Which is the most SECURE Bitcoin wallet?

[GODLIKE]

I know there are many threads about the BEST Bitcoin wallet, but I don't think that's the right question to ask.
There's no best, but only the one that fits better one's needs.

What I'm looking for, is the best way to protect my BTCs.
What bothers me is the fear that some of the developers could slip a backdoor or a mechanism to steal all the Bitcoins from all the wallets one day.
I know this may look an absurd fear, but still, I don't think it can't be ruled out.
I'm also just out of reading about a bug in the CoPay wallet where using a multisig transaction one could steal all the coins in a wallet, due to a bug. Don't know how old that article was though.

However, the problem is that with banks, our savings are protected: if robbers steal the bank, they have insurance, you always can get your money... at least until the government wants to fuck you up and lock your account, of course.
But in normal conditions, you don't have to think about your savings safety: they are there, you forget about them and no problem about robbery.

With Bitcoin, you are your own bank.
This means that YOU have to make sure your savings are... safe.

Now, a phone app would be ok for me. I could print the seed words and put the paper in my father's strongbox.
But as I wrote here up, I am scared by developers themselves.
I know that most wallets are open source, and anybody can check the code, but still I don't know WHO or IF the code of wallets has been really checked by anybody.
I myself surely can't check it.
My programming skills are very basic and I don't know enough of blockchain functioning to check anything, and I guess the same goes for 99999 people on 100000 on the planet.

So my question is: what is the most secure wallet out there? I suspect it's the Bitcoin Wallet from the Bitcoin Wallet Developers, right?
Still, how can we be sure they are not going to group up and fuck up everything when Bitcoin price will go up?

This in regard to the Bitcoin Wallet.
Switching to "third party" wallets, we have more problems: even though the developers make the code open source, how can I know that they won't one day upload a completely different version to the Store and get my money? Is this a realistic possibility?

With hardware wallets, the problem persists and becomes even worse. Of course hardware wallets can't be open source (I think), so nobody can check what they really do and what's really running in their chip.

Well, I think I made my point clear.
Hope somebody can help me up in choosing the most secure wallet out there.
Thank you in advance!

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[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

To be secure you have to keep your private keys offline. You have always been able to do that with Electrum and Bitcoin Armory using two computers. A hardware wallet like Trezor is open source and much more convenient. Ledger Nano S is another alternative but the Secure Element used cannot be open source due to NDAs.

[eaLiTy]

If you are your own bank,the risk increases,this is infact the biggest disadvantage of bitcoin,if you cant take care of that then saving your money in bitcoin is not a good idea.You cant just be scared about the development team releasing the core wallet,since it is an open source project you could check whether they have planted any backdoors if that is your concern. since you have this many concerns,you could keep all the coins in a paper wallet and you could store it in your bank locker. I have seen many threads here saying many stupid things about how people are saving their paper wallets like digging places in their garden and keeping it in pen drives and hiding somewhere and so on. If you have your bitcoin .dat wallet then you are safe no matter what,even if you are using third party wallets. Hope this helps and hope i cleared most of your doubts.

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

If you have your bitcoin .dat wallet then you are safe no matter what,even if you are using third party wallets. Hope this helps and hope i cleared most of your doubts.

Your advice is just plain wrong.

[20kevin20]

I'm earning BTC on this forum for months already, so I have been able to stack some bucks up recently with the help of the forum. A week ago I was wondering about the same thing: how can I store my money safely? I mean I'm using a BTC wallet on my phone and my computer, so.. just one, little infected download and it's all gone.. so I researched and found out about Offline, Paper Wallets. They're the safest ones, it seems. Now the question is... How are you going to do it the safest way?

1. Make sure the PC you're going to use is NOT infected. You have to be 100% sure about it. If you're paranoid about it like me, download a Live Linux CD and make a bootable CD/USB with it. Why? Because if your PC is infected, even going offline isn't safe because as soon as you're turning the internet on.... the data's being transferred automatically to the hacker. Live CDs are removing ANY change made on the system (including files, folders, history, temp files, RAM, everything!) when you shut it down. The PC has to work with a printer you got at home. Again, if you're paranoid, you can use an old printer. Newer ones got memory, which means they can be hacked.

2. As soon as you got the clean PC in front of you, power it on (or boot the Live Linux CD/USB). Connect it to the Internet, but DO NOT DO ANYTHING ON IT YET!

3. Open a browser. Again, don't do anything else than what I am saying! Go to bitaddress.org. When the site is loaded, disconnect from the Internet.

4. You need now to move the mouse over your screen fast to generate your Bitcoin Address. The website is made to work offline too, so don't worry about it.

5. Don't connect to the Internet anymore! When the generation process is complete, click Paper Wallet on the top.

6. Now here's a tip I can give you: split your money into more addresses. So if you got .1BTC, split it into 4x .025, 2x .05, 10x .01 or anyhow you want. This is a step to make it even safer in case you are afraid of one of them being hacked or stolen. But I have made the mistake to split it into over 30 wallets which was a pain... I've lost +$10 in commission so don't exaggerate. So at "Addresses to generate:", type in the number of addresses you want to generate.

7. You may be now wondering what "BIP38 Encrypt?" is. This is a Wallet Encryption, so you can't take the funds off you wallet without entering the password. It's good for the safety in case your house will ever take part of a burglary, but it's harder to find wallets accepting these encryption (when you need to import it) and if you forgot the password.. It's all gone.

8. When you're done, press "Print", print the paper and cut it (so you'll have 'banknotes'). Now I recommend you to laminate the paper you're going to print after you cut it, to make it waterproof. Here's how I did it, REALLY cheap: look up "DIY Scotch Paper Laminating" on YT. It's less than $1. Shut down your computer, unplug the USB/eject the CD.

9. NEVER share/snap the right side of your banknotes. Store them safe, never give them to anyone. The right side of the paper is what you need to take your funds from the wallet. Okay, so now go to your online wallet.. scan the LEFT QR Code and send as much as you want to the wallet(s).

10. You're done!

And a tip: always withdraw ALL your funds from a paper wallet. So if you have a 0.1BTC paper wallet, don't take just 0.001 out of it. Take everything, for safety reasons.

[GODLIKE]

If you are your own bank,the risk increases,this is infact the biggest disadvantage of bitcoin,if you cant take care of that then saving your money in bitcoin is not a good idea.You cant just be scared about the development team releasing the core wallet,since it is an open source project you could check whether they have planted any backdoors if that is your concern. since you have this many concerns,you could keep all the coins in a paper wallet and you could store it in your bank locker. I have seen many threads here saying many stupid things about how people are saving their paper wallets like digging places in their garden and keeping it in pen drives and hiding somewhere and so on. If you have your bitcoin .dat wallet then you are safe no matter what,even if you are using third party wallets. Hope this helps and hope i cleared most of your doubts.

Thank you for the effort, but it doesn't seem you know what you are talking about.
Let me be clear, I am on Bitcoin since 2013 and know a bit about it. I also wrote some articles on CoinTelegraph and a book about it.
But on the technical side I didn't dig deep into programming and security.
But I am also a little bit of a programmer, so I know something about it, that you seem to not be aware of.
Then let me explain: if tomorrow I make a wallet app, let's call it GODLIKE WALLET, and then I put it on the Google Store, anybody can download it.
I can make it open source: you could see the code on Github and check that there's no backdoor or any trick to allow me, the developer, steal your funds.
I could run loyally for some time, wait until its adoption becomes large, let's say 50000 installed clients.
THEN, I could make a new build, with a piece of code to send all the Bitcoins in the wallet to an address, and upload it to the Google Store.
People would update it, and as soon as they would launch it, all their funds would be transferred to my address.
The code on Github wouldn't be updated, people would trust it, and even if for just few hours, the compromised wallet would be live on the Google Store, stealing all funds from thousands of clients.
I would probably receive hundreds of Bitcoins.
I would then move those funds to some altcoin with anonymous transactions, and immediately reconvert those altcoin funds into Bitcoin.
There, the robbery is served.
But I don't know if this a realistic scenario, because I acknowledge that my know how doesn't get so deep into the mechanism, so I'm here asking this purely technical question about wallet apps and hardware.
I'm asking if there's a way to be sure about the purity of a wallet from the developers side, when one installs it or buy a hardware one.

[GODLIKE]

I'm earning BTC on this forum for months already, so I have been able to stack some bucks up recently with the help of the forum. A week ago I was wondering about the same thing: how can I store my money safely? I mean I'm using a BTC wallet on my phone and my computer, so.. just one, little infected download and it's all gone.. so I researched and found out about Offline, Paper Wallets. They're the safest ones, it seems. Now the question is... How are you going to do it the safest way?

Thank you for your suggestions!

[GODLIKE]

To be secure you have to keep your private keys offline. You have always been able to do that with Electrum and Bitcoin Armory using two computers. A hardware wallet like Trezor is open source and much more convenient. Ledger Nano S is another alternative but the Secure Element used cannot be open source due to NDAs.

How can I be sure that the compiled code in Trezor is the same that is published online?

[posternat]

It is not that hard or complex.  Providing that you are not the type of person or have a computer that has the potential to die frequently, any offline wallet will work. 

[GODLIKE]

It is not that hard or complex.  Providing that you are not the type of person or have a computer that has the potential to die frequently, any offline wallet will work. 

How do I know that a wallet is not secretly sending my seed to the developers?

[unamis76]

I know there are many threads about the BEST Bitcoin wallet, but I don't think that's the right question to ask.
There's no best, but only the one that fits better one's needs.

Finally someone understands what I've been saying on this forum for years

What I'm looking for, is the best way to protect my BTCs.
What bothers me is the fear that some of the developers could slip a backdoor or a mechanism to steal all the Bitcoins from all the wallets one day.
I know this may look an absurd fear, but still, I don't think it can't be ruled out.

To overcome that fear you will need to learn the ins and outs of Bitcoin wallet coding, programming and have a sharp eye to detect potentially dangerous code. No other option.

However, the problem is that with banks, our savings are protected: if robbers steal the bank, they have insurance, you always can get your money... at least until the government wants to fuck you up and lock your account, of course.
But in normal conditions, you don't have to think about your savings safety: they are there, you forget about them and no problem about robbery.

No problem about robbery? So you leave your money in the biggest theif's wallet and no problem about robbery? Sorry about the offtopic, but I had to reply to that...

So my question is: what is the most secure wallet out there? I suspect it's the Bitcoin Wallet from the Bitcoin Wallet Developers, right?
Still, how can we be sure they are not going to group up and fuck up everything when Bitcoin price will go up?

There are no known vulnerabilities in the most widely used wallets. Therefore, they're equally secure.
You cannot be 100% sure that there will never be a rough party in the development of Bitcoin Core or other wallets. However, Bitcoin Core development has many developers contributing, making it harder for it to be compromised.

Switching to "third party" wallets, we have more problems: even though the developers make the code open source, how can I know that they won't one day upload a completely different version to the Store and get my money? Is this a realistic possibility?

I guess it is, eventually there are some malicious apps making their way through store's approvals. That's why it is advised to compile from source.

With hardware wallets, the problem persists and becomes even worse. Of course hardware wallets can't be open source (I think), so nobody can check what they really do and what's really running in their chip.

Trezor is open source. Not sure about other wallets. In what regards to Trezor, you either have compromised hardware or, if in doubt, you can flash a software you trust yourself.

[eaLiTy]

If you have your bitcoin .dat wallet then you are safe no matter what,even if you are using third party wallets. Hope this helps and hope i cleared most of your doubts.

Your advice is just plain wrong.

if you are experienced enough,i would like to hear your thoughts regarding this,i just said about how i back up my wallet for future use,if i have a good encryption i just need my wallet.dat file to use at a later time. i would like to hear you advice regarding this since i am not an expert in this field but i have being doing this way.

[eaLiTy]

Thank you for the effort, but it doesn't seem you know what you are talking about.
Let me be clear, I am on Bitcoin since 2013 and know a bit about it. I also wrote some articles on CoinTelegraph and a book about it.
But on the technical side I didn't dig deep into programming and security.
But I am also a little bit of a programmer, so I know something about it, that you seem to not be aware of.
Then let me explain: if tomorrow I make a wallet app, let's call it GODLIKE WALLET, and then I put it on the Google Store, anybody can download it.
I can make it open source: you could see the code on Github and check that there's no backdoor or any trick to allow me, the developer, steal your funds.
I could run loyally for some time, wait until its adoption becomes large, let's say 50000 installed clients.
THEN, I could make a new build, with a piece of code to send all the Bitcoins in the wallet to an address, and upload it to the Google Store.
People would update it, and as soon as they would launch it, all their funds would be transferred to my address.
The code on Github wouldn't be updated, people would trust it, and even if for just few hours, the compromised wallet would be live on the Google Store, stealing all funds from thousands of clients.
I would probably receive hundreds of Bitcoins.
I would then move those funds to some altcoin with anonymous transactions, and immediately reconvert those altcoin funds into Bitcoin.
There, the robbery is served.
But I don't know if this a realistic scenario, because I acknowledge that my know how doesn't get so deep into the mechanism, so I'm here asking this purely technical question about wallet apps and hardware.
I'm asking if there's a way to be sure about the purity of a wallet from the developers side, when one installs it or buy a hardware one.

i was talking about secure wallet providers who are endorsed by bitcoin.org and since you have a hypothetical doubt about them running away with the coins by creating a back door,will tell you this,if you are thinking like that you cant even come online,because literally anyone could hack or create a backdoor in the softwares you are using in your system and can very well steal every information and money you are holding. so if you are planning to come online be aware of the risk, as a registered company you cant just create a back door and steal all the clients money,you have to face the law and i dont think anyone would ruin their business and dignity for that,and for my technical ability i do run an IT firm .

[GODLIKE]

Thank you for the effort, but it doesn't seem you know what you are talking about.
Let me be clear, I am on Bitcoin since 2013 and know a bit about it. I also wrote some articles on CoinTelegraph and a book about it.
But on the technical side I didn't dig deep into programming and security.
But I am also a little bit of a programmer, so I know something about it, that you seem to not be aware of.
Then let me explain: if tomorrow I make a wallet app, let's call it GODLIKE WALLET, and then I put it on the Google Store, anybody can download it.
I can make it open source: you could see the code on Github and check that there's no backdoor or any trick to allow me, the developer, steal your funds.
I could run loyally for some time, wait until its adoption becomes large, let's say 50000 installed clients.
THEN, I could make a new build, with a piece of code to send all the Bitcoins in the wallet to an address, and upload it to the Google Store.
People would update it, and as soon as they would launch it, all their funds would be transferred to my address.
The code on Github wouldn't be updated, people would trust it, and even if for just few hours, the compromised wallet would be live on the Google Store, stealing all funds from thousands of clients.
I would probably receive hundreds of Bitcoins.
I would then move those funds to some altcoin with anonymous transactions, and immediately reconvert those altcoin funds into Bitcoin.
There, the robbery is served.
But I don't know if this a realistic scenario, because I acknowledge that my know how doesn't get so deep into the mechanism, so I'm here asking this purely technical question about wallet apps and hardware.
I'm asking if there's a way to be sure about the purity of a wallet from the developers side, when one installs it or buy a hardware one.

i was talking about secure wallet providers who are endorsed by bitcoin.org and since you have a hypothetical doubt about them running away with the coins by creating a back door,will tell you this,if you are thinking like that you cant even come online,because literally anyone could hack or create a backdoor in the softwares you are using in your system and can very well steal every information and money you are holding. so if you are planning to come online be aware of the risk, as a registered company you cant just create a back door and steal all the clients money,you have to face the law and i dont think anyone would ruin their business and dignity for that,and for my technical ability i do run an IT firm .

Some people don't catch all of this. They just see an opportunity to steal, and they will do. MtGox didn't teach you anything?
Read my text again, it's very clear.
You COULD do it.
A single person is enough to create a wallet.
A single person is enough to put up a system like I described, compile, upload to the Store, take the money and run away.
If that person gets like 1000 BTC, that's more than enough in some countries to live without working a single day more in his life.
You probably couldn't easily identify who is the person. Or that person could also go live in a country without extradition.

And this is only ONE possible scenario.

[GODLIKE]

I know there are many threads about the BEST Bitcoin wallet, but I don't think that's the right question to ask.
There's no best, but only the one that fits better one's needs.

Finally someone understands what I've been saying on this forum for years

What I'm looking for, is the best way to protect my BTCs.
What bothers me is the fear that some of the developers could slip a backdoor or a mechanism to steal all the Bitcoins from all the wallets one day.
I know this may look an absurd fear, but still, I don't think it can't be ruled out.

To overcome that fear you will need to learn the ins and outs of Bitcoin wallet coding, programming and have a sharp eye to detect potentially dangerous code. No other option.

However, the problem is that with banks, our savings are protected: if robbers steal the bank, they have insurance, you always can get your money... at least until the government wants to fuck you up and lock your account, of course.
But in normal conditions, you don't have to think about your savings safety: they are there, you forget about them and no problem about robbery.

No problem about robbery? So you leave your money in the biggest theif's wallet and no problem about robbery? Sorry about the offtopic, but I had to reply to that...

So my question is: what is the most secure wallet out there? I suspect it's the Bitcoin Wallet from the Bitcoin Wallet Developers, right?
Still, how can we be sure they are not going to group up and fuck up everything when Bitcoin price will go up?

There are no known vulnerabilities in the most widely used wallets. Therefore, they're equally secure.
You cannot be 100% sure that there will never be a rough party in the development of Bitcoin Core or other wallets. However, Bitcoin Core development has many developers contributing, making it harder for it to be compromised.

Switching to "third party" wallets, we have more problems: even though the developers make the code open source, how can I know that they won't one day upload a completely different version to the Store and get my money? Is this a realistic possibility?

I guess it is, eventually there are some malicious apps making their way through store's approvals. That's why it is advised to compile from source.

With hardware wallets, the problem persists and becomes even worse. Of course hardware wallets can't be open source (I think), so nobody can check what they really do and what's really running in their chip.

Trezor is open source. Not sure about other wallets. In what regards to Trezor, you either have compromised hardware or, if in doubt, you can flash a software you trust yourself.

While I agree that banks are the problem, you can't go over the fact that your money are protected in there. If the bank gets robbed, there's no repercussion on your money, they are insured, you will get your money, no matter what. Of course this doesn't include huge bank problems and the bail in shit. But a group of robbers entering a bank won't affect your funds.

But your BTCs at home are unprotected. You can't insure them, because no insurance is accepting it, at least for now. You have to provide your own funds safety.

Trezor is open source, and you have the code available, BUT when you buy one, you don't know what is flashed in it.
You don't know if the software flashed in it, on 11.11.2021 anybody connecting a Trezor to internet will see his BTCs flying away.

Also, you can't ask to all people to become programmers. That's not a viable way to spread Bitcoin into mainstream. Even most coders wouldn't waste time on checking all the wallets' code.

You can't even ask people to compile the code themselves. I mean, I could do it, I am somewhat of a programmer myself, but it's really an annoying waste of time and I should be sure that somebody checked the code from Github before I compiled it, as I am not able.

So, apart raising the problem with this thread, I would like to receive a concrete answer.
At the moment, I think there's no grant anywhere that what you use as a wallet is exempt from the safety problems I exposed.
You download a wallet and you can't know what's in it.
But a larger team, means also more difficulty to put malicious code in the final version that is uploaded to a store.
In this regard I guess the Bitcoin Wallet, the official one, is probably the most reliable under this point of view.
Is there any expert in the wallets scene around here?

[Oralmat]

If you have control over the private keys, then it is the most secure.  If someone else or a website has control over that key, then there is an issue for potential loss.

[unamis76]

While I agree that banks are the problem, you can't go over the fact that your money are protected in there. If the bank gets robbed, there's no repercussion on your money, they are insured, you will get your money, no matter what. Of course this doesn't include huge bank problems and the bail in shit. But a group of robbers entering a bank won't affect your funds.

But your BTCs at home are unprotected. You can't insure them, because no insurance is accepting it, at least for now. You have to provide your own funds safety.

Yes, I think we all have to agree on that.

Trezor is open source, and you have the code available, BUT when you buy one, you don't know what is flashed in it.
You don't know if the software flashed in it, on 11.11.2021 anybody connecting a Trezor to internet will see his BTCs flying away.

Exactly, hence why you should flash your own compiled version of the software if you distrust the way it comes from factory and shipping.

Also, you can't ask to all people to become programmers. That's not a viable way to spread Bitcoin into mainstream. Even most coders wouldn't waste time on checking all the wallets' code.

Indeed, I can't, but Bitcoin is all about needing no trust. So if you only trust yourself and want to be safe, that's the way to do it.

So, apart raising the problem with this thread, I would like to receive a concrete answer.
At the moment, I think there's no grant anywhere that what you use as a wallet is exempt from the safety problems I exposed.
You download a wallet and you can't know what's in it.
But a larger team, means also more difficulty to put malicious code in the final version that is uploaded to a store.
In this regard I guess the Bitcoin Wallet, the official one, is probably the most reliable under this point of view.
Is there any expert in the wallets scene around here?

Yes, I have to agree on that too, from this point of view Bitcoin Core should be the safest wallet.

[GODLIKE]

Also, you can't ask to all people to become programmers. That's not a viable way to spread Bitcoin into mainstream. Even most coders wouldn't waste time on checking all the wallets' code.

Indeed, I can't, but Bitcoin is all about needing no trust. So if you only trust yourself and want to be safe, that's the way to do it.

Why you say that it's all about trust?
I don't think it is.
MtGox and more examples showed us you can't trust. But I didn't even need those examples. Money is money, and Bitcoin is money.
And humans are still humans. I can't see why you should trust more the Bitcoin scene developers than any other financial institution.
The fact that most Bitcoin people are dreamers hoping in a more free world doesn't mean that robbers won't get into the scene.
Quite the opposite: as it's a pioneers ground, criminals have better land to work.
And even non-criminals could always go down on temptation.
Dreaming is nice, but with money you better keep your eyes open (and your ass well shut! XD)

[LoyceV]

When the generation process is complete, click Paper Wallet on the top.

6. Now here's a tip I can give you: split your money into more addresses. So if you got .1BTC, split it into 4x .025, 2x .05, 10x .01 or anyhow you want. This is a step to make it even safer in case you are afraid of one of them being hacked or stolen.

The problem here is: it is as safe as you can keep your paper! It's like cash: how safe would you feel if you keep $1000 in your house? And what if you want to keep it there for 10 years? What if someone just steals it?

7. You may be now wondering what "BIP38 Encrypt?" is. This is a Wallet Encryption, so you can't take the funds off you wallet without entering the password. It's good for the safety in case your house will ever take part of a burglary, but it's harder to find wallets accepting these encryption (when you need to import it) and if you forgot the password.. It's all gone.

This stops the problem from someone stealing your wallet and taking your money. But if the wallet is stolen, you can't access it anymore either. So you need backups.
On top of that, for long term storage, you need to remember the password. You can't use a password that you've used anywhere else, so it's less likely you can remember it for a long time.
Or, if bad things happen to you, someone else in your family can't access it.

I'm still wondering myself what's a good way for long-term offline storage. In the end it's a compromise between getting-it-stolen and losing-access-on-your-own.

8. When you're done, press "Print", print the paper and cut it (so you'll have 'banknotes'). Now I recommend you to laminate the paper you're going to print after you cut it, to make it waterproof. Here's how I did it, REALLY cheap: look up "DIY Scotch Paper Laminating" on YT. It's less than $1. Shut down your computer, unplug the USB/eject the CD.

With any laserprinter, the paper will last hundreds of years.

And a tip: always withdraw ALL your funds from a paper wallet. So if you have a 0.1BTC paper wallet, don't take just 0.001 out of it. Take everything, for safety reasons.

Note: not using everything means the change will be send somewhere, depending on what software you use. That's another reason to swipe the full balance.

[Cereberus]

I have the cheapest hardware wallet Ledger HW.1 and it works like it should and it fulfills all of my needs.

You just have to set up it on Linux or a freshly formatted Windows 10 version for example. It is very convenient to use when at home you are the only one that deals with bitcoin, you can leave it connected in the USB port and none know your PIN except you. This way you can use it just like any desktop wallet.

This is what I plan to do when I get my gaming PC after 2-4 weeks hopefully.

Keeping it in your house is the best scenario if you keep high order (most of the families do keep order in their family) of your house. This is what I am doing and so far it's going pretty well without any problem, I just check occasionally once in every 2-3 days just to make sure my bitcoins are there but I know I am getting paranoiac as bitcoins are there. There's no possibility of stealing if you set it up right.

For me a closed source hardware wallet is the safest bet.