Reminder to not use brainwallets

[pereira4]

Now that there are a lot of newbies asking how to store their bitcoins, it is often remembered how it's a terrible idea to hold bitcoins on exchanges and online wallets like blockchain.info, but it is often forgotten how bad of an idea is to go the brainwallet route. Even gmaxwell has remembered people to not use them... it is just not a trusted way to store coins specially longterm. Maybe if you want to cross borders and temporarily hold coins "in the void", but forget to hold your main stack in a brainwallet.

[Priam]

What is a brain wallet ? These are the wallets that are secured by a passphrase like Multibit HD, or is it something else, and I'm wrong ?

[pereira4]

What is a brain wallet ? These are the wallets that are secured by a passphrase like Multibit HD, or is it something else, and I'm wrong ?

A brainwallet refers to the concept of storing Bitcoins in one's own mind by memorizing a mnemonic recovery seed. If the mnemonic is not recorded anywhere, the Bitcoins can be thought of as being held only in the mind of the owner. If a brainwallet is forgotten or the person dies or is permanently incapacitated, the Bitcoins are lost forever. Using techniques like memory pegging allow them to be memorized and recalled easily.

To create a brainwallet, use Bitcoin wallet software to generate a mnemonic seed and then memorize it. Such seeds are generated by wallets like Electrum, Armory and Mycelium.

Here you have it. I think the thing is, you can never trust that your seed is not going to be hacked. You can trust that your wallet.dat is going to stay safe if you keep them in safe places and encrypted, you can trust your paper wallets will not move from your closet and so on... but you can bet on brainwallets in the long term.

[Red-Apple]

What is a brain wallet ? These are the wallets that are secured by a passphrase like Multibit HD, or is it something else, and I'm wrong ?

a brain wallet is where you put in a password and the code turns that password to your private key. and it is bad because humans can not generate a random enough password.

what you are saying is encrypting the wallet file and that is secure as long as your password is a safe password.

also don't confuse these two with seed. a seed that HD wallets have should be as safe as the private key. i say should be because it depends on the code they are using the wallets like Electrum are tested and safe. others possibly should be  but you need to investigate.

[mrkevio]

I'd rather go for web wallets than brain wallets. I am stoing my Bitcoins on paper wallets and I feel safe, they're even easy to hide. You can be 100% sure nobody tracked you and saw your money if you're going to install a temporary system (Linux Live) and generate the wallets OFFLINE abd print them out after.

[OmegaStarScream]

With no doubt , the number of users of brainwallet are less (much less) then the users of exchanges (who stores their coins there) and online wallets but here is the thing , If I learned anything from being with the bitcoin community in the last two years , is that bitcoiners never learn the lesson unless they lose their coins.
I will give you an example , since the hack of Mt.gox and people are advising each other to not store their coins in an exchange but how many of them are actually doing it? not much... because until now , exchanges are still being hacked and we see people crying about how they lost bitcoins.
Overall , you can put reminders and warnings all over the place but If people don't lose their coins , they won't learn the lesson.

[webtricks]

Wow, listened about Brainwallets for the first time.
Ok, I will not go for it. For me best for holding Bitcoin is Paper Wallet and for daily transactions is Online wallet.
Any better suggestions?

[manselr]

I'd rather go for web wallets than brain wallets. I am stoing my Bitcoins on paper wallets and I feel safe, they're even easy to hide. You can be 100% sure nobody tracked you and saw your money if you're going to install a temporary system (Linux Live) and generate the wallets OFFLINE abd print them out after.

If you use paper wallets, don't forget to use BIP38 to encrypt the cold wallets, you are going to need that. I don't get why people think using paper wallets with no encryption is a safe practice just because you are storing them at your house. People often forget that good ol thieves that actually break your shit and get inside your home and steal everything they feel is worth stealing don't exist anymore in the internet age.

Once bitcoin becomes mainstream, thieves will learn that anything with a QR code is a potential goldmine, and a paper wallet without a lock is an easy steal.

[susila_bai]

What is a brain wallet ? These are the wallets that are secured by a passphrase like Multibit HD, or is it something else, and I'm wrong ?

A brainwallet refers to the concept of storing Bitcoins in one's own mind by memorizing a mnemonic recovery seed. If the mnemonic is not recorded anywhere, the Bitcoins can be thought of as being held only in the mind of the owner. If a brainwallet is forgotten or the person dies or is permanently incapacitated, the Bitcoins are lost forever. Using techniques like memory pegging allow them to be memorized and recalled easily.

To create a brainwallet, use Bitcoin wallet software to generate a mnemonic seed and then memorize it. Such seeds are generated by wallets like Electrum, Armory and Mycelium.

Here you have it. I think the thing is, you can never trust that your seed is not going to be hacked. You can trust that your wallet.dat is going to stay safe if you keep them in safe places and encrypted, you can trust your paper wallets will not move from your closet and so on... but you can bet on brainwallets in the long term.

What you are telling is not upto it, as if you have the passphrase key with you you can always anywhere regenerate your old wallet in electrum , mycelium. So i think in this desktop wallets you have to keep in memory the passphrase because even if you lost your wallet.dat file with passphrase you can regenerate your old wallet and run back your all address.

[Biitcoin]

Wow, listened about Brainwallets for the first time.
Ok, I will not go for it. For me best for holding Bitcoin is Paper Wallet and for daily transactions is Online wallet.
Any better suggestions?

Brainwallets are fine but human sometimes can't generate a passphrase that is secure enough and If he does , chances that he forgot the passphrase over the years are high.
An online wallet that doesn't give you control over the private keys are never suggested , not even for daily transactions , here is my order :

1. Hardware wallets
2. Paper Wallets
3. Desktop wallets (for daily uses)
4. Web wallets (that gives you your private keys)

[nara1892]

Now that there are a lot of newbies asking how to store their bitcoins, it is often remembered how it's a terrible idea to hold bitcoins on exchanges and online wallets like blockchain.info, but it is often forgotten how bad of an idea is to go the brainwallet route. Even gmaxwell has remembered people to not use them... it is just not a trusted way to store coins specially longterm. Maybe if you want to cross borders and temporarily hold coins "in the void", but forget to hold your main stack in a brainwallet.

actually I do not use brainwallet or holding my bitcoins on an exchange. I just store my bitcoin when I receive my payment and then sell it because I have a lot of live needs to be fulfilled.

well, to recommended people not to use something, I think it would be better if you suggest what best wallet to be used.

[webtricks]

Wow, listened about Brainwallets for the first time.
Ok, I will not go for it. For me best for holding Bitcoin is Paper Wallet and for daily transactions is Online wallet.
Any better suggestions?

Brainwallets are fine but human sometimes can't generate a passphrase that is secure enough and If he does , chances that he forgot the passphrase over the years are high.
An online wallet that doesn't give you control over the private keys are never suggested , not even for daily transactions , here is my order :

1. Hardware wallets
2. Paper Wallets
3. Desktop wallets (for daily uses)
4. Web wallets (that gives you your private keys)

Ok! Thanks for your suggestions.
I will go for Desktop wallet now!
As per private keys, do blockchain.info gives them?

[coolcoinz]

Good idea. I've never used brainwallets mainly because I find it hard to remember my own passwords 
Hardware wallets always worked for me. They offer decent level of security and are great if need quick and easy access. Just don't use full node clients. I have been using one and one time my power went down for a while. When it came back and I started my wallet it said the database is damaged and it took me 4 days to download the blockchain. Never again!

[bitbunnny]

Brainwallet? Very interesting term.  Although is not the most secure wallet in the world I use web wallet but on the other hand I don't have much coins. But with time wallets are also developing and getting new features so everyone can choose what suits him the best.

[strasboug]

I guess it's the same as a password, if you forget about the seed phrase then it is dead. There will be no way to retrieve the bitcoins in wallet. The most secure way is to store your bitcoin in an offline wallet and keep in encrypt drive.

[calkob]

Yeah brainwallets are bad news, i recently bought a Ledgerwallet Nano, however there are other like trazor and keepkey.  It is a great piece of kit and security seems bullet proof,  which is what i would expect from a hardware wallet.  i was a little disapointed in the fees to send my bitcoin out of the wallet tho, seem overly high, even for a slow confirmation.  But i suppose that is a small price to pay for the security gained.

another thing is the seed generation which you dont get with any of the paper wallets i have used (bitaddress.org) this is a great thing, worst case senario i lose my hardware or it breaks i just enter the seed and there are my keys. 

[maxg]

Isn't electrum technically a brain wallet?

[shorena]

-snip-
I think the thing is, you can never trust that your seed is not going to be hacked.

Think again. If your scenario is that the seed is "hacked" (what exactly does that mean?), why can it not be "hacked" if its stored in a file instead?

You can trust that your wallet.dat is going to stay safe if you keep them in safe places and encrypted with a strong password,

FTFY. If your idea is to help people, maybe tell us what "safe places" are and what not?

you can trust your paper wallets will not move from your closet and so on...
-snip-

Paper wallets still have the problem that you need a secure machine to redeem them. The closet might also burn.

-snip-
a brain wallet is where you put in a password and the code turns that password to your private key. and it is bad because humans can not generate a random enough password.
-snip-

A proper brain wallet can and should be generated randomly, as all private keys or seeds. Easy to remember and randomly generated do not have to be contradictions.

Wow, listened about Brainwallets for the first time.
Ok, I will not go for it. For me best for holding Bitcoin is Paper Wallet and for daily transactions is Online wallet.
Any better suggestions?

Stop following overly generalised advice. Learn the advantages and weaknesses of your methods.

Isn't electrum technically a brain wallet?

No, but according to OP it has the same security.

[Huge Black Woman]

Yeah rite, there ain't no way I got memory enough ta store a private key up'n my noodle.  What happen when you git a traumatic brain injury?   You'd forgit you even had any bitcoin, much less what da damn phrase o' whatever is!  Thet's jist crazy ta do that.  But I betcha thet's jist what Mr. Satoshi did, an' that's why that genesis block ain't moved.  Nigga's prolly in a rest home droolin' on hisself.

[Biitcoin]

Wow, listened about Brainwallets for the first time.
Ok, I will not go for it. For me best for holding Bitcoin is Paper Wallet and for daily transactions is Online wallet.
Any better suggestions?

Brainwallets are fine but human sometimes can't generate a passphrase that is secure enough and If he does , chances that he forgot the passphrase over the years are high.
An online wallet that doesn't give you control over the private keys are never suggested , not even for daily transactions , here is my order :

1. Hardware wallets
2. Paper Wallets
3. Desktop wallets (for daily uses)
4. Web wallets (that gives you your private keys)

Ok! Thanks for your suggestions.
I will go for Desktop wallet now!
As per private keys, do blockchain.info gives them?

Blockchain.info used to give the private keys but they are not doing it anymore so I suggest sticking to electrum and maybe use btc.com for web and phone.