HOWTO: create a 100% secure wallet

[Duckphobia]

My friend gave me 5BTC on a USB, and walked me through the process of installing wallet software and importing the wallet to the compter. If I delete everything associated with bitcoin on the computer and only keep the USB, does that count as a cold offline storage wallet? As far as I know, it is the only copy of the wallet in existance.

Also, if I drop the USB into a lake when fishing, is it lost forever, or can I have a backup using some passcode in a website or is there a customer help line or something?

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[anonymous_acc]

My friend gave me 5BTC on a USB, and walked me through the process of installing wallet software and importing the wallet to the compter. If I delete everything associated with bitcoin on the computer and only keep the USB, does that count as a cold offline storage wallet? As far as I know, it is the only copy of the wallet in existance.

Yes, it would be pretty secure offline wallet.

[AndrewJ]

Good info, keeping our wallets safe is the most important thing in Bitcoin.

[Offthechain]

Some good info here... I'm doing a clean install of Linux Mint on a laptop loaded with Armory and the main QT client... backing up to Wuala and a USB stick. The backups are in a truecrypt volume.
Hoping this will be safe enough, with also the ability to send/ receive coins if need be.

Must also think of a way of letting my family know how to access it should I die!

[itai3856]

Thanks for that

[Got BTC]

thanks for the info, will definitely be using some of this in my future endeavors.

[Offthechain]

Can anyone recommend the best distro of Linux for using as my main Bitcoin machine?

[gb5692c]

Thanks for the info

[ShockTheta]

Can anyone recommend the best distro of Linux for using as my main Bitcoin machine?

Why not use windows?

On-topic: Thanks, but will most likely be using blockchain.info

[BluePlanet]

Encrypting your wallet & holding the coins yourself indeed seems the best. Just don't forget to make a few (encrypted) backups!

[caramelsun]

This is simple, very nice and simple. Another way (with winblows [smoke]) is to install linux and automate another os (windows or something) which flicks on like most library systems do. Similar concept - no wallet.dat to steal because none was really saved - once you log off of the instance of the second system what you did before is toast.

[MarlboroMan]

cool

[Rexrussell]

nice i have a bit of work to do

[BrainGame]

Very good option to secure your wallet!

[v1per]

Presumably, with deterministic wallets things change slightly? I mean, in that case you don't need to take periodic backups of your wallet - just keep the root key safe and off any internet connected device. Right?

(Of course, you still need to keep your actual wallet(s) secure, just that you don't have to worry about backup or losing your coins to the same degree, or have I got this all wrong...)

[GsR]

very interesting

[kush1218]

In my opinion a 100% secure wallet does not exist.

im just saying 

[slush]

In my opinion a 100% secure wallet does not exist.

Yes, it does. The solution is just to keep private keys off the computer. Transaction signing devices like  Trezor solves this in user-friendly way...

[Vircurex]

Increasing the level of security increases the level of inconvenience.  Choose wisely,

[Tyler8746]

Good post my friend!