HOWTO: create a 100% secure wallet

[PirateHatForTea]

This is a great Howto, but I thought people might be interested in a sort of middle-path:

1. Install Linux inside a virtual machine, secure it, and lock it down using IPTables. Install bitcoin and create your 'íntermediate' wallet here. Use it for storing moderate amounts of bitcoins (more than hundreds of dollars worth say) that will involve frequent transactions. If you set things up well it will be more secure than running from inside your native OS for example.

2. Have a LiveCD image of TAILS (an anonynimity/security focused LiveCD distribution) available inside the virtual machine. Install a virtual machine within the virtual machine and use it to boot the TAILS liveCD. Apply the technique described in the OP using this tails distro. This wallet should end up being not only super secure, but relatively anonymous. For even more anonymity, configure the first linux VM (host for Tails) to use a VPN, with IPTables filtering all on-vpn traffic. Purchase the VPN using Bitcoin. This is the ultimate paranoia solution for both anonymity and security.

[Monkey1]

This all sounds so complicated, especially running a different OS if you are on windows.  Why not just use Armory?  I am not trying to sell it, I just want someone to tell me if I have missed an obvious vulnerability and it is not as safe as I thought?

[hairlesswook]

great info thanks

[techstrordinary]

This is a great Howto, but I thought people might be interested in a sort of middle-path:

1. Install Linux inside a virtual machine, secure it, and lock it down using IPTables. Install bitcoin and create your 'íntermediate' wallet here. Use it for storing moderate amounts of bitcoins (more than hundreds of dollars worth say) that will involve frequent transactions. If you set things up well it will be more secure than running from inside your native OS for example.

2. Have a LiveCD image of TAILS (an anonynimity/security focused LiveCD distribution) available inside the virtual machine. Install a virtual machine within the virtual machine and use it to boot the TAILS liveCD. Apply the technique described in the OP using this tails distro. This wallet should end up being not only super secure, but relatively anonymous. For even more anonymity, configure the first linux VM (host for Tails) to use a VPN, with IPTables filtering all on-vpn traffic. Purchase the VPN using Bitcoin. This is the ultimate paranoia solution for both anonymity and security.

Or just make sure have a decent virus checker installed, and copy your wallet to removable device that you can copy to from your computer when you need it. Although that might be suggested in one of the other 50 000 posts on this topic!

[oldschool]

blockchain.info has good security and a good record for an online wallet. But I still wouldn't trust them to store anything significant. As the old saying goes, if you want something done right - do it yourself.

Thanks for the input....  What do most people consider significant for bitcoin?  Should I be tinfoil hat and transfer everything to a 100% secure wallet offline thats never touched a connected device before, or should I just keep anything greater than say $100 worth of bitcoin offline like that and anything less on easy to access convenient online formats like blockchain.info or possibly spread across things like 2BTC ewallet, 2BTC cellphone wallet, 2BTC computer wallet, 2BTC brain wallet and the rest on a secure offline wallet or something?

How does everyone decide the difference between tinfoil hat security and actual usability and convenience with there bitcoins?

Thanks!

[Berend de Boer]

As this has become a very large topic, was there any mention that a gpg encrypted wallet is as safe as it gets? Doesn't matter even if you post it on a hackersanonymous board. Unless quantum computers become a reality, no one can decrypt a gpg 4096-bit encrypted wallet.

Obviously to use the wallet you might have to decrypt it. But you can decrypt to a memory disk, transfer the money out/in, and encrypt it again.

I'm happy to create 100 BTC wallet and post that publicly to prove my point :-)

[lyth0s]

Excellent information for a beginner thanks!

[Monkey1]

blockchain.info has good security and a good record for an online wallet. But I still wouldn't trust them to store anything significant. As the old saying goes, if you want something done right - do it yourself.

Thanks for the input....  What do most people consider significant for bitcoin?  Should I be tinfoil hat and transfer everything to a 100% secure wallet offline thats never touched a connected device before, or should I just keep anything greater than say $100 worth of bitcoin offline like that and anything less on easy to access convenient online formats like blockchain.info or possibly spread across things like 2BTC ewallet, 2BTC cellphone wallet, 2BTC computer wallet, 2BTC brain wallet and the rest on a secure offline wallet or something?

How does everyone decide the difference between tinfoil hat security and actual usability and convenience with there bitcoins?

Thanks!

Thats really up to you.  3 BTC will be a lot for some but to others 1000 BTC is peanuts.  Its no different to cash.  Some people are happy walking around with $5000 in their pocket.  Others wont carry more than $50!  I would only keep enough to cover regular transactions on your connected device and store the rest in an offline wallet.

[dotcom]

good tips, i might try a few in the coming days

[MrLenin]

thanks for the info. pretty useful stuff

[jhill38]

Thanks for the post.  Seems a bit confusing though will have a try

[Monkey1]

Give Armory a go.  Pretty straight forward, good guide and very secure.  Downside is you need standard client open to use it, but thats no biggy!

[xblitz]

great how-to!! thanks

[secure_data]

Good to know, thank you for info ! Useful for newbies

[BlueCombWindow]

Thanks for the tip!

[Zack]

Great guide, I was actually too lazy to do this when I first began Bitcoin, so one day I booted up my laptop that contained my wallet that had not been backed up and I ended up losing all of my coins, I know 12 isn't much but for a starter it sure felt like a huge loss.

[Ssoftware]

IS there any client for apple ipad ?

will it secure ?

is that possible to to backup wallet.dat from ipad ?

[KimJongChill]

Thanks for the guide, it was very informative.

[Benatar]

Thanks.

[Akido]

thanks for the info, will try