Bitcoin Forum

what is the best method to keep your bitcoins safe? in your personal bitcoin wallet or in mtgox bitcoinica accounts?
and how to exchange from your bitcoin wallet to cash?

It's always best to keep your bitcoins in your personal wallet IMO (client based) and keep back ups of your wallet.dat. As for exchanging to cash check out the exchanges?

thanks bro... will have to try the bitcoin client to download and configure it but will search the forum on how to configure it

Keep your btc in your wallet, but make sure you do not lose it. Backup it!
And make sure no one steal it from you, encrypt it (and don't forget the password)

The level of attention needed for security will increase as the amount of funds held increases.

For large amounts, (tens of thousands of dollars worth) for instance, the recommendation is to only use systems that have an "air gap" to the network. 

Some clients will help with this ... Armory being one of them.

so the best solution for incoming outgoing bitcoins and also secure is Armory?  i wanted to opt for the bitcoin client platform but will give it a go to Armory as well

for day to day petty cash, say < 400 BTC then blockchain.info wallet (they have some issues just the last couple of days but are good)
for say < 5,000 BTC Mt. Gox with a Yubi key & PW from lastpass, also with a Yubi key & dedicated reset email addresses from gmail with 2FA
for > 5,000 BTC then Armory wallet on a dedicated offline laptop with USB flash drive & paper wallet backups in different locations & with deathswitchs

for 100 - 2,000 BTC + consider lending some out to Pirate or one of his feeders (I can do this if you wished), top rate paying 7% per week interest

I've moved 5 figure amounts to Gox via Dwolla but they can be a bit skittish & need a bunch of KYC, for large amounts just wire to the exchanges, I use http://www.xe.com/xetrade quick, cheap, efficient & easy - charge less than banks 1.4% over mid-market rates for currency conversions, most types of transfers are free & all arranged & executed fast online, assuming that you have Internet banking with your bank then that's all you need

wow... thanks Otoh that's very helpful will start with the top  ;D

I keep my bitcoins in StrikeSapphire. Now if I could only find out how to get them out after I lose them.

cool, any further details needed just ask, the blockchain.info wallet may not be working 100% for a couple of days but once they sort out their glitch they are the best, back the wallet up encrypted by email

i sent you a pm Otoh but the previous post has a good answer how to spend bitcoins from armory wallet? or personal bitcoin wallet?

or you can keep them in your brain

i wish that don't you?  8)

PM answered, yep spending Bitcoins from any wallet an easy way is just to enter the private keys in Mt. Gox if you wished to sell at spot & cash out in $ for any amount, I missed covering Bitcoinica in your OP - personally I would never park money there, if you are gambling on the site you will know your own risk tolerance, but I believe that there is a strong possibility given their MO that they could well go TU if the Bitcoin price were to quickly double or triple - which I also believe is bound to happen one day or at least isn't something that I'd like to bet against

thanks Otoh will follow your steps much appreciated

YVW

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Brainwallet

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/03/12/brainwallet-the-ultimate-in-mobile-money/

as Mushroomized says is the way to go for say > 10,000 BTC with multiple backups & death/dementia switches in place

The paranoia in this thread is beautiful. I feel like they really are out to get me now.  :o

As was stated by others in this thread it really depends on what level of security you want.

If you're capable of using a different password for each site, and keeping your email from getting compromised then a good service to use as an e-Wallet is Intersango.com

They have the best security record of any exchange and the operators are often the first ones to find security flaws on other sites (MtGox, Bitcoinica and BTC-e and others come to mind).

On top of that they're also the  second largest exchange so you can swap in and out of bitcoin or cash quickly and easily.

Paper wallets are king.

www.bitaddress.org

you can download the standalone .html, load it up on a Ubuntu live CD and print out all the physical addresses you want.

I keep mine in a safe deposit box at my bank.

Thinking about putting them in a fire proof box inside a floor safe... but the safe deposit box is free...

It's fine printing them to paper, how do you digitise them again after though?

You can use the redeem private key feature on MtGox.

For sure the safe deposit box is the right choice if you want to store the btc for a long long time but if you trade them that would be uncomfortable to keep bumping into the bank branch or whatever the safe box is kept, but if you sell and buy btc all day long i think Armory client is the best with an offline pc or laptop or even the bitcoin client will do the job as long as your pc/laptop stays out  of viruses range. ( even if you pc will be hacked i think its a low chance the 3th party will be able to sell all your btc at once )

2 days ago i was a newbie with btc trading keeping etc but i try every client and exchange so far and as far as i seen a simple backup of your wallet on external flash drive or email draft will do the job. i'm not paranoia but a simple msconfig - startup or services at every startup will keep you away from having your btc disappear

 ;)