Best way to protect my coins

[gondel]

HEllo all,
What is the best way to protect your coins on multibit? I have asked this question before, but didnt manage to understand clearly
Can you provide something like steps per steps guide for a cold storage with multibit? Thank you all! Should i continue using multibit?
Thanks
BR
Gondel

[prof7bit]

HEllo all,
What is the best way to protect your coins on multibit? I have asked this question before, but didnt manage to understand clearly
Can you provide something like steps per steps guide for a cold storage with multibit? Thank you all! Should i continue using multibit?
Thanks
BR
Gondel

Use it only on a computer that is not likely to become infected with Malware, the usual recommendations for computer security apply.

I recommend redesignating an old Laptop for the sole purpose of Bitcoin (no other software installed or used on it), format the HDD and install Linux (you won't need any Windows software, so the usual excuses for not using Linux do not apply), I recommend Lubuntu for such old laptops because it runs on really old and otherwise already unusable hardware.

These recommendations apply to all wallets, not only Multibit.

[gondel]

HEllo all,
What is the best way to protect your coins on multibit? I have asked this question before, but didnt manage to understand clearly
Can you provide something like steps per steps guide for a cold storage with multibit? Thank you all! Should i continue using multibit?
Thanks
BR
Gondel

Use it only on a computer that is not likely to become infected with Malware, the usual recommendations for computer security apply.

I recommend redesignating an old Laptop for the sole purpose of Bitcoin (no other software installed or used on it), format the HDD and install Linux (you won't need any Windows software, so the usual excuses for not using Linux do not apply), I recommend Lubuntu for such old laptops because it runs on really old and otherwise already unusable hardware.

These recommendations apply to all wallets, not only Multibit.

How to make a cold storage from it? Is that possible ? Can i make backups with program like data protector also?

[prof7bit]

How to make a cold storage from it? Is that possible ? Can i make backups with program like data protector also?

Multibit (classic) does not support cold storage (online watching / offline signing), you will need to wait for the new MultiuBit HD (I guess it will have this option (because there is no reason why it shouldn't, but I don't know it for sure)).

If you can't wait then I would recommend Electrum for easy to use cold storage (Armory is too heavy and overkill for casual users and its thousands of features are probably too overwhelming for non-experts).

I do not recommend paper wallets with single key+address anymore these days, this is antique 2009 stuff from the early days when people were brave enough to manually compose a transaction with copy and paste and a text editor (and sometimes messed up spectacularly), they have been superseded by much more user friendly and modern seed+mpk wallets for which proper software support exists (Electrum, Armory) that removes all the complications and pitfalls.

[gondel]

HI,
So you guess to jump to Electrum and forget about Multibit? Didnt know that multibit is so much not fuctional... May be I can go to other software......Is Electrum the best?
BR
Gondel

[prof7bit]

HI,
So you guess to jump to Electrum and forget about Multibit? Didnt know that multibit is so much not fuctional.

I did not say that Multibit is not functional. It does what it is supposed to do and it does things that other wallets can't do and it works very well. If you need a wallet for a certain type of usage then compare the feature list of all available wallets and choose the one that suits best. You can also use multiple wallets if none of the existing wallets provides all the needed features.

[gondel]

HI,
So you guess to jump to Electrum and forget about Multibit? Didnt know that multibit is so much not fuctional.

I did not say that Multibit is not functional. It does what it is supposed to do and it does things that other wallets can't do and it works very well. If you need a wallet for a certain type of usage then compare the feature list of all available wallets and choose the one that suits best. You can also use multiple wallets if none of the existing wallets provides all the needed features.

Thank you for the info
So if I am trnsfering my coins from Multibit to Electrum for example and I have multiple addresses at my wallet in Multibit. Do I have to do something different as the coins in my wallet are separated into different addresses ? Thanks!

[prof7bit]

So if I am trnsfering my coins from Multibit to Electrum for example and I have multiple addresses at my wallet in Multibit. Do I have to do something different as the coins in my wallet are separated into different addresses ? Thanks!

It will do the right thing automatically. Just spend the available balance and it will collect all outputs from all addresses. You just need to take care of the fee, it might want to add a fee that is larger than 0.0001 if your wallet contains many small outputs, if it says there is not enough balance then gradually reduce the send amount in increments of 0.0001 and try again until the amount to send plus the fees it deems necessary is exactly the total available balance.

And you should not delete your old wallet after you have emptied it, you might have given one of its addresses to somebody, maybe have it written in some old forum post and someone suddenly decides to tip you 2 years later [happened to me already], or maybe you didn't remember that you still have a bitbet.us bet running that resolves in 2018 and unexpectedly pays you 0.1237564 BTC which will be worth $543,564.42 in 2018 or things like that and then you don't want to have your old wallet file deleted. But on the other hand: If you delete it and forget about it you might never learn about that unexpected payment and so it also won't matter to you.

[gondel]

So if I am trnsfering my coins from Multibit to Electrum for example and I have multiple addresses at my wallet in Multibit. Do I have to do something different as the coins in my wallet are separated into different addresses ? Thanks!

It will do the right thing automatically. Just spend the available balance and it will collect all outputs from all addresses. You just need to take care of the fee, it might want to add a fee that is larger than 0.0001 if your wallet contains many small outputs, if it says there is not enough balance then gradually reduce the send amount in increments of 0.0001 and try again until the amount to send plus the fees it deems necessary is exactly the total available balance.

And you should not delete your old wallet after you have emptied it, you might have given one of its addresses to somebody, maybe have it written in some old forum post and someone suddenly decides to tip you 2 years later [happened to me already], or maybe you didn't remember that you still have a bitbet.us bet running that resolves in 2018 and unexpectedly pays you 0.1237564 BTC which will be worth $543,564.42 in 2018 or things like that and then you don't want to have your old wallet file deleted. But on the other hand: If you delete it and forget about it you might never learn about that unexpected payment and so it also won't matter to you.

Hey thanks for the response
I am going to do that of course. Only thing..if i keep both wallets on same PC there will be no confusion between them? I just dont want to mess up everything before doing something.

[prof7bit]

Only thing..if i keep both wallets on same PC there will be no confusion between them? I just dont want to mess up everything before doing something.

There will be no confusion. MultiBit does not interfere with any other wallet software. Please also see the documentation of each wallet software in question to see where it stores its data files and its wallet files (its always a good idea to know where exactly each wallet stores its data (and know how to find that place in explorer), even if you don't normally need to manually poke around in these folders, you should still at least know where these folders are).

[gtraah]

Guys I am getting mixed messages, does multibit use Change addresses: Example:

I have 1 address my main address which I receive Bitcoin into, I also have a private key for this address as per normal. I have printed this private key thus having a paper wallet aswell as digital copy.

Now If I send coins from this address, do all my bitcoins go to another address rendering the paper wallet and private key useless, I dont think so but I have been seeing some posts stating otherwise. I am sure bitcoin Core does this but I did not think multibit does this.

I really dont like the change address feature as it means you need to keep updating your paper wallet's priv key, everytime you send money from it.

[prof7bit]

Guys I am getting mixed messages, does multibit use Change addresses: Example:

Change goes to another existing address in your wallet. It does not create new addresses, it uses an existing address in the wallet but you can't easily control which of them this will be.

The key-import/export feature is not meant to import/export paper wallets. Mutibit is not designed to work with paper wallets.

If you want to spend from paper wallets then use a paper wallet spending software like for example Mycelium for Android which is specifically designed for this purpose.

[gtraah]

but wait a minute, what if the only address in my wallet is 1 address? I do not have any other address in my multibit wallet. And yes ok I see what you are saying. But If I do not create a new address then thhis paper wallet will work for now.

because I have sent money from this wallet... and all the money is still there.

Which means, the change address happens ONLY if you have another existing wallet in this multibit wallet?

I may have answered my own questoin, please correct me if I am wrong

[prof7bit]

but wait a minute, what if the only address in my wallet is 1 address? I do not have any other address in my multibit wallet. And yes ok I see what you are saying. But If I do not create a new address then thhis paper wallet will work for now.

Yes, then it will work. If you look at the receive tab and see only one address in the list (you have never ever pressed the new button) then your wallet will only have one address and all change goes back to the same address.

If you know *exactly* what you are doing then you can use it that way but its not meant for noobs without a full knowledge about how bitcoin transactions work to use the import/export feature to manage their paper wallets, thats why I said its not meant to be used that way. Its a hack, a creative abuse of the key export function for experts only. If you are aware of all the implications then you can of course do it. But there are better ways (other software) to work with paper wallets and there is no need to force MultiBit to do what it was not designed to be able to do.

If the wallet has more than one address it will use the second address but I believe this is not officially documented, so it might change without notice. A much better approach would have been to do it like Mycelium does it, they always send change to the address that contributed the largest input, that automatically takes care of any stupid things a noob might decide to do but Multibit unfortunately does not use that algorithm, so partial spending of paper wallets with MultiBit can lead to unexpected results. Be careful. And never delete a temporary wallet before you have made 100% sure all addresses are empty and all BTC have moved to where you expected them to move.