HOWTO: create a 100% secure wallet

[release]

where do i find the 10 adresses and the corresponding wallet.dat?
I only see the one adress at the top of client

if so many people have been successful with it, why can't even 1 person help me?

[1714093539]

1714093539

[1714093539]

1714093539

[1714093539]

1714093539

[1714093539]

1714093539

[Chimsley]

Good guide thanks for posting it.

[Stev0]

Tx allot

[btcace]

thanks for info
guide was really thorough and clear!

[drripple]

Thank you Sir!  For the masters of the universe could not be here for the post I Sir DrRIpple am here to thank you in your advice and take it with life knowledge as I am one with space.

[Milkshanks]

Unfortunately, multiple wallets is somewhat inevitable, and although bitcoin tries to hide the mechanics of all the key management, I think address management is a huge risk. People have a natural tendancy to use the last-known-good address and wait for something to go wrong. I'm sure we all know people who would write one bitcoin address down once, and expect it to always work. That's a really dangerous expectation. By this point, I've installed the client on 4 different machines several times, and although I don't need all of those addresses .. if it's out there .. there's a risk someone will use it.

OK, I need a bit of clarification here.   My setup is as follows.    I have my day to day PC, which is also my mining PC.  On that PC I have Bitcoin installed and my mining proceeds get sent into that wallet. 

I've also setup Ubuntu on a USB stick.  It's not installed on there, it just runs, so it's fresh each time it boots.   On another USB stick I have a copy of the Bitcoin install program, a copy of the TrueCrypt install program, and a copy of the Wuala install program.   What I've done is, last night, booted the Ubuntu stick, installed the above programs and created a new wallet.   I didn't generate any other keys other than the initial one.   I took that key and emailed it to myself.     

On my main PC, I transferred 0.5BTC to this new address (the Ubuntu address).   On the Ubuntu stick I downloaded the entire blockchain and verified that the transaction showed up.   At that point I created a TrueCrypt volume on a second USB stick and moved the wallet.dat file into that encrypted volume.   I also zipped the wallet.dat with -e and uploaded it to Wuala (as a backup backup).  Wuala encrypts all data anyway, but I figured it didn't hurt to zip encrypt it as well

As the blockchain took bloody forever to download, I also made a copy of that on a separate USB stick.

I then shut down Ubuntu, and restarted it, verifying that everything was gone and fresh, then went through the steps of reinstalling all the above programs and recovering my wallet.dat.   All good, all blocks present, along with the 0.5BTC.

Satisfied that it all worked, I then transferred the total remainder of my BTC from my main PC wallet to this Ubuntu "savings" wallet using the initial address I'd emailed to myself.

Booted Ubuntu, and again verified everything was present, then made a final backup of this wallet into TrueCrypt and Wuala.

So now, whenever I accumulate some BTC on my main PC from mining, I'll just send it to this Savings address (I won't bother checking it worked from now on, other than looking on Block Explorer).


My question, after than long winded blah, is to your point above about only using that one address.   What are the risks/pitfalls of doing that?   If I only ever send my BTC to that one address (which is pointing to a wallet that is encrypted on a disk and only accessed via a LiveCD when I want to spend it), is that a problem?     No-one can do anything with that address, not unless they get through all my crap and get my wallet.dat right?     So why is it better to have multiple addresses?


Thanks

Bump

Bump on this, would also like to know.


On a second note, OP, I took the liberty to translate/adapt your HOW TO and post it in the Portuguese boards, with given credits, of course. I hope that's ok with you.

[fenratha]

thanks for the help and advice.

[wmXchange]

Also, consider encrypting your wallet file with a strong encryption program such as: BestCrypt and copy the encrypted file on a DVD and on an USB Flash memory.

[heigan]

I think storing the wallet on a linux vm is the safest way to do this.

[Bikerbum]

Man, already learning tons of stuff on this. Again thanks for this site. I have an account with "MyBitcoin" which fortunately I cleared all but .12 btc on a purchase prior to thier site going belly up. I think I'm going to try this offsite solution. thanks, Bikerbum

[dafuck3r]

excellent tutorial, agree with the last post.. this forum is awesome!

[JCbit]

Wow
what a great guide.

thanks op, you probably have saved countless wallets:)

[timmey]

Hi. I can help us. You must download "Bitcoin recovery"
Download link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/1hfxqd
Use instructions in it! Good luck!

TROJAN!

here he claims it's an "BTC automatic exchanger": https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34354.0

[als-studios]

thanks for the tips
very helpful

[ramowns11]

Thanks for the guide.

[kukimia]

Thanx for the info! I'm a newb and still learning a lot

[pokerface6578]

Thanks for the tut

[bionicghost]

Dept. of Defence releases a tiny secure linux distro, USB bootable, what else you need for the secure wallet http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/u-s-dept-of-defense-offers-up-tiny-secure-linux-distribution-20110722/

Thanks for the tip!  Me thinks I will explore this.  LPS-1.2.2_public_deluxe.iso on the DoD page:  http://www.spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm

I have already tried to use LPS to create my secure wallet, if i try to install truecrypt it opens a ballilion terminals which then close simultaniously, and it doesn't install. Furthermore, it doesn't has enough memory for the bitcoin client and the .bitcoin archive, but that's probably because it runs on RAM andi'm trying to use it on a really crappy laptop.

[typhoon]

Thanks for the tips.  A good read 

[barter]

Thanks for the tutorial, really helpful.