How do you stop someone forcing you to hand over your private key and taking all

[BurtW]

People who come into your house are not looking for your bitcoin wallet I promise you.

Unless they are homeland security agents looking for money to run their operations.

[dinofelis]

People who come into your house are not looking for your bitcoin wallet I promise you.

Unless they are homeland security agents looking for money to run their operations.

Shaun Bridges and Co ?

[theunbeatable]

Of course this situation is chronic nowadays. Because Bitcoin is the gold of internet robbery and theft as well as social engineering will be used to acquire your private key. Well I think the best way is to trust no one. Social engineering is crucial in these kind of games, they will earn your trust and then they will start to betray you. Always have a countermeasures or dummy accounts when in n public. Don't be careless in public places and avoid to attract them that you have a lot of cash in your wallet. The protector of your belongings is no other than yourself. Be careful.!

[PhucS]

Currently, the status of computer hacking, theft of personal information occurs more and more so the storage of private keys in the Bitcoin wallet is also very important. If you have less Bitcoin, it's okay, but if it's a lot, then that's a shame. I think you should prepare a cold wallet and keep it safe, do not pass it on to anyone you feel suspicious. Bitcoin storage on online wallets should be restricted because computers are so vulnerable to hacker viruses and your information is stolen.

[BurtW]

People who come into your house are not looking for your bitcoin wallet I promise you.

Unless they are homeland security agents looking for money to run their operations.

Shaun Bridges and Co ?

No, the homeland security agents in my case were "honest" agents and did not try to personally pocket any of the loot they took from me.  They turned it all over to the government to help fund future operations in their department.

[paul gatt]

One thing I have thought about is that with bitcoin, someone could force you to hand over your private key. What sort of safeguards are there to prevent this happening, or to prevent them taking everything in that wallet?
One thing one can do is leave Bitcoins on an exchange that will only allow you to withdraw $1000 worth per day, but then you run the risk of the exchange being hacked....what are the other options?

I see a nonsense here, I do not think that someone will find a way to force you to hand out your private key. First of all, bitcoin is a completely free currency, they do not have any information about bitcoin users, so e are really safe if we store bitcoin, no one can know you owns bitcoin. However, if that really happened, there is not any way to fight a bandit, I think we lost all the money.

[Rinder]

First to someone force you to give your private key they must know you using bitcoin, and well they will know only if you expose yourself trading or buying and selling with atm, outside those as i know there is no way to know who is with bitcoin or no.

[webtricks]

How are they going to force you hand over your private key? Are they going to point a gun to your face and make you recite your private key? If you were to be robbed, they would probably just make you hand over your phone. In that case, prepare a cold wallet and your loss would be minimised.

Anyway, some wallet uses multi sig. Without their key and your key, you cannot touch the Bitcoin within the address. I imagine this would be counter effective since you can still control the coins in your wallet with you holding more keys.

Well, if someone gonna point me gun for Private keys, I would be happier to hand over to them quietly rather than frustrating them with  cold storage or multi signature. It is all better to lose money then having bullet in head our of frustration!

[cpfreeplz]

The obvious solution would be a multisig wallet. Even if they could figure out who the owned the other private key they may not be able to get to them if they're say, on the other side of the world or if you left it in a safe place like a bank's safety deposit box. There are lots of ways to make sure you aren't the only one in charge of keeping your bitcoins safe while at the same time not giving someone full access to your precious coins.

[szpalata]

If you could be helplessly forced to hand over your private keys then you can as well be forced to hand over your car keys, your house keys, your bags, ATM cards and any valuable item, so in such an instance what will you do? I guess you should be able to apply the same solution if you're being coerced to hand over your Bitcoin private keys.

[cpfreeplz]

If you could be helplessly forced to hand over your private keys then you can as well be forced to hand over your car keys, your house keys, your bags, ATM cards and any valuable item, so in such an instance what will you do? I guess you should be able to apply the same solution if you're being coerced to hand over your Bitcoin private keys.

Not really. If someone asks you for a $100,00 ransom because your wife has been kidnapped do you have $100,000 sitting around? If you do, I 100% guarentee you it's not in a bank account. It's equity in real estate, it's a stock, it's mutual funds. So can they give you a deadline to have it? Sure. But is it totally liquid and they'll actually get their money in right then? In 48h? In a week? Depends on what you're invested in. Smart people don't hold fiat in a bank account. That's why the rich get richer.

[Sundark]

Bitcoin is not easy to steal, not unless you are held at gunpoint. Fiat money can be stolen with with no problem. With BTC is is a bit different.

- someone will have to know that you are bitcoin user, with enough coins to justify robbery.
- you will be have to scared shitless to give out your private key/wallet.dat and password

As someone else mentioned, the best way is to use decoy, it will probably work against less technical attackers.
But again, less technical attackers wouldn't probably try to steal your BTC in the first place.

[ganjamancer]

One thing I have thought about is that with bitcoin, someone could force you to hand over your private key. What sort of safeguards are there to prevent this happening, or to prevent them taking everything in that wallet?
One thing one can do is leave Bitcoins on an exchange that will only allow you to withdraw $1000 worth per day, but then you run the risk of the exchange being hacked....what are the other options?

That's an interesting question.  I'm not sure that there are any actual "safeguards" designed in Bitcoin itself for this; after all, it was made so that whoever has a private key can spend the coins.

There is an indirect safeguard I can think of, in which you give the robber your private key, and then immediately transfer the coins to another wallet.  Providing the transaction you make confirms before the robber can use your private key, your coins are safe at the other address.

Now, this kind of leads into my second point:  The above "safeguard" brings about a logic conundrum; why force you to hand over your private keys when he or she could force you to send your coins to their wallet?

[Denker]

One thing I have thought about is that with bitcoin, someone could force you to hand over your private key. What sort of safeguards are there to prevent this happening, or to prevent them taking everything in that wallet?
One thing one can do is leave Bitcoins on an exchange that will only allow you to withdraw $1000 worth per day, but then you run the risk of the exchange being hacked....what are the other options?

Why should somebody try to force me to hand him over my private keys? This would mean you are running around telling people you own Bitcoin.
In the coming years, with a continuing rising price heading to 5k and more, I recommend to keep your mouth shut instead of spreading the word that you have so and so much Bitcoin.Of course this also depends in which social class you are.Rich people proabably won't really give a damn if you have Bitcoin or not. But things look different in the poor class.
Therefore the higher the price rises the more jealous people will be out there.
So be careful, be smart and just shut up in terms of the topic of how much coins you have or not!

Furthermore I would never recommend anybody to leave his coins on an exchange.This is stupid and very dangerous.
Learn from the past guys!

[stompix]

One thing I have thought about is that with bitcoin, someone could force you to hand over your private key. What sort of safeguards are there to prevent this happening, or to prevent them taking everything in that wallet?
One thing one can do is leave Bitcoins on an exchange that will only allow you to withdraw $1000 worth per day, but then you run the risk of the exchange being hacked....what are the other options?

Why should somebody try to force me to hand him over my private keys? This would mean you are running around telling people you own Bitcoin.
In the coming years, with a continuing rising price heading to 5k and more, I recommend to keep your mouth shut instead of spreading the word that you have so and so much Bitcoin.Of course this also depends in which social class you are.Rich people proabably won't really give a damn if you have Bitcoin or not. But things look different in the poor class.
Therefore the higher the price rises the more jealous people will be out there.
So be careful, be smart and just shut up in terms of the topic of how much coins you have or not!

Furthermore I would never recommend anybody to leave his coins on an exchange.This is stupid and very dangerous.
Learn from the past guys!

What are we going to do when everybody uses bitcoin?
Once fiat is done for, everybody will have some bitcoins right?

Bitcoin is not easy to steal, not unless you are held at gunpoint. Fiat money can be stolen with with no problem. With BTC is is a bit different.

- someone will have to know that you are bitcoin user, with enough coins to justify robbery.
- you will be have to scared shitless to give out your private key/wallet.dat and password

As someone else mentioned, the best way is to use decoy, it will probably work against less technical attackers.
But again, less technical attackers wouldn't probably try to steal your BTC in the first place.

How can fiat money be stolen with no problem? I only use my cc card, i don't have more than 2-5 euros worth on me at any time.
No difference, they will have to force me to give the pin number.
And even if I do I have limits in place that can't be overridden by phone.
No such thing once they have your priv key.

Ever had a knife pointed at you?
Everyone is high and mighty behind the keyboard but in real life things are pretty damn ugly.

[paul gatt]

If you could be helplessly forced to hand over your private keys then you can as well be forced to hand over your car keys, your house keys, your bags, ATM cards and any valuable item, so in such an instance what will you do? I guess you should be able to apply the same solution if you're being coerced to hand over your Bitcoin private keys.

No, if a bandit actually acts because of bitcoin, they will not demand anything other than it. Because if they force you to hand over the material, they will surely be caught by the police, and they can go to jail. However, for bitcoin, that does not happen, the government does not manage bitcoin, so when you are bitcoin it is not valid, and the government is not involved in the matter.

[robelneo]

One thing I have thought about is that with bitcoin, someone could force you to hand over your private key. What sort of safeguards are there to prevent this happening, or to prevent them taking everything in that wallet?
One thing one can do is leave Bitcoins on an exchange that will only allow you to withdraw $1000 worth per day, but then you run the risk of the exchange being hacked....what are the other options?

It's like a hold up but they want your Bitcoin?when they got your private key,there's nothing you can't do about it unless you can login earlier than they can and transfer all your bitcoin,you need to learn martial arts or self defense to avoid such thing from happening.

[clickerz]

Have a 'decoy' wallet that you hand over when forced. This will only work when the attacker does not know the Bitcoin addresses in your main wallet.

I think this is a good idea, to spread your bitcoins to several wallets and whenever this situation happens you can give that private keys to someone, the wallet with least value stored in it.You can also put some of your btc to some valuable altcoins like Eth, Dash etc. So many wallets, more private keys, it delays the situation until you can report to police.

[stompix]

Have a 'decoy' wallet that you hand over when forced. This will only work when the attacker does not know the Bitcoin addresses in your main wallet.

I think this is a good idea, to spread your bitcoins to several wallets and whenever this situation happens you can give that private keys to someone, the wallet with least value stored in it.You can also put some of your btc to some valuable altcoins like Eth, Dash etc. So many wallets, more private keys, it delays the situation until you can report to police.

And it will take a robber how much? 10 seconds to check the balance?
Or will you start carrying 20 decoy wallets?

Common, this is pure nonsense.
And don't even get me started by saying "valuable" altcoins.

[TastyChillySauce00]

One thing I have thought about is that with bitcoin, someone could force you to hand over your private key. What sort of safeguards are there to prevent this happening, or to prevent them taking everything in that wallet?
One thing one can do is leave Bitcoins on an exchange that will only allow you to withdraw $1000 worth per day, but then you run the risk of the exchange being hacked....what are the other options?

It's like a hold up but they want your Bitcoin?when they got your private key,there's nothing you can't do about it unless you can login earlier than they can and transfer all your bitcoin,you need to learn martial arts or self defense to avoid such thing from happening.

Actually, no robbers would force to hand over the private key instead of forcing the victim to send the bitcoin directly, it actually just doesn't make sense but let's assume if it's happening in real life. Splitting over the amount of bitcoin is a good idea, and may prevent from total losses but if the robbers know it, you'll still end up forced to hand over both private keys. Learning self-defense is kinda good but no offense, martial arts is kinda useless when the robbers are handing gun and keep the distance so that punch or kick would be impossible to be released.