Why do people store their bitcoin on a file, or on paper?

[neochiny]

I've been wondering for a while about this.
Why do people do it? I mean, if you use an online wallet, it way safer that having it stored on a file or paper which can be stolen at any time.



An online wallet has too much security for this. Like Two-Step Verification, or a pin code, etc..

using online wallet even if it has a lot of security is has a lot risk like getting hacked
unlike hard wallet like file or usb you can store it safely where you want to but it also
has a lot of risk like getting the file/usb corrupt, so ill recommend if you are going to use
a file or usb to store your btc take extra precaution.

[Winoc]

Online computers are vulnerable to hackers and should not be used to store a significant amount of bitcoins.Storing your bitcoins offline is safe as long as there is no physical theft.

[richardsNY]

Storing your coins in an online wallet service or exchange is the worst thing you can do. Storing private keys in form of a paper wallet is much safer. You can also seal the paper wallet in strong plastic to make it water proof. It's basically the most solid form of storing your coins.

[Daniel91]

I guess because of their habits.
All our life we learned that money comes on the paper and that Internet is unsafe, very risky place.
So, naturally, we feel more secure if we keep Bitcoin on the paper than in online wallet.
Paper you can touch, online wallet can't
I think that younger generation don't have such concept about papers and Internet any more.

[martinacar]

I guess because of their habits.
All our life we learned that money comes on the paper and that Internet is unsafe, very risky place.
So, naturally, we feel more secure if we keep Bitcoin on the paper than in online wallet.
Paper you can touch, online wallet can't
I think that younger generation don't have such concept about papers and Internet any more.

The internet is a risky place but storing your wallet address on a paper file is in a way standard procedure. Like real money you have to protect it against thieves etc. So you put it in a vault.
With bitcoin you save it on paper or any offline device.

[Mumbeeptind1963]

Its funny thing that until this day we write on a piece of paper and hide it. But the truth is writing on a paper is the best thing to hide something. It will last a decade and it can read it clearly. But of course you must store it on  moisture free place. Like hidden treasure or on Library that no one will ever know you hide it there. Like National Treasure Movie..  

[Little_Sister]

I've been wondering for a while about this.
Why do people do it? I mean, if you use an online wallet, it way safer that having it stored on a file or paper which can be stolen at any time.

Stolen from? why thief steal a piece of a paper 

[mindrust]

Paper is better than storing in a computer i think. Your computer always can get hacked. One missclick and its over. boom. Before you realize what happened, all of your private information will be in someone else's hands.

Paper is simple. Paper is easy.

Even if your house gets robbed, the thief won't give fck about the paper anyways. You shouldn't leave it somewhere too easy to find anyway, Hiding away just 1 piece of paper shouldn't be that hard.

[GreenBits]

Read BurtW's story. Then you will understand why it does not do to store this information electronically. If you have a serious amount of coin, and you need to have a physical copy of the key info, I think you best bet is to split this info into multiple fragments, and distribute these fragments in multiple places that you don't reside. You can never be sure if a state actor is going to crash into your shit looking for private keys, and there is no protection from the state. They do what they will.

[socks435]

Paper is better than storing in a computer i think. Your computer always can get hacked. One missclick and its over. boom. Before you realize what happened, all of your private information will be in someone else's hands.

Paper is simple. Paper is easy.

Even if your house gets robbed, the thief won't give fck about the paper anyways. You shouldn't leave it somewhere too easy to find anyway, Hiding away just 1 piece of paper shouldn't be that hard.

I think its still risky if its a paper or online wallet.. they are the same risk paper can be cut or will be wet at water or someone can trash it if they didnt know what is that paper.. online wallet can be hack by someone or the online wallet will be down.. so i think they are the same risk.. so if you really want to be safe just always use anti virus in your machines which is can block any virus and malware to your machines.. also try to use offline wallet and virtual os at your pc which is safe way for me..

[exadex.org]

An online wallet has too much security for this. Like Two-Step Verification, or a pin code, etc..

It's a weird logic to think it is safer to give your bitcoins to someone else. Online wallets can be shut down, my wallet won't shut down.

[DarkStar_]

Paper Wallets are offline, which means that even if a hacker hacks into your computer, they won't be able to touch the bitcoin you have on the paper. While this is weak the theft, most people wouldn't really know where you kept the paper, so if they wanted to rob your house for it, it would be risky as you might have kept it somewhere else. And that is assuming they know you sent the bitcoins to a paper wallet.

Desktops Wallets are on your computer, giving you access to your bitcoins at any time. If you use a wallet like Coinbase, and they shut down/run away with the funds/other stuff, you are left with nothing. Many online wallet providers have shut down, like the old mybitcoin & others. Some people kept their funds on Cryptsy, and they had 2FA. Cryptsy ended up "supposedly" getting hacked, and people were left with nothing.

[mobnepal]

you are completely wrong, I have heard that how hacker can access to blockchain.info wallet stealing your browser cookie so that they don't require email confirmation and also if they know your password which is possible if you keep using same password in all of the sites you use.

It is always better to save bitcoin private key in paper with pen, even storing those files in computer which is connected to internet is not safe.

[ekoice]

I've been wondering for a while about this.
Why do people do it? I mean, if you use an online wallet, it way safer that having it stored on a file or paper which can be stolen at any time.

---
 
An online wallet has too much security for this. Like Two-Step Verification, or a pin code, etc..

this doesn't make sense to me, when you have your wallet online (web wallet or any desktop wallet which is connected) you are at much higher risk than storing it in paper form.

how can paper be stolen? they have to break into my home and steel a piece of paper!!!

I also think in similar way that there is no comparison between paper wallet or storing a bitcoin on file. paper info can be stolen if some one knows about it where as online info can be hacked as well.

[tzman]

I've been wondering for a while about this.
Why do people do it? I mean, if you use an online wallet, it way safer that having it stored on a file or paper which can be stolen at any time.

---
 
An online wallet has too much security for this. Like Two-Step Verification, or a pin code, etc..

this doesn't make sense to me, when you have your wallet online (web wallet or any desktop wallet which is connected) you are at much higher risk than storing it in paper form.

how can paper be stolen? they have to break into my home and steel a piece of paper!!!

I also think in similar way that there is no comparison between paper wallet or storing a bitcoin on file. paper info can be stolen if some one knows about it where as online info can be hacked as well.

Well i doubt you will loose paper information during an assault,only if you store the paper on the box with money and put there bitcoin keys  ,that way you can loose ,i have some information stored into the paper instead i save it online as easy gmail can be hacked these days,soo i store some information out of web,i use online wallet as well,but we need to protected our coins as we can.

[dothebeats]

Storing your wallet keys in a piece of paper is less susceptible of being stolen compared to storing it in an online wallet service which is being accessed by numerous people simultaneously. Also, no one would ever think of fortunes being imprinted on a piece of paper; nowadays, people would jump directly to digital records and steal everything from there.

Your paper wallet would only be stolen or lost under your own care, whereas in an online wallet service, you are entrusting your money to a third-party entity, which makes it scary to think that you've trusted your money to a stranger without even seeing them beforehand.

[mookid]

Hardware wallets or paper wallets requires that an attacker is physically on range with you, this fact alone reduces the probability of you getting hacked by 99,99%, however, paper wallets should be dealt with carefully, paper is a very fragile thing, you should have like two different copies stored in a controlled environment, and protected from curious eyes.

[ObscureBean]

It seems that almost everyone in this thread is against storing Bitcoins online, well I'm all for using online wallets   And I believe people will change their stance on this over time, you can't keep all your money under your bed your whole life   For me, personally using Coinbase to store my Bitcoins is immeasurably more convenient than using local or paper wallets. It means that I can access my coins anywhere in the world without having to carry my computer and my private keys with me or having to download the blockchain every time.
Coinbase is insured anyways. Here's an excerpt from an article from Coinbase's support center regarding this:

"Coinbase is insured against employee theft and hacking in an amount that exceeds the average value of online bitcoin it holds at any given time. Specifically, Coinbase's insurance policy would respond in the event that bitcoin stored in Coinbase was lost or stolen as a result of a breach of our physical security, cyber security, or as a result of employee theft.

Coinbase has held this insurance since November 2013 with highly rated carriers (S&P rating of A+ or A.M. Best Rating of A XV or higher).

This insurance policy does not cover damages resulting from a specific user's loss, such as the losses resulting from a compromise of the user's login credentials."

[Herbert2020]

It seems that almost everyone in this thread is against storing Bitcoins online, well I'm all for using online wallets  And I believe people will change their stance on this over time, you can't keep all your money under your bed your whole life  For me, personally using Coinbase to store my Bitcoins is immeasurably more convenient than using local or paper wallets. It means that I can access my coins anywhere in the world without having to carry my computer and my private keys with me or having to download the blockchain every time.
Coinbase is insured anyways. Here's an excerpt from an article from Coinbase's support center regarding this:

"Coinbase is insured against employee theft and hacking in an amount that exceeds the average value of online bitcoin it holds at any given time. Specifically, Coinbase's insurance policy would respond in the event that bitcoin stored in Coinbase was lost or stolen as a result of a breach of our physical security, cyber security, or as a result of employee theft.

Coinbase has held this insurance since November 2013 with highly rated carriers (S&P rating of A+ or A.M. Best Rating of A XV or higher).

This insurance policy does not cover damages resulting from a specific user's loss, such as the losses resulting from a compromise of the user's login credentials."

there are a lot of things wrong with what you just said here. i have made them bold.

first of all you use cold storage (under your bed ) for large amounts that you don't need everyday. like putting 20BTC there that you don't need to have access to every day!

second you can use online wallets, nobody is against them you should only know the risks. so keep what you want to spend there not all your bitcoin.

last but not least, the insurance as you quoted here only covers the loss if it is on their end. as i said in second, the risk of using an online wallet is being hacked, losing your coins because of weak password, having a keylogger, other social engineering hacks, .... which are not covered by coinbase or any other wallet.

[ObscureBean]

It seems that almost everyone in this thread is against storing Bitcoins online, well I'm all for using online wallets   And I believe people will change their stance on this over time, you can't keep all your money under your bed your whole life   For me, personally using Coinbase to store my Bitcoins is immeasurably more convenient than using local or paper wallets. It means that I can access my coins anywhere in the world without having to carry my computer and my private keys with me or having to download the blockchain every time.
Coinbase is insured anyways. Here's an excerpt from an article from Coinbase's support center regarding this:

"Coinbase is insured against employee theft and hacking in an amount that exceeds the average value of online bitcoin it holds at any given time. Specifically, Coinbase's insurance policy would respond in the event that bitcoin stored in Coinbase was lost or stolen as a result of a breach of our physical security, cyber security, or as a result of employee theft.

Coinbase has held this insurance since November 2013 with highly rated carriers (S&P rating of A+ or A.M. Best Rating of A XV or higher).

This insurance policy does not cover damages resulting from a specific user's loss, such as the losses resulting from a compromise of the user's login credentials."

there are a lot of things wrong with what you just said here. i have made them bold.

first of all you use cold storage (under your bed ) for large amounts that you don't need everyday. like putting 20BTC there that you don't need to have access to every day!

second you can use online wallets, nobody is against them you should only know the risks. so keep what you want to spend there not all your bitcoin.

last but not least, the insurance as you quoted here only covers the loss if it is on their end. as i said in second, the risk of using an online wallet is being hacked, losing your coins because of weak password, having a keylogger, other social engineering hacks, .... which are not covered by coinbase or any other wallet.

You highlighted "having to download the blockchain every time." as a mistake/misconception but didn't mention it in your comment? I know of wallets like Electrum and such where you don't have to wait long but it's still a mild annoyance for me.
Also, Coinbase offers a service called the 'Vault' which is essentially offline/cold storage  
Of course they gonna cover the loss on their end only, you won't find any business willing to pay for customers' negligence. And it's up to each and everyone to make sure they understand the risks involved before they make any decision.
In the old days banks were being robbed all the time and people were wary of trusting them with their cash. I believe we're going through the same phase right now with Bitcoin and that it will get better as we get closer to going mainstream.
I understand that by having paper or local wallets, you control almost all aspects of your coins' security, I'm not arguing against that. It's just that for me, I would gladly trade off some of that security for the benefits offered by an online wallet service like Coinbase.