HOWTO: create a 100% secure wallet

[kmalacath]

Ok, here comes this newbie's first post....

A couple issues:

1)Typo: "walled.dat".

2)There's no protection against MITM attack when you download that LiveCD - people need to ensure that the LiveCD image they download hasn't been trojaned on its way to them.  Checking securely obtained SHA hashes, PGP/GPG keys ... very important and worth mentioning!  Ditto for the bitcoin client.
OP says: "I think it makes sense to trust both the Ubuntu LiveCD as well as the client from bitcoin.org for now."  Well, it makes sense if you ensure they are what you think they are -- you have to trust someone.

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[woodsyallin]

The problem with tails is adding programs and saving the data.  They purposely make it difficult.  Better off using liberte.  much more robust.

[loann]

Thanks for the guide, i will for sure use this.

[anniewattson]

makes sense. Thanks for the post!

[christop]

I think the guide to being secure doesn't need to be complex at all, though I don't know if the required technologies are available to write such a simple guide.

For example I think that an offline computer can send money without being connected to the internet. You just use your signing keys(you must also know manually how much bitcoins you have beforehand, without having any blockchain around. Here you can use blockchain.info to check that up, advised to access it through Tor. Then since you know how much you have, you use your private key on that offline computer and sign a transaction. Then you transfer that transaction with a usb key storage to your main computer which may be virus and trojan+keylogger infested and just execute the transaction. Voila!

Though are these technologies available. We would need a very simple program, one that doesn't like need the latest version of Ubuntu, not the full fledged bitcoin-qt, except if it can work in offline mode and it can allow to send Bitcoins without needing an internet connection.

The above are maybe a bit of half-baked thoughts.

The Bitcoin-qt client can create a raw transaction offline with the createrawtransaction command (in the console window), and then it can send a raw transaction with the sendrawtransaction command.

See https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Original_Bitcoin_client/API_Calls_list for a list of commands.

[Dabs]

Armory allows offline transactions.

[tipton]

Thanks for the info.

[c1oud]

I downloaded BitCoin and installed the program, and it shows up in my C;/Program Files, but no where in there is a wallet.dat file. Does anyone know why?

If you r using win7 wallet.dat is located in users folder -> your account name -> AppData (NB! this is hidden folder) -> Roaming -> Bitcoin

[kzhang]

Now I am using offline bitaddress + brainwallet to do all bitcoin things, so far so good.

[Zackary]

Here's my method on my Mac:

1) Login to wallet on blockchain.org and turn off WiFi
2) Navigate to "Receive Money" and generate a new address
3) Navigate to "Import/Export" and print paper wallet
4) Logout of blockchain.org and turn WiFi back on

The newly generated address was created offline and blockchain.info will not keep it since it never synced (online).

[yordan]

What's the deal with online wallets.  How do I know which ones to trust?

[Blockhead]

Thanks for the tips.

[marymoore]

What's the deal with online wallets.  How do I know which ones to trust?

I have opened an account with http://blockchain.info/ and the online wallet seems pretty good.

I think they have been around for a long time and they are quite trustable..

Another good option is https://instawallet.org, not sure about how safe it is though..

I hope this helps!

[vonross2012]

TY

[spinner]

thanks for the advice

[Alex Troyanskij]

Thank's a lot! That was easy to understand and useful!

[Midwinter]

Great post, well written!

[Seno]

thanks for the post! Will certainly do this when I've obtained some BTC.
Just one question: how can the wallet receive BTC when it's not plugged in? If the linux USB isn;t booted, it isn't connected to the internet, so theoretically the BTC's won't be added to my balance, right? Or am I missing something here.

[Baloo]

Great post, thanks! I'm using blockchain for a few months now and am pretty happy with it. There are occasional bugs, but their Support Group is always here on forum to help. 

[kkay]

thankfully with your help and the other bitcoiners I finally can grasp what a paper wallet is, i've been in the game for a bit, and it's still been confusing, thanks a lot