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Title: Bitcoin client operating in a virtual machine off a USB drive Post by: matt.collier on May 22, 2011, 09:39:01 PM I've been thinking that a specilized *nix distro running as a Virtual Machine (VM) off a USB drive might be a way to secure the bitcoin wallet. And if that USB drive happened to be a device like the Sansa Clip+, a backup of the wallet could be made to memory in the microSD slot.
Parameters for this solution would include: * No direct access to the wallet file via the host OS. * Wallet file should be stored on some kind of encrypted file system within the VM * Access to wallet file should be tightly controlled in VM OS * User level access on the VM should only be allowed communicate with the bitcoin daemon via a secure channel That's the germ of the idea anyway. Does this have any merit? Title: Re: Bitcoin client operating in a virtual machine off a USB drive Post by: matt.collier on May 22, 2011, 10:17:29 PM I just became aware of this document that might apply to this project:
http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/redhat/rhel5-guide-i731.pdf (http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/redhat/rhel5-guide-i731.pdf) Title: Re: Bitcoin client operating in a virtual machine off a USB drive Post by: foo on May 22, 2011, 11:19:52 PM I experimented with putting the bitcoin data directory on a USB flash drive, but it was so incredibly slow that I abandoned the idea. The block chain downloaded at maybe one block a minute.
Title: Re: Bitcoin client operating in a virtual machine off a USB drive Post by: gigabytecoin on May 23, 2011, 10:29:41 AM I experimented with putting the bitcoin data directory on a USB flash drive, but it was so incredibly slow that I abandoned the idea. The block chain downloaded at maybe one block a minute. How fast was your flash drive? If it was a year or two old... chances are it was operating at around 1-5 mb/s... Today you can buy flash drives that read/write approximately 100x that speed if you have the cash. Title: Re: Bitcoin client operating in a virtual machine off a USB drive Post by: Raize on May 23, 2011, 02:18:49 PM I have been doing this already. I use a portable version of Dropbox to sync to the thumbdrive. Inside the Dropbox container I have a portable version of Truecrypt with a passphrase over 25 characters long, a hidden keyfile, and Serpent+AES+Twofish encryption. Within the Truecrypt volume I keep a full copy of the Bitcoin client along with my BTC.
I have 3 of these thumbdrives, one I keep on my person, another is stored in a hidden location at work, and another is stored in a safe with my car title, will, emergency cash, passport, etc. Title: Re: Bitcoin client operating in a virtual machine off a USB drive Post by: cypherdoc on May 23, 2011, 04:22:23 PM I have been doing this already. I use a portable version of Dropbox to sync to the thumbdrive. Inside the Dropbox container I have a portable version of Truecrypt with a passphrase over 25 characters long, a hidden keyfile, and Serpent+AES+Twofish encryption. Within the Truecrypt volume I keep a full copy of the Bitcoin client along with my BTC. I have 3 of these thumbdrives, one I keep on my person, another is stored in a hidden location at work, and another is stored in a safe with my car title, will, emergency cash, passport, etc. i have 4 Ironkeys with which i would like to do this exact same thing. but how did u get a full version of Bitcoin client to run off the USB? is the entire Bitcoin Directory inside the USB as well? can u direct me to an easy reference about how to load portable versions of Dropbox and Truecrypt onto the USB? this is exactly what i've been looking for. Title: Re: Bitcoin client operating in a virtual machine off a USB drive Post by: matt.collier on May 26, 2011, 06:26:17 PM I've implemented this. Please see: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=9937.0
Title: Re: Bitcoin client operating in a virtual machine off a USB drive Post by: eturnerx on May 27, 2011, 12:28:22 AM This is relevant to my interests.
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