How safe is Bitcoin really?

[pilscoop]

How hard is it to hack an online wallet?
Can your transactions be stuck in limbo without confirmation?

[toinew]

bitcoin itself is pretty safe if you know how to use it properly.
But a new user has many ways of doing something bad and letting hackers take his bitcoins.
The problem is not bitcoin but the user

[dothebeats]

Bitcoin is safe, the user who uses bitcoins should be cautious of using bitcoins. Most of the losses in bitcoins are made up of users who didn't make sure of how secure their assets are under their control.

[franky1]

How hard is it to hack an online wallet?
Can your transactions be stuck in limbo without confirmation?

an online service is as vulnerable as any online service..
sony got hacked
apple got hacked
even banks, governments, and fbi sites got hacked.

bitcoin is not vulnerable. but stupid website creators are. this is why you are safer using the actual bitcoin-core client, moreso then using your online bank or buying something on apple/sony/walmart using ur debitcard on their site

[clemahieu]

The issue is more in how it's used rather than the core itself.  There's a reason why banks hire security experts and buy hardware to secure their infrastructure.  Letting a startup hold your money is probably not a good idea.

[n2004al]

How hard is it to hack an online wallet?
Can your transactions be stuck in limbo without confirmation?

It is possible to hack an online wallet but the probabilities depends from the wallet. For example I use coinbase. This wallet don't hold bitcoins in online wallets but offline. So the hacker even if crack something cannot steal nothing. Anyhow the hacking of a bitcoin wallet is less than the robbery of a bank.

Any transaction cannot be get stuck. Soon or later every satoshi sent arrive in its destination. The few amounts maybe later, but arrive. There are problems with the malleability but partially are resolved and for sure will be resolved in the other versions of Bitcoin Core.

[poncho32]

It's possible to hack an online wallet, but it's almost impossible to hack a wallet installed on your computer if you have also installed up to date antivirus software and a firewall. If you control your Bitcoin private key generated by your wallet installed on your computer then your Bitcoins cannot be stolen by directly hacking your Bitcoin wallet. The only way your Bitcoins stored on your computer can be stolen is if your computer gets hacked, or infected with a virus.

Online wallets are sometimes hacked, but whoever runs the online wallet controls your Bitcoins, and how secure the wallet is depends on their coding skills.

[gentlemand]

Bitcoin itself is pretty darned secure. The meatbags who use it will always be the weakest link by leaving themselves vulnerable to being caught out. I don't think an online wallet is ever a great idea when there's no shortage of better alternatives.

[Kprawn]

As safe as you want it to be... Why? ...Well it's easy ::

1. If you leave a lot of money in there, you will become a bigger target. {My motto ~ Keep online wallets for coffee payments}
2. If you chose not to enable 2FA for some reason, you paint a target on your back, and it is not a question IF you will get hacked, but rather when you will get hacked}
3. Keep your main stash in cold storage, away from the internet

Use these 3 tips and you will not have huge losses when you do get hacked.. 

[RustyNomad]

Bitcoin is one of the safest 'financial instruments' I know off. Its however not idiot proof.

As others have already stated, it can be as secure as you want it to be. Keep most of your coins offline and only expose what you are willing to lose to the world i.e. online/hot wallets.

[avatar_kiyoshi]

How hard is it to hack an online wallet?
Can your transactions be stuck in limbo without confirmation?

Possible an online wallet is get hack, this is all about human error. bitcoin it self can't get hack, what's purpose, even this is open source code.

Just don't use online wallet, better to keep your coins on cold storage.

[Amph]

it's not bitcoin at dangerous, unless you want to talk about its random vulnerability that may happen form time to time, and only make it stronger

but more the device in which it is used, there are also weakness of bitcoin, which are vastly known https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses

[amiryaqot]

How hard is it to hack an online wallet?
Can your transactions be stuck in limbo without confirmation?

Possible an online wallet is get hack, this is all about human error. bitcoin it self can't get hack, what's purpose, even this is open source code.

Just don't use online wallet, better to keep your coins on cold storage.

But more possible inside job involve to hack online wallet because it required more technical information about server to comprised any online wallet, for long term hold only cold storage is better option to keep safe your coins.

[bitcircle]

Bitcoin is really safe but i mostly use online wallet to use my coins for some online activities.

[neurotypical]

Nothing bad can happen if you keep your stack online. Would you keep your stack of gold in the middle of the street inside a box? No, evne if its inside a box, it's "out there". So what you do is, you take with you what you will use (online wallet) and keep the rest inside a box and inside your home (offline wallet).

[apriyani420]

as far as i know its not too hard to hack online wallets but if you have a paper or hardware wallet its nearly impossible to do that

[Djisamsoe]

How hard is it to hack an online wallet?
Can your transactions be stuck in limbo without confirmation?

an online service is as vulnerable as any online service..
sony got hacked
apple got hacked
even banks, governments, and fbi sites got hacked.

bitcoin is not vulnerable. but stupid website creators are. this is why you are safer using the actual bitcoin-core client, moreso then using your online bank or buying something on apple/sony/walmart using ur debitcard on their site

nice logic. one suggestion from me pilscoop, if you want to hack an online wallet try to watch Mr. Robot movie 
everything have a risk include bitcoin itself

[bitcoin revo]

as far as i know its not too hard to hack online wallets but if you have a paper or hardware wallet its nearly impossible to do that

Exactly. That's why people who want to store their mass of bitcoins in a secure place always obsess over paper wallets, and reputable and trustworthy escrows usually buy a Trezor hardware wallet to store escrow funds.

Any other wallet (such as web wallets or wallets on your computer) are extremely vulnerable and you can never assume that they are safe unless they've never touched the internet before.

[Cereberus]

bitcoin into on itself is not vulnerable. The web wallets and hard wallets are.

Just spread out your bitcoins across several different wallets. If one gets done in you have others to continue with.

[randy8777]

online bitcoin related services are always a loved target for hacker thiefs. that's why you should avoid using them as much as possible.