What is the safest way to store Bitcoins?

[Mickeyb]

There might easier ways now but Bitcoin armory X of Y paper wallets are the "easiest" to use while providing the highest protection.  For example spread 5 copies of a document around the world and you would only need 2 or 3 copies of that document to recreate your keys.  Even if your house floods or burns down as long as you can get the correct number of copies you're OK.

You need to ensure that the keys don't sign the transaction on the same computer. It would not be safe as it would be exposed to an attacker all at once.

Offline. Put the wallet .dat files on a usb stick and keep them safe.

The wallet must have never been on a computer that has connections to the internet before. Doing so may result in your private key being compromised in the event that there is a virus infection.

No it doesn't. All you need is to make sure your computer is safe. If you use a computer that is only ever used for bitcoin transactions then there likely isn't going to be any issues.

The problem is that you cannot make sure that your computer is truly safe without formatting it. Most antiviruses cannot detect every single virus that is in the wild, the best method is to format it. Also, most people would not have a computer that only does Bitcoin transaction and don't surf the web/

All of this above reminds me of the time before I got myself a hardware wallet. Non-stop paranoia, reformatting, checking and running anti-viruses and malware protections. It was hard to relax myself after I started using Trezor.

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[christycalhoun]

Print out a paper wallet and put copies in a safety deposit box at a trusted bank.

[DeathAngel]

I advise paper wallets or trezor.

[dothebeats]

Offline. Put the wallet .dat files on a usb stick and keep them safe.

The USB Stick should be clean and free of viruses, or else it will be a mess for the user in case something bad happens (the data got corrupted/lost) to the USB stick. Also, a nice thing to do/consider is to have multiple copies of the wallet files in separate/different USB Sticks that are also free of viruses so that in case one got its data corrupted/lost, you will still have a copy of it.

[neonshium]

Offline. Put the wallet .dat files on a usb stick and keep them safe.

The USB Stick should be clean and free of viruses, or else it will be a mess for the user in case something bad happens (the data got corrupted/lost) to the USB stick. Also, a nice thing to do/consider is to have multiple copies of the wallet files in separate/different USB Sticks that are also free of viruses so that in case one got its data corrupted/lost, you will still have a copy of it.

Hardware wallets are best and modern idea of securing bitcoins. But not viable for everybody when we consider the cost needed for buying it.
A Password protection to encrypt your wallet is more than enough way to secure our bitcoins.

[notlist3d]

Offline. Put the wallet .dat files on a usb stick and keep them safe.

The USB Stick should be clean and free of viruses, or else it will be a mess for the user in case something bad happens (the data got corrupted/lost) to the USB stick. Also, a nice thing to do/consider is to have multiple copies of the wallet files in separate/different USB Sticks that are also free of viruses so that in case one got its data corrupted/lost, you will still have a copy of it.

Hardware wallets are best and modern idea of securing bitcoins. But not viable for everybody when we consider the cost needed for buying it.
A Password protection to encrypt your wallet is more than enough way to secure our bitcoins.

And you could keep a PDF of paper wallet on usb stick.  Having a second copy is highly recommended as sometimes usb sticks crap out.

But you could encrypt the entire USB stick.  With that and storing in safe place you would be pretty secure.

[ranochigo]

Offline. Put the wallet .dat files on a usb stick and keep them safe.

The USB Stick should be clean and free of viruses, or else it will be a mess for the user in case something bad happens (the data got corrupted/lost) to the USB stick. Also, a nice thing to do/consider is to have multiple copies of the wallet files in separate/different USB Sticks that are also free of viruses so that in case one got its data corrupted/lost, you will still have a copy of it.

Hardware wallets are best and modern idea of securing bitcoins. But not viable for everybody when we consider the cost needed for buying it.
A Password protection to encrypt your wallet is more than enough way to secure our bitcoins.

Password protections can secure yourself from primary physical hacking (Ie. having physical access of your computer). If you have a virus, it could record your password and spend your Bitcoins. A paper wallet would do the job of keeping your Bitcoins just fine.

[Peacekhan]

i prefer saving my coins at Blockchain 

[notlist3d]

i prefer saving my coins at Blockchain 

Just be careful as this is a "hot" wallet.   If you are storing many coins everything will highly recommend a cold wallet.  Just a lot more secure as it's not connected to internet always.

The thought is you cant hack into something that is not connected online, which is a pretty good general idea.   If you are using blockchain as a hot wallet make sure to use 2FA.   It will add just a little extra security.

[RealBitcoin]

Print out a paper wallet and put copies in a safety deposit box at a trusted bank.

Lol thats like putting your sheep in the lion's mouth to "safeguard it"

No you cannot trust deposit boxes with bitcoin, too risky. In Greece they dont let you even to your deposit boxes, not to mention about atm being offline and banks not giving out money.

Better buy a safe for 2000-3000$ if you have like 100,000$ worth of bitcoin or some significant amount atleast.

[neonshium]

Safest way to save bitcoins
1. Save in many address.
2. Encrypt your wallet
3. The password should be more than 20 char, must be mix of digits with Upper and lower case
4. Wallet need to be disconnected from internet. Cold storage.
5. May use watch-only option or explorer to see growing of your balances.

For Hot wallet,
a. Skip the 4th bullet-in.
b. Use it along with latest version of wallet/browser and a recommended anti-virus.

[notlist3d]

Print out a paper wallet and put copies in a safety deposit box at a trusted bank.

Lol thats like putting your sheep in the lion's mouth to "safeguard it"

No you cannot trust deposit boxes with bitcoin, too risky. In Greece they dont let you even to your deposit boxes, not to mention about atm being offline and banks not giving out money.

Better buy a safe for 2000-3000$ if you have like 100,000$ worth of bitcoin or some significant amount atleast.

You can buy a good safe for much cheaper.   I would say in high hundreds you can get one that does pretty well, main thing is get one that is heavy as it is hard to carry out.   In my highschool day's I worked somewhere that sold gun safes.... i can tell you it will take a team to move those things if you buy quality.   But you can spend thousands and get super high quality (some are so heavy you have to put extra construction under the floor so it does not sag).

But not all are like Greece.  In the US it's pretty likely in the foreseeable future a safety deposit box is safe.  If your countries credit starts to go down a lot... downgraded like greece was being ... go get it out there are signs before it get's that bad.

[Amph]

the safest way i found is to have a small amount on a hotwallet as a trap, you can put 0.01, just to know that your desktop is not infected, and a standard usb with the other big amount

if they steal you that tiny amount you know you're ifnected and you go ahead and do a secure erase, it's working great for me

[Pursuer]

Print out a paper wallet and put copies in a safety deposit box at a trusted bank.

Lol thats like putting your sheep in the lion's mouth to "safeguard it"

No you cannot trust deposit boxes with bitcoin, too risky. In Greece they dont let you even to your deposit boxes, not to mention about atm being offline and banks not giving out money.

Better buy a safe for 2000-3000$ if you have like 100,000$ worth of bitcoin or some significant amount atleast.

placing anything in safety deposit box is different than putting your money in the bank. because bank can have access to the money you put in your account so they can block or limit it but since they don't have access to your safety deposit box they can not do anything about it.
besides as long as you can make a secure cold storage on your own and "free" I think paying any money for any sort of wallet is a waste of money.

[zenitzz]

IMO, send all your bitcoins to hardware wallet and storing it there is the safest way to keep your bitcoins

[rik1]

paper wallet is the best option because that way only you can touch it and i donty think much peoples in your does even realize what is that thing and what is does

[Velkro]

Offline. Put the wallet .dat files on a usb stick and keep them safe.

That, and also you would like to encrypt it also.
If you dont like anything physical, just encrypt your wallet well.

[jt byte]

Is paper wallet considered as a physical wallet?
If no, then you can save it as a digital file as a pdf or as jpg image.
On that page there are all necessary information to receive and spend your bitcoins.

[notlist3d]

Is paper wallet considered as a physical wallet?
If no, then you can save it as a digital file as a pdf or as jpg image.
On that page there are all necessary information to receive and spend your bitcoins.

A paper wallet is normally printed on a piece off paper.  Sometimes stuck in physical coins.   Or you can just store in safe place.

But you could print a PDF or other version and store it as a digital file.  You would just have to be careful where you keep it.  I would do a usb stick or two if you choose this route.  I would not store on anything that is online or regular computer.

[RealBitcoin]

You can buy a good safe for much cheaper.   I would say in high hundreds you can get one that does pretty well, main thing is get one that is heavy as it is hard to carry out.   In my highschool day's I worked somewhere that sold gun safes.... i can tell you it will take a team to move those things if you buy quality.   But you can spend thousands and get super high quality (some are so heavy you have to put extra construction under the floor so it does not sag).

I`d just chain the safe to the wall or some solid thing then it's immovable, or better yet, built it inside the wall and hide it behind a picture like in the movies.

But not all are like Greece.  In the US it's pretty likely in the foreseeable future a safety deposit box is safe.  If your countries credit starts to go down a lot... downgraded like greece was being ... go get it out there are signs before it get's that bad.

I strongly disagree, unfortunately, anything stored in the bank is the banks property as you loan them out and they will "promise" it to pay it back. When a bank goes bankrupt, in the process of liquidation , it will sell all assets (including your deposit boxes) to pay down the liabilities.

Sorry but i am just not taking that risk. If you really want a safety box, then go with an independent firm that offers this service,but not with a bank.