Are floppy disks safe to store wallets?

[TastyChillySauce00]

maybe 15years later,the reader of floppy disapear,then,how to do ?

then he will lost all the data but 15 years later i don't think that floppy reader could be fully disappeared,some people are always collecting these stuff especialyl those geeks so maybe the price will be quite expensive but not fully disappeared

[Theb]

It's kinda a little inappropriate to rely on floppy disk now much more for a portable and handy technology like bitcoin. BTC is built around your hands not in your pc as it use to transact in which place you want to be. You can't always bring a desktop or an adapter for it. In technology you don't go back to the past rather you move forward, for example do people still use VHS or Betamax now? If it is it maybe less than 5% of the population of the world. Also look at as now even CD-r players on laptops are disappearing.

[haankoammu]

Floppy disks are so unreliable that it is a waste of BTC even with backups, I remember when we had to deliver assignments with floppy disks and we had to use 2-3 because one malfunctions... I think flash and paper wallets are the way to get "and of course hardware wallets if possible".

[Abbybenson]

instead of a floppy disk save it on to a usb pen drive floppy disks are going way too back in the 90's and it won't be a good way to save data because they can get corrupted and damaged easily. To me it just looks like flat fragile plastic which wasn't engineered tough enough like a hard disk drive.

[xuan87]

I wont trust my whole saving fund into floppy disk, and even for now to find a device with a floppy disk reader is kind of difficult, so in the next 15 years i wont know where to find the floppy disk reader, so i think you better find another way to keep your private key, rather than rely to floppy disk

[Milkduds]

Its amazing to think somewhere in the world some one is actively still using floppy disks,not thinking about how they would be destroyed if they where exposed to to much sunlight. I like to think of these people as the same people that drive around with a cd hanging from their rearview mirror to shine in my face as I drive. No idea why they do it other than to piss other motorists off.
I would not advise using a floppy disk,but I think that point has been driven home at this point. There is a reason vhs tapes are also no longer being used. When something is crappy it has a short life span.

[Yakamoto]

There should be a pretty obvious answer as to whether or not a floppy disk is good for saving a Bitcoin wallet. That answer is effectively no. Part of this is related to the relative obsolescence of the technology and the lack of an ability to recover data from it in poor circumstances.

Choose a USB or something else that's actually a good choice. None of this old technology that's dubious today at best.

[Doubler Disburser 232515]

In 15 years time there will probably be a niche market for people who can recover information off of floppy disks.  I can see they will have a free post address or even send out a pre paid envelope to post them in.

The only problem for BitCoins is the confidential trust they would offer to ensure you use their service otherwise you would constantly doubt whether of not they have kept a copy of your information (just in case you need another copy later)...

If you are down to relying on the humble floppy diskette to get you out of trouble (in 15 years time) then perhaps you should have looked to other way of storing the information such as emailing it to yourself via an online service that isn't likely to go away in 15 years time (such email providers do daily / hourly backups which are there as long as the company exists).

[outatime1]

I wouldn't fully trust floppy disks, cd's, or thumb drives. I recommend that you also keep the addresses written on paper that is stored in a safe deposit box or fire safe. You can never be too careful.

[shinratensei_]

maybe 15years later,the reader of floppy disapear,then,how to do ?

then he will lost all the data but 15 years later i don't think that floppy reader could be fully disappeared,some people are always collecting these stuff especialyl those geeks so maybe the price will be quite expensive but not fully disappeared

and especially they can get a crash from various factor like the temperature, stricken by the dust or caused by the owner's fault if there are the another way is better and may you should for choosing the floppy disk?

[DomesticTrader]

No I do not think they are, they are old and not good secured and another fact is that they are not used anymore these days.
I do not recommend you to use them as a wallet honestly.

[MONKEYJUNK]

maybe 15years later,the reader of floppy disapear,then,how to do ?

then he will lost all the data but 15 years later i don't think that floppy reader could be fully disappeared,some people are always collecting these stuff especialyl those geeks so maybe the price will be quite expensive but not fully disappeared

And we can find vinyl players over there, why not floppy reader... Will be not hard to find one working...
The problem with all this things, floppy, usb, harddrive is the durability..
Good to know your floppy have 15 years old 

[Dabs]

If you're wondering about life span of floppies, and vinyl and other mediums, consider paper, plastic, stone or metal. Aluminum, steel, titanium, tungsten.

Paper, if stored properly and carefully can last hundreds of years. Forget floppies, you will not find a working reader for it. If you keep a paper wallet in a safe place, it will last decades.

[RealBitcoin]

I have found my old floppy reader a week ago, with 10 disks that I have never used. I copied some files to it just to check it out. I accidentally dropped the disk about 30 centimeters, and it fell to rough ground.

Now the data is  corrupted


So yeah, a floppy is a very poor integrity device, the data will be corrupted very quickly, and then you are fucked.

It even degrades naturally, I remember in the past all my disks became corrupted after 5-10 weeks by themselves, I havent even touched them.

[agamasrori]

I was doing some cleaning on my room and I found some floppy disks, they are around 15 years old! from the Sony brand. I don't have a floppy disk device anymore on my computer, so I used an older computer because I was curious to see if they would still work.
To my surprise, they worked and all the files were accessible.

This made me think that, you could store some Bitcoin related stuff in floppy disks too? Obviously having backups in other places too.. but floppy disks may be yet another cheap way to store files. If I put my seed key in a txt (compressed in a 7z file with a pass) and my wallet.dat file on that floppy disk, it would have lasted for 15 years. I hope that if I do this, in the next 15 years when I find the floppy disks again, I will be rich

I am not so like to save my bitcoin in a floppy disk because there is gonna be chance that the disk will be broke. so I preffer like to choose online wallet like blockchain or etc. although Online wallet is have risk to be hacked but it is just a litle chance. It is depend on who wants to keep their bitcoin. That up to you.

[HabBear]

That's risky business, man. How easily is it for the device that reads the floppy to break and quit and never really be fixed again? They don't make those parts and whatnot anymore. So unless the old PCs are so simple that you can fix and/or rebuild them yourself I wouldn't waste time with it at all.

What kind of balance are we talking about?

[RealBitcoin]

That's risky business, man. How easily is it for the device that reads the floppy to break and quit and never really be fixed again? They don't make those parts and whatnot anymore. So unless the old PCs are so simple that you can fix and/or rebuild them yourself I wouldn't waste time with it at all.

What kind of balance are we talking about?

It's not the device that worries me but the disk itself. It has a magnetic strip in it where the data is stored, like early analog photo cameras.

One small scratch or some dust particle sets on that magnetic strip, and your are fucked, the data will become unreadable.


It is inevitable for floppy to become degraded, that is why nobody uses it anymore, its very inefficient and faulty.


I remember cleaning my floppies in the 90's, you had to use a special solution to clean the dust particles off, but still, no guarantees. It will become corrupted eventually.

Better use CD or DVD, at least there the data is burned inside deeply, and not on the surface, so dust particles affect it less.

[Doubler Disburser 232515]

I remember cleaning my floppies in the 90's, you had to use a special solution to clean the dust particles off, but still, no guarantees. It will become corrupted eventually.

Better use CD or DVD, at least there the data is burned inside deeply, and not on the surface, so dust particles affect it less.

Burnt CD's and DVD's are slowly being eaten away by a bacteria that is eating the gold film layer that the information is written onto.

Cloud services with daily / hourly backups is one way to safeguard protected data.

[GermanFoobla]

It would not be the best idea to be storing you wallets on a floppy disk because floppy disks are way to old and they have almost no memory space.
You need to throw those away and by yourself some usb sticks.

[HilbillyFred]

I was doing some cleaning on my room and I found some floppy disks, they are around 15 years old! from the Sony brand. I don't have a floppy disk device anymore on my computer, so I used an older computer because I was curious to see if they would still work.
To my surprise, they worked and all the files were accessible.

This made me think that, you could store some Bitcoin related stuff in floppy disks too? Obviously having backups in other places too.. but floppy disks may be yet another cheap way to store files. If I put my seed key in a txt (compressed in a 7z file with a pass) and my wallet.dat file on that floppy disk, it would have lasted for 15 years. I hope that if I do this, in the next 15 years when I find the floppy disks again, I will be rich

why dont you think that floppy disk cant safe to store your coins i dont think that is true because i think that all kind of hard drivers can safe store your coins
because i am doing it by my sslef because i dont trust wallets.