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Author Topic: Mixing Walets? Multiple platforms single client  (Read 1736 times)
bluesilk (OP)
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May 28, 2015, 06:26:01 PM
 #1

I have, what some would consider, is probably a stupid question, but my philosophy is "the only stupid question is the one you don't ask".

I have an Android phone and use Linux and Windows.

I was wondering:

Is it possible to have a wallet/client running on Linux, Windows and different client on the Android, and still use the same account? For Example could I have Mycelium on my Android, and then have Bitcoin core or Bither running on the desktop be-it windows or linux, and still have access to my bitcoins?

As to why I'm splitting this up? I will be travelling on business in the US. If I have all my bitcoins on my cell phone, and it gets lost or stolen then I lose everything, so having a copy on my Linux/Windows machine would be good. Obviously if I only have access to my bitcoins on my PC then I can't pay for anything when I go shopping in town. So i want to setup an account, get some bitcoins, then have access to them via my cellphone or my PC. To this end I am looking for a client that works with all three platforms. If the cell phone is lost or stolen, I can kill it and all the information on it. Having my bitcoins backed-up/saved on my PC will prevent their theft. This will also allow me to pay for services while I'm out on the road. If something happens to the PC, I have the Bitcoin information on my cellphone.

Any suggestions, or ideas along these lines?

Thank you

P.S. Yes I am very, very new to Bitcoins




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May 28, 2015, 10:18:07 PM
 #2

Maybe....

This doesn't address all of your questions, but for a partial answer take a look at this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1000544.0
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May 29, 2015, 08:07:07 AM
 #3

Maybe not exactly what you are looking for but why not just get a Trezor hardware wallet?

It is portable, secure and can run on all those platforms.
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May 29, 2015, 10:25:25 AM
 #4

Yes, you can have same Bitcoin address in all 3 platforms. It is very unsecure to store large amount in Android. So why don't you split BTC into few addresses? I suggest you to export all the addresses created in mobile to your PC but don't export addresses in PC to mobile. Store small amount in mobile and bigger in PC.

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May 29, 2015, 11:30:20 AM
 #5

It is very unsecure to store large amount in Android.

Why? And as opposed to what?

I suggest you to export all the addresses created in mobile to your PC but don't export addresses in PC to mobile.

Why?

Store small amount in mobile and bigger in PC.

Why? Malware which targets mobile devices is considerably less common than PC-based malware, and some mobile devices are currently invulnerable to bitcoin-stealing malware (those which cannot yet be easily rooted such as iOS 8.3, most boot-locked android phones running 5.0.2, etc.).
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May 29, 2015, 11:48:08 AM
 #6

It is very unsecure to store large amount in Android.

Why? And as opposed to what?

Android is not secure enough AFAIK. It is better not to store Bitcoin in it. If you know what you are doing and how to handle, then you can use any OS but OP is a newbie, so I am not willing to suggest OP to store whole balance in an Android.

I suggest you to export all the addresses created in mobile to your PC but don't export addresses in PC to mobile.

Why?

He said

 - he don't want to loose his BTC.
 - he is a traveller.

Exporting addresses from Android to PC will secure those addresses even if the phone is lost(one of the concern of OP) and as I said, I don't think Android is secure enough to store whole balance. So vice versa, i.e. exporting addresses from PC to Android is not good.

Store small amount in mobile and bigger in PC.

Why? Malware which targets mobile devices is considerably less common than PC-based malware, and some mobile devices are currently invulnerable to bitcoin-stealing malware (those which cannot yet be easily rooted such as iOS 8.3, most boot-locked android phones running 5.0.2, etc.).

OP is using an Android phone. By mobile, I mean 'Android'. Sorry! I should have told earlier. There are some reasons. If you also consider practical problems additionally to technical problems, I don't think it is good to store whole balance in a mobile especially when you travel a lot.

If there is any mistake, please correct me. Thank you!

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May 29, 2015, 12:51:48 PM
 #7

...
but OP is a newbie,
...
He said

 - he don't want to loose his BTC.
 - he is a traveller.

Exporting addresses from Android to PC will secure those addresses even if the phone is lost

I would never suggest that a newbie try to directly handle private keys, there is far too much danger involved in messing something up. If physical loss of a phone is a concern (and I agree it should be), usage of a deterministic wallet plus properly backing up the seed is much better advice IMO.

...
OP is a newbie, so I am not willing to suggest OP to store whole balance in an Android.
...
Malware which targets mobile devices is considerably less common than PC-based malware, and some mobile devices are currently invulnerable to bitcoin-stealing malware (those which cannot yet be easily rooted such as iOS 8.3, most boot-locked android phones running 5.0.2, etc.).

OP is using an Android phone. By mobile, I mean 'Android'. Sorry! I should have told earlier. There are some reasons. If you also consider practical problems additionally to technical problems, I don't think it is good to store whole balance in a mobile especially when you travel a lot.

Aside from physical loss (which I addressed above), losses from malware are a real threat, and they are much smaller threat on mobiles than they are on desktops (at least for the time being...). IMO newbies should be steered towards mobile wallets, especially deterministic ones, not away from them.

(I certainly agree with you that large amounts shouldn't be stored in any hot wallet though.)
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May 29, 2015, 02:27:02 PM
 #8

I have, what some would consider, is probably a stupid question, but my philosophy is "the only stupid question is the one you don't ask".

I have an Android phone and use Linux and Windows.

I was wondering:

Is it possible to have a wallet/client running on Linux, Windows and different client on the Android, and still use the same account? For Example could I have Mycelium on my Android, and then have Bitcoin core or Bither running on the desktop be-it windows or linux, and still have access to my bitcoins?

As to why I'm splitting this up? I will be travelling on business in the US. If I have all my bitcoins on my cell phone, and it gets lost or stolen then I lose everything, so having a copy on my Linux/Windows machine would be good. Obviously if I only have access to my bitcoins on my PC then I can't pay for anything when I go shopping in town. So i want to setup an account, get some bitcoins, then have access to them via my cellphone or my PC. To this end I am looking for a client that works with all three platforms. If the cell phone is lost or stolen, I can kill it and all the information on it. Having my bitcoins backed-up/saved on my PC will prevent their theft. This will also allow me to pay for services while I'm out on the road. If something happens to the PC, I have the Bitcoin information on my cellphone.

Any suggestions, or ideas along these lines?

Thank you

P.S. Yes I am very, very new to Bitcoins


In theory yes, but the system is not designed to have a shared wallet. The system has no awareness of wallets or even bitcoins, but that is getting a little too much into the technicality. I recommend getting several addresses and memorize or store your private keys, you can always import them in any wallet.  This also reduces risk of your funds being stolen by malware or virus.



...loteo...
DIGITAL ERA LOTTERY


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RPLAY NOWR
BE A MOON VISITOR!
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bluesilk (OP)
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May 29, 2015, 02:53:50 PM
 #9

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the helpful suggestions, information and advice. I should have, perhaps, mentioned my reasoning when I first posted here. Since I didn't let me correct that now.

Background Starts
I am a business owner, in the Caribbean. My customers, however are not restricted to the Caribbean, but come from as far away as Europe (Germany, Denmark, The UK), Australia, China, and New Zealand, and as close as Barbados, Jamaica, US Virgin Islands. For all that, we are still a small company and for what we do, we have no real wish to grow too much more.

I am now getting into a venture with my brother that will require a hefty investment of cash, in excess of U$500k. This is actually something that is actually a "no-brainer". However, before spending that kind of money, we realised that certain requirements had to be met. The foremost of those was for one of us get travel to the states and get trained to handle the machinery that we are going to buy. By "handle the machinery" I mean, learn how to take them apart, put them together and make sure they run as good as before. Learn about the weak and trouble spots, and how to anticipate what might go wrong and prepare for it.
All that takes time and so we decided that I can have an assistant manager, become a manager (I've known her for over 20 years) and she'll run my business while I try to bend my old half century brain into learning something new.

In the last 18 months or so, a number of customers, here in the Caribbean, but also from the US and Europe and Asia, have been asking me about Bitcoins.Some wanted to know more about them and how to use them, some asked if I accept payment. They all say that since I'm an IT person, I would be able to explain it to them and if necessary set-up the "system" in their businesses, some suggested that it's something I should be using, since it would drastically cut down on overheads incurred when transferring money.

So my educational trip to the US has just been expanded. I did a lot of reading and watching of documentaries (The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin) and came to the conclusion that the only real way to understand how Bitcoin works and can be used is to actually use it myself.
Background Ends

My thinking is that after spending about 12 or so months using Bitcoins in different places, situations, for buying or selling services, goods and whatever, I should have a decent grounding, enough so, to be able to explain to my customers how it works and the advantages and disadvantages of this currency. If this goes as well as I am hoping, I would later like to offer accepting payment from customers at both, my current and future business, and help those customers who are interested in offering their customers the extra service of accepting payment in Bitcoins.

My original question about the different wallets stems from previous experience, when my cell pone was stolen. I did have it long enough for me to have installed Android Device Manager and so could kill it. I woud think that everyone knows that once the phone is gone, the chances of getting it back are lower than low. Hence my question about having my Bitcoins (perhaps, as some have suggested, not all of them) on my cell phone, and the rest or all of them saved/stored/backed-up else where. That else where would be my Linux PC back in the Caribbean. However I was interested to find out that there were other possibilities, not least paper (I'm an old timer, one of them who still appreciate and know the value of paper Grin) and Trezor.

I hope knowing a bit of the background that lead to my question, helps you in educating me in this area.

I really do appreciate all of you, who have posted here and I look forward to learning more from you.

Thank you very much.

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May 29, 2015, 03:15:01 PM
 #10

Just don't make it more complicated than it needs to be  Cheesy

As mentioned, from what you are saying I personally think a hardware wallet of some kind will best suit your needs. I mentioned Trezor before as that can interface with an Android phone if you have the necessary cable. You may also want to look at http://choosecase.com/ which was recently launched.
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May 29, 2015, 03:24:17 PM
 #11

-snip-
So my educational trip to the US has just been expanded. I did a lot of reading and watching of documentaries (The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin) and came to the conclusion that the only real way to understand how Bitcoin works and can be used is to actually use it myself.
 -snip-

Have you read https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf? It covers everything about Bitcoin.

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May 29, 2015, 09:00:53 PM
 #12

Aside from physical loss (which I addressed above), losses from malware are a real threat, and they are much smaller threat on mobiles than they are on desktops (at least for the time being...). IMO newbies should be steered towards mobile wallets, especially deterministic ones, not away from them.

Exactly.  The security model of mobile devices is usually much tighter than that of PCs and Macs.

For example, Android apps do not have access to one another's data by default.  That is, unless:
  • the device's kernel is specifically compromised to allow that (extremely unlikely),
  • the device is rooted (usually impossible without explicit action from the user), or
  • an app explicitly permits another app to access its data.
On a computer running a regular Windows/Linux/Mac OS X, however, any application you download and run can access all your other applications' files, including your private keys.

Even though private keys are often encrypted, there is a trade-off between security and usability, and in practice usability often wins here.  I would much rather prefer to prevent a malicious entity from accessing my keys than rely on the strength of my password (and on the absence of keyloggers).
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