has PGP, so if someone steals it I don't think they are going to get very far. Backups are important also, it runs a cron every day at midnight that copies my wallet to my network disk. There is no better place than home for your BitCoins!

I'd say the best bet is to just stick with your own wallet in the Bitcoin client. MTGox has been hacked before. Nothing is 100% safe. And if you have lots of Bitcoins you should have them in a paper wallet too. It's a good backup anyway just in case your hard drive dies.

Personally, since I sell the coins fairly quickly after mining them (gotta pay off that hardware!), I send them to MtGox. If I were holding a significant amount of coins, I wouldn't store them there.

Everyone is correct though, I wouldn't leave anything on someone else's site that I couldn't live without.

A great deal of the attraction to BTC in the first place is that you do not *have* to trust any central authority or server. So, just use their wallet for money you are actively exchanging through them. Use your own encrypted and backed up wallet for your "savings" account.

After today, I'm leaving all my coins with them. My PC just crashed and I almost lost my 5 BTC lol. I know 5 BTC is nothing, but I mined it with a 5770 hhhahahah.

A practical and reasonably safe way to store your bitcoins is to make a savings account to which you transfer most of your bitcoins. Put the wallet and a backup both on a thumbdrive. delete the wallet from your PC.

Another  option is to diversify. Store at many different places.

Don't use any wallet service. Any can be hacked, shut down, fractional reserved, or just robbed by their owners (doubtful of the last for mtgox, but they do have employees they have to trust).

Mtgox, is an exchange, not a wallet service. Put coins in there to sell and take them out when done. No risk of them failing.

Exactly. I aim to leave my coins in exchanges the least amount of time possible !