What is the safest way to store Bitcoins?

[pilscoop]

Other than physical wallets

[Orbs]

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

[vendetahome]

or you can create an offline paper wallet on an offline computer and then print it a few times and keep the private key copies safe somewhere in your safe or something like that

[X42]

or you can create an offline paper wallet on an offline computer and then print it a few times and keep the private key copies safe somewhere in your safe or something like that

The answer is beyond a doubt, generating a privkey on a computer that has never touched the internet and never will. Then you send bitcoin to its public address. Unless BTC get cracked by a super mega computer, your bitcoin will be absolutely safe. A way of doing this is using the wallet armory. A way that doesn't deal with any third party is called the aforementioned paper wallet, but its not very convenient to use.

https://blockchain.info/wallet/paper-tutorial
https://bitcoinarmory.com/

[gon]

paper wallets, hardware wallets like trazor, ledgerwallet are good option
other option as suggested above might be saving you wallet data on USB stick and keep it safe

[Mickeyb]

Other than physical wallets

Well if you don't want to use physical wallet then your bet are paper wallets. Make sure that your computer is not infected though. One of the drawbacks of the paper wallets is that they are hard to manipulate. Paper wallets are good if you will store your coins and not touch them longer periods of time.

Physical wallets like Trezor are because of this much more convenient because you can move your coins as you want and as many times you want!

[achow101]

Other than physical wallets, an offline computer that never has and never will be online using Bitcoin Armory would be very safe.

[PolarPoint]

If your objective is to store bitcoin, the best way is to reinstall the operating system of a computer, download electrum and then go offline. Install electrum, write down the seed and copy a few bitcoin address generated. Keep the seed in a safe place and copy the list of addresses as a text file on a usb drive. Then format the whole hard drive. You can now send coins to those addresses.

[Bluto]

Other than physical wallets, an offline computer that never has and never will be online using Bitcoin Armory would be very safe.

Does anyone use paper?

[notlist3d]

Well you can do paper wallets, this is the insert put into most coins.  But without coin you get to do it yourself (I like to do my own as I don't trust something I did not generate with large sums of BTC.

If you don't like that look into other cold storage options.  The main word there is cold as you do not want it to be online or have internet access when not in use.  It just allows it to be more of a risk of getting virus or other bad things.

Last is hardware.  These are not cheap in many cases but things such as trezor are much more secure then a hot wallet.  

[pjsonowal]

I my opinion sending all your bitcoins to paper wallet and storing it there is the safest way to keep your bitcoins... Whenever i get ROI i send the returns to my paper wallet and sit back in chair heating up some cigars

[Kemben]

if you use online wallet, you can try save your money on software wallet(multibit, electrum,etc)
no one is safe on the internet.

[favdesu]

I use elctrum. has the best security and you can still use it with some work. best for storage in my opinion.

[ranochigo]

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.
Even though paper wallet are cheap and quite secure, I would say that an offline raspberry pi with electrum would work much better. For most cases, internet is required to download the UXTO informations. If you use electrum, you can download it on an online computer and transferring it to the offline computer to sign before broadcasting it on the online computer. Even so, no precautions can be made against weak RNG attacks, unless you review the entire code thoroughly and have plenty of knowledge.

[Possum577]

Other than physical wallets

Coinbase, Circle, Xapo...seriously. I know others will say "you don't own your coins with those joints" but it's too easy to lose your coins or get hacked with an online wallet.

[favdesu]

Other than physical wallets

Coinbase, Circle, Xapo...seriously. I know others will say "you don't own your coins with those joints" but it's too easy to lose your coins or get hacked with an online wallet.

and how do you not get hacked in coinbase or other online 3rd party wallets? plus you don't own the coins.

[DrG]

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.

[ikydesu]

Other than physical wallets

Electrum, it's easy to use, cold wallet and the security features for your coins is enough to keep your coins safe.
Also follow this thread to get some tips to keep your system secure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=203876.0

[Mr Crabs]

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.

[ranochigo]

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/