HOWTO: create a 100% secure wallet

[Portnoy]

Is there a good tutorial for using TrueCrypt to protect ones wallet?

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[penix]

I like the idea of securing a second wallet with Truecrypt. If I ever get enough coins to matter, I'm definitely doing this.

[gutschilla]

In securing a wallet, there are some things that you need to do that are applicable to any secure computer.  First and foremast, you need a state-of-the-are firewall!  This will keep away 99.9% percent of the hackers, their trojans and key loggers.  Next, don't download shit unless it is from a reputable source that you can resonably trust.

I cannot emphasize on your last sentence. Better even: Don't download and install anything on the machine you're going to do serious Bitcoin trading with. Of course, you'll need the bitcoin client and a browser. But I've seen too many (both linux and windows, but mostly windows) PCs with tons of crap installed. Oh and refrain from visiting your favourite porn site. Don't install Adobe Flash. Don't open PDFs.

At best, use a dedicated PC. A shiny new 300EUR netbook or your 5yr. old Pentium-M laptop should do.

[CJM1682]

oops i forgot my pass-phrase now i am screwed!!!!

[josecitox]

Great guide!

[snoopy]

Yep, this is a useful guide. Good stuff.

[NeonLicht]

Interesting and entertaining.

[nosuchthing]

very well written!

[bigewok]

Thank you!

[Acey168]

Thanks! You seem to have put a lot of effort into this guide. It was interesting.

[MaxSan]

Yes very nice. I have to suggest though, it may have been said before...


... Ironkey from cheaper in bitcoins?

Sorted. 

[bronan]

I laughed my ass off it was fun

But lol they may steal my wallet.dat as much as they want ..... my 0.0 cents on it will not make anyone rich

At this moment after several hours i made lets see 0.01356885 cents with this rate i can see getting 1 btc will take about what ? a month or so with my hardware
so if i calculate it to my currency would give me lets see 0,00000 in my wallet now and probably in a month i think 3.5 euro cause that the value given for 1 BTC

I hear people talk about earning hundreds of bitcoins but lol i guess they own a complete datacenter or what?


 

[ama]

But lol they may steal my wallet.dat as much as they want ..... my 0.0 cents on it will not make anyone rich

Today you might have 0.0, but perhaps tomorrow you have a few dozens, or hundreds, who knows.  If they still your wallet today they'll have access to your coins tomorrow.

[bronan]

Well i am using one of the most insecure operating systems on the planet .... what was it again .. oh yes windows
But even though its leak like an open door on my house untill now i never ever had a problem with my security for lets see 12 years now.
So yes i take security not for granted and even though many have had issues with their os, i still can say never had an trojan or virus in these years take anything from me.
The most dangerous thing is using the cloud in a insecure way, like people trusting online storage and such or even gmail for that matter...
Nobody seems to see the risk in these and send files and very privacy related stuff to them just as easy as if its the most secure thing on the world
Hell on my wifes work for instance most people on the job still put stickers on the pc for the others so they can login.
They simply forget people walking in and out all the time ..

[ama]

Well i am using one of the most insecure operating systems on the planet .... what was it again .. oh yes windows

Not one of them, but the most.

i still can say never had an trojan or virus in these years take anything from me.

The fact that you are unaware of what happened doesn't mean it didn't happen.

[biometrics]

I'm purchasing a 1.0Ghz Fanless Mini PC to store bitcoin savings (don't have any yet). Found a Taiwanese company that sells them cheap:
http://www.ewayco.com/100-low-cost-pc-products-low-cost-systems-embedded-systems-servers-lcd-pc-panel-pc.html

For the OS I'm thinking about a headless (no GUI) version of Ubuntu server. Most of the time I'll have the machine switched off unless I need to send bitcoins to my working wallet (hosted on a Widows box). Access to the machine will be via console or SSH.

The partition will be encrypted too.

I'm buying two of the Mini PC's so it could be interesting to put some coins (say 20) on there and run a competition to see if anyone could get them, obviously I'd leave it on, and provide an IP address. PM if you're interested?

[ama]

I'm purchasing a 1.0Ghz Fanless Mini PC to store bitcoin savings (don't have any yet).

A Raspberry Pi for 1/4th the prize would nice (and portable and easy to keep on a safe) for that:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

[biometrics]

I'm purchasing a 1.0Ghz Fanless Mini PC to store bitcoin savings (don't have any yet).

A Raspberry Pi for 1/4th the prize would nice (and portable and easy to keep on a safe) for that:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Looks interesting and I can't wait till it's released. Till then I've already paid for the mini Fanless PC.

[panerai]

does the new bitcoin client that encrypts the wallet make this method useless?

[biometrics]

does the new bitcoin client that encrypts the wallet make this method useless?

Not really. There are numerous Trojans and other vulnerabilities with certain operating systems. If you plan on storing anything more than a trivial amount of BTC I'd strongly suggest taking extra security measures. For me this means storing them on a dedicated (mini) PC.