Is developing your own Wallet safer?

[DevelopFI]

Would developing your own Bitcoin Wallet be safer than using known ones like Electrum? It would obviously be much simpler, with no GUI, worse overall security but no one could get their hands on its source code. I have enough programming experience myself to make it but I'm wondering if it even makes sense to do so.
 Thank for your help!

[Technicality]

I wouldn't say it's particularly necessary, since some wallets offer a lot of features anyway and are quite secure.  You could even just buy a hardware wallet like TREZOR which is nearly completely safe and would still take a lot less work than developing your own wallet, especially if you needed some of the features that major wallets have.

[ranochigo]

It doesn't necessary.

Having a program open sourced does not necessarily mean that the program would be more vulnerable. Known wallets are open sourced to allow the user to review it themselves and search for any bugs. A zero day exploit is not all that likely.

[achow101]

Developing your own wallet can in fact be very dangerous to your Bitcoin. You must understand the ins and outs of the entire Bitcoin protocol, down to the byte level. Screw something up, and you could lose all of your Bitcoin or be vulnerable to an attack. If your wallet is closed source, then you won't get any review from experts who can tell you whether there are serious bugs in your code. Furthermore, security through obscurity both doesn't matter here and is rarely any security at all.

[Senor.Bla]

Developing your own wallet can in fact be very dangerous to your Bitcoin. You must understand the ins and outs of the entire Bitcoin protocol, down to the byte level. Screw something up, and you could lose all of your Bitcoin or be vulnerable to an attack. If your wallet is closed source, then you won't get any review from experts who can tell you whether there are serious bugs in your code. Furthermore, security through obscurity both doesn't matter here and is rarely any security at all.

I have to agree. Although i prefer to lose money, because i made a mistake rather then lose it because somebody made a mistake. In this case it would be an unnecessary risk. If you have the skills to make your own one, then you should be able to check the code of a wallet you would like to use. In crypto OSS is preferred since everybody can check and not the system/software is keeping your data safe, but your keys. 

[hinterlog]

Would developing your own Bitcoin Wallet be safer than using known ones like Electrum? It would obviously be much simpler, with no GUI, worse overall security but no one could get their hands on its source code. I have enough programming experience myself to make it but I'm wondering if it even makes sense to do so.
 Thank for your help!

What are you thinking of developing?

[divinemaniac]

Developing your own wallet can in fact be very dangerous to your Bitcoin. You must understand the ins and outs of the entire Bitcoin protocol, down to the byte level. Screw something up, and you could lose all of your Bitcoin or be vulnerable to an attack. If your wallet is closed source, then you won't get any review from experts who can tell you whether there are serious bugs in your code. Furthermore, security through obscurity both doesn't matter here and is rarely any security at all.

I agree with achow. Really, think about it, if u miss even a minor detail, then u are screwed up. Small errors like casting errors (may turn 1.7 btc to 1 btc) and other stuff can pretty much impact your software in a huge way. I think most major wallets are secure on their own. You will be safe with them as long as u use them with security in mind.

[Jet Cash]

Would you give your fiat currency wallet to someone else to look after, or would you keep it in your pocket. I guess if you are the sort of person who keeps losing things, then maybe you should get someone else to look after it.

[Ashong Salonga]

Developing your own wallet can in fact be very dangerous to your Bitcoin. You must understand the ins and outs of the entire Bitcoin protocol, down to the byte level. Screw something up, and you could lose all of your Bitcoin or be vulnerable to an attack. If your wallet is closed source, then you won't get any review from experts who can tell you whether there are serious bugs in your code. Furthermore, security through obscurity both doesn't matter here and is rarely any security at all.

I have to agree. Although i prefer to lose money, because i made a mistake rather then lose it because somebody made a mistake. In this case it would be an unnecessary risk. If you have the skills to make your own one, then you should be able to check the code of a wallet you would like to use. In crypto OSS is preferred since everybody can check and not the system/software is keeping your data safe, but your keys. 

Correct. Private key must be saved and shouldn't be known by others, hence your bitcoin would be secured. Don't make an online copy of your private key, always save it to your note or write it down. Thus, no one can access your account but only yourselves. Keep in mind that if your copy get lost, you can't recover it and that's the risk on using paper wallet.

[xskl0]

Do it and, if your wallet is better than other wallets, you will can share it. 

[cr1776]

One of the most important and tricky parts of developing your own wallet would be the PRNG.  There have been a number of cases where the PRNG had problems and people lost bitcoins, so while developing your own wallet would no doubt be interesting, it is a minefield.

[coinableS]

It's a fun project, been working on my own for fun... Definitely not safer.

[youdacapt]

One of the most important and tricky parts of developing your own wallet would be the PRNG.  There have been a number of cases where the PRNG had problems and people lost bitcoins, so while developing your own wallet would no doubt be interesting, it is a minefield.

I choose not to create and develop my own wallet, because if there are problems that can't be repaired, then I would lose total existing bitcoin. Private/public key is enough for wallet security. But I'm optimistic wallet technology continues to evolve, I expect wallet has three different keys such as private key, transactions key, and backup key. This will provide a layered security levels, more robust than using 2FA features.

[Coding Enthusiast]

A wallet that has been around for a couple of years, a couple of developers working on it and more people contributing to the code and checking it for bugs,... and thousands of users using it and reporting any possible bugs and helping the development.

Versus

A wallet that you build, only you code, you test, you secure. All alone.


P.S. If you are worried about these stuff there are other ways of "generating a private key" without using any of the wallets, or without a computer even. Check out how to get a random number offline using dice.
Here is an article about it: http://www.swansontec.com/bitcoin-dice.html

[Smoxer]

I have developed mine for a while, can't say it's safer, but I learn a few things.

[pebwindkraft]

it is worthwhile! Really, don't get discouraged.
You learn alot about "how the system works". There is a testnet, that you can play with, so don't even need to fear loosing money while in early stage of dev.
You never know where you end up. Maybe one day you're in, and we have a new core dev :-)

Hint1: you can't make money with wallets

Question: what do you intend to do, and what language? I think this was not answered ...

encouraging you, rgds,
Volker

[xskl0]

Would developing your own Bitcoin Wallet be safer than using known ones like Electrum? It would obviously be much simpler, with no GUI, worse overall security but no one could get their hands on its source code. I have enough programming experience myself to make it but I'm wondering if it even makes sense to do so.
 Thank for your help!

Electrum is very safe, you don't need to develop a new wallet in my opinion 

[shield132]

Developing your own wallet can in fact be very dangerous to your Bitcoin. You must understand the ins and outs of the entire Bitcoin protocol, down to the byte level. Screw something up, and you could lose all of your Bitcoin or be vulnerable to an attack. If your wallet is closed source, then you won't get any review from experts who can tell you whether there are serious bugs in your code. Furthermore, security through obscurity both doesn't matter here and is rarely any security at all.

He said that he has enough experience to develope his own Wallet software.
Well to my mind despite the fact that electrum is open source project, that doesn't make any fear fact because think about online wallet websites, ehat do you think, are they using their own developed software? Maybe 1-2 will use, maybe, but as I know and also my local bank is using already created and mostly used, public software.

[alonmuroch]

I know a few developers who built from scratch a node to learn how the network operates.
Those days there are great open-source projects in many languages you could use as a node, no reason to develop your own (the same goes to every piece of code)

The chance you will create a security flaw is pretty high considering the complexity of today's nodes.

[calkob]

Would developing your own Bitcoin Wallet be safer than using known ones like Electrum? It would obviously be much simpler, with no GUI, worse overall security but no one could get their hands on its source code. I have enough programming experience myself to make it but I'm wondering if it even makes sense to do so.
 Thank for your help!

I doubt very much that developing your own wallet would be a god idea, unless you are a serious developer with great skills.  However i reckon that if you were a great developer you would be doing it already and wouldnt be on bitcoin talk asking if it was a good idea.

The established wallets have been around for years and have been thoroughly tested and reviewed which means they are secure.  i know i would rather trust them over my own abilities to create a wallet.