A way to backup your wallet.dat to paper

[ViceOfBTC21]

This program is untested by me, use at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any loss of Bitcoins caused by this program.

Storage media fail. Whether it's a hard drive, DVD or an USB stick they all sooner or later fail. If all your backup drives containing your encryption key die, you are in trouble. Hopefully, there is paper to the rescue. It won't replace backing up to external storage, but when all else fails, at least you have a chance to avoid losing your Bitcoins.

Here is a link to this program: http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/

It's open source, so you can port it to Android, iOS, macOS and Linux rather easily.

It also includes encryption, but don't rely on it. Encrypt your wallet in your Bitcoin program and GPG it too, so it ends up triply encrypted

Download many copies of the tool too (including source code) and put it on your cloud and your storage, so even if it disappears from the Internet, you wouldn't end up with the fancy notepad paper.

Make sure that you can restore your backup before you can rely on it.

[BitMaxz]

Ollydbg is a software debugger program, and this is a bright idea but even it's encrypted, it still not safe to upload the backup to cloud storage as time goes by; the hackers become smarter than right now. There are always newborn programs and codes every year so I believe even your wallet backup is encrypted someone could discover the way to decrypt the wallet and stole your assets.

That's why it's not recommended to upload all of your wallet files online. It's always safe if you save the encrypted file to offline device(hard disk, cd, flash drive, hardware wallet and etc...) than making an encrypted file with your wallet and upload to cloud storage. Hackers are always evolving and become smarter than before so there is a chance that they can still hack and decrypt the file.

[TravelMug]

I think if you are really a serious crypto investors, putting your wallet.dat on cloud storage in the last thing you should do. Be creative, buy a solid commercialised safety box, or even get one in a back for you the safe keeping of you hardware backups.

Sooner or later hackers will find a way to exploit cloud system (if they haven't done so) so it's not really recommend to do it, in my opinion. Hackers are not just evolving, they are always two steps ahead on this game.

[taufik123]

You should as an OP should do a trial first before creating this thread. So there is a picture tutorial about backing up wallet keys to paper using the application. I became hesitant to try it.

It's better to use traditional methods to back up paper. All that remains is to print the wallet key on paper and keep it in a safe and secure place from hacking. Or use the Time Capsule media. Because Slowly this program can be hacked by hackers or make similar applications.

[tbct_mt2]

It also includes encryption, but don't rely on it. Encrypt your wallet in your Bitcoin program and GPG it too, so it ends up triply encrypted

Download many copies of the tool too (including source code) and put it on your cloud and your storage, so even if it disappears from the Internet, you wouldn't end up with the fancy notepad paper.

I don't think there is need to tripply encrypt and rely on third party softwares to do this. I read so many questions from people who tried to encrypt their private keys or mnemonic seeds, by arbitrarily reverse seed positions, ie. or more steps. Unfortunately, months later, they lost backups of those encryption steps, then they failed to recover their wallets from backups. Backups are there but they lost details of encryption procedures. That sounds very stupid.

Create your wallet offline, make your backups and store them offline, safely from physical threats like water, fire (in Vaults, ie.). It's enough.

[pooya87]

This program is untested by me,

then why are you suggesting it to others?!

then we have the statement on the site itself:

I am no cryptanalytic, and wrote Paperback quickly and without much thinking about the strength of the code.

neither one is going to give me any confidence to want to even check out what this project is about.
also it is not published on any public code sharing platforms such as Github for review and discussion. the source seems to be only available as a zip file on the same site which means even if it has any problems it won't be reported publicly and you won't find out about them unless you spend a ton of time reviewing code yourself.

[Jating]

I don't know but I wouldn't put risking my wallet.dat on a cloud even if it is encrypted. In order for us to secure our assets here, we really need to be paranoid on how we will secure it. So I won't get into it, there are a lot of ways to protect and back it up in your HD, CD, flash drive. Hackers are watching our every move and they are on a hunt, so this suggestion should be not on our list, just saying.

[suzanne5223]

The idea is freshing but doesnt seems right and still the best way to back up wallet.DAT file is still the use of multiple storage media which will be keep in safety deposit box.
Nevertheless, it good that the OP now put a disclaimer about the paperback to be untested by him.

[Artemis3]

Don't do this. Make a new wallet, at creation you get to write words in a paper, thats your cold storage paper backup right there... Now move the funds to that new wallet and delete it.

Keep the paper safe, its all you need to ever retrieve your funds back in the future. Its recommended to make another physical copy of it (with your hands, zero electronics) and keep both safe.

Again, don't backup wallet.dat or even attempt to analyze it with tools. Just play it safe and move the funds to a modern wallet with a proper seed word phrase. Also see why paper wallets were replaced by the seed word system, any sort of direct handling a private key are a big no no. Too many points of failure and lack of security.

You may think the seed words and the private key are the same thing, but they aren't. Those words are so easy to conceal and manually copy, the private key isn't, which makes people tempt to use an electronic device, opening the doors to a whole can of worms.

When you make a new wallet, you have to write some words in a paper with your hands, this is the most important thing for a wallet, nothing else matters, no password, no 2fa, no hardware gizmos. This very paper is the core and soul of it, never forget how important this is, and yes, you can lose anything else.

[bob123]

It also includes encryption, but don't rely on it. Encrypt your wallet in your Bitcoin program and GPG it too, so it ends up triply encrypted

There is no practical reason to encrypt something three times.

You either have all the keys stored in the same place -> Results in the same security as just a single encryption or
you have the keys stored in different places -> Then going for a secret sharing scheme after encryption is the better alternative.

Either way, encrypting something twice, or even a third time, doesn't increase the security.

[ViceOfBTC21]

I think if you are really a serious crypto investors, putting your wallet.dat on cloud storage in the last thing you should do. Be creative, buy a solid commercialised safety box, or even get one in a back for you the safe keeping of you hardware backups.

Sooner or later hackers will find a way to exploit cloud system (if they haven't done so) so it's not really recommend to do it, in my opinion. Hackers are not just evolving, they are always two steps ahead on this game.

It's possible to encrypt your wallet in Bitcoin-Qt, but you shouldn't rely on that alone. You should add an additional layer of encryption with TrueCrypt, with a different password of course, so it will end up doubly encrypted. And if you are paranoid, use 7-Zip and GPG (symmetric) over the file and put it in SpiderOak/Tresorit/any other online encrypted storage. This way, when one of encryption tools and/or algorithms gets compromised, your Bitcoins are still safe. Sure, that's 5 passwords to remember, but it's not impossible.

And I didn't say about storing your wallet copies in the tool, I just told about storing copies of PaperBack program in your cloud account.

[ViceOfBTC21]

It also includes encryption, but don't rely on it. Encrypt your wallet in your Bitcoin program and GPG it too, so it ends up triply encrypted

There is no practical reason to encrypt something three times.

You either have all the keys stored in the same place -> Results in the same security as just a single encryption or
you have the keys stored in different places -> Then going for a secret sharing scheme after encryption is the better alternative.

Either way, encrypting something twice, or even a third time, doesn't increase the security.

Yes, but at least in this case your chain is as stronger than it would be if you had done it with only a single tool, because as long as you use different passphrases with same entropy, the encryption chain is as strong as the passphrase used in the strongest encryption program from this chain. If all three programs are secure, the attacker would have to crack three different passphrases in order to get to your wallet.

However, if you use the same passphrase, the encryption is as strong as the weakest link. In this case, the weakest link is going to be your passphrase used by your weakest program.

TL;DR: Yes, encrypting triple times can greatly increase your security, although it doesn't have to.

[bob123]

Yes, but at least in this case your chain is as stronger than it would be if you had done it with only a single tool, because as long as you use different passphrases with same entropy, the encryption chain is as strong as the passphrase used in the strongest encryption program from this chain. If all three programs are secure, the attacker would have to crack three different passphrases in order to get to your wallet.

However, if you use the same passphrase, the encryption is as strong as the weakest link. In this case, the weakest link is going to be your passphrase used by your weakest program.

TL;DR: Yes, encrypting triple times can greatly increase your security, although it doesn't have to.

No. Encrypting something three times does not increase the security.

What you should do is to concatenate your 3 different passwords into one password, feed it into a key derivation function and use that key to encrypt your data.
Overall you have the same entropy as when encrypting it 3 times with those passwords individually. But the big disadvantage with your idea is, that the cracking process is being split into 3 parts with less entropy each. This speeds the cracking process up - by a lot.

TL;DR: No, encrypting something more than once does not increase the security at all.