Safest way to store your bitcoins?

[avacadoareg4u]

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet. Why are offline wallets the safest? What are your recommendations?

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[Teraboy]

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet. Why are offline wallets the safest? What are your recommendations?

Offline wallet means if you're not need to connect your computer to the network if you're trying to checking your amount on your wallet. That means you can try to check them everytime with just clicking the icon on your dekstop. I will give you a recomendation to use hardware wallet and offline wallet. The hardware can be intergrated with offline wallet.

[Dudeperfect]

Offline wallets are something where the secret key is not shared with anyone (only if such wallet is generated in a safe environment and trusted source). The cheapest way to an offline wallet is to finding an old computer and generating a paper wallet through that machine (and that machine should never establish a connection to internet or devices such as a printer that connects to the internet). There are some other ways too but this is the one which I trust the most for the paper wallet.

[mocacinno]

AFAIK, there isn't much difference between the safety level of:
- a paper wallet
- a cold (offline) wallet
- a hardware wallet

the difference is in the price and usability.
- a paper wallet is allmost free (the cost of a piece of paper), but can only be used to collect unspent outputs. When you need the funds, you have to sweep the paper wallet and throw it away. It's also a bit tricky to make a paper wallet in the correct way

- a cold (offline) wallet costs a lot more, since you need an old PC that can never be connected to the internet as soon as you start using it to store your funds. However, if you set it up correctly, it's not that hard to use, and you can send and receive as much as you want, but you can also access the full feature set (like signing messages, creating raw transactions, broadcasting,...)

- a hardware wallet (trezor, ledger nano S,...) is actually pretty cheap, can be used to send and receive, can usually be used in different places,... It is my personal favorite. you are bound by some restrictions tough (for example, if you use the official ledger chrome plugin, it can not be used to sign messages)

[Cactushrt]

Cold storage are the safest as long as you have the contol on your private keys, My bitcoins are now stored on an exchange wallet for 3months but it's not recommended to stored your funds on a wallet if you dont have the private keys

[nydiacaskey01]

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet. Why are offline wallets the safest? What are your recommendations?

You might want to read the post's in this thread Which Hardware Wallet is The Best? 2017 Feedback from that thread Trezor is a good wallet to store your Bitcoins but there are also people here saying that paper wallets are also a good option  to store and save your Bitcoin. Here's a link about paper wallets Paper Wallet Questions. But if you ask me I'll go for Trezor

[icecube45]

Actually online wallet and offline wallet are both safe, both have good security I think so as long as it can keep up well, bitcoin will remain safe. But it is true that many people who consider storing bitcoin in online wallet are very risky because it requires internet and the possibility to be hacked larger, so should be more careful if you want to store bitcoin in online wallet. And offline wallet are considered more secure because it does not require the internet so chances of being hacked are very small. I think that's what makes offline wallet safer than online wallet. But safe or not it depends on each of us in keeping the wallet.

[Iranus]

Actually online wallet and offline wallet are both safe, both have good security I think so as long as it can keep up well, bitcoin will remain safe. But it is true that many people who consider storing bitcoin in online wallet are very risky because it requires internet and the possibility to be hacked larger, so should be more careful if you want to store bitcoin in online wallet. And offline wallet are considered more secure because it does not require the internet so chances of being hacked are very small. I think that's what makes offline wallet safer than online wallet. But safe or not it depends on each of us in keeping the wallet.

I don't think you understand what an "offline wallet" means.  It doesn't mean that you don't need the Internet to send transactions - how do you think miners and nodes would find your transactions?

The difference is that an online wallet's "online" element is that in order to access your Bitcoin, you have to be connected to another person or organisation to spend your Bitcoin for you, instead of spending it yourself like in an "offline" wallet.

Therefore, an online wallet is only secure if:

-The organisation is heavily government regulated

-The organisation is public enough that it's difficult for them to run off

-It's extremely difficult for them to get hacked, because they hold most of their Bitcoin in cold storage

In most cases, it's not possible to verify that these conditions are all met, and it also contributes to centralisation to be giving a large company responsibility for your Bitcoin.  Therefore personal offline wallets are always the safest and best.

[fitty]

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet. Why are offline wallets the safest? What are your recommendations?

Having offline wallets are much safer than storing your Bitcoin in online wallets. Storing your Bitcoins or other currency in your own wallet means that you are in control of the currency you have. You will not worry about running with your coin. Not unless the wallet you are storing become corrupted.

Now, storing online can cause you less security with your money. In the sense that if you deposited that money in a company which is not legitimate, they can close anytime and run with your money. Or, you can be a victim of Phishing and they can take away you hard earned coin. But, legitimate online wallet are safe in keeping your Bitcoins as they offer multi level of security. Just need to have some time finding legitimate wallet to store your Coins. 

[ranochigo]

The difference is that an online wallet's "online" element is that in order to access your Bitcoin, you have to be connected to another person or organisation to spend your Bitcoin for you, instead of spending it yourself like in an "offline" wallet.

Therefore, an online wallet is only secure if:

-The organisation is heavily government regulated

-The organisation is public enough that it's difficult for them to run off

-It's extremely difficult for them to get hacked, because they hold most of their Bitcoin in cold storage

In most cases, it's not possible to verify that these conditions are all met, and it also contributes to centralisation to be giving a large company responsibility for your Bitcoin.  Therefore personal offline wallets are always the safest and best.

If you were to use an online wallet, it opens up another attack vector. Since your wallet can be access anywhere in the world, people can easily get your coins if there is a vulnerability in the web wallet or your password from leaked database. If they don't generate the cold wallet securely or keep it in a safe place, the probability of them losing it is substantially higher.

I don't see how anyone would want to use an online wallet at all.
Offline wallet is secure because the environment that it has is airgapped from the outside world. It is impossible for a hacker to get your offline computer if you have done everything correctly, at least without physical access.

[zend7]

The best way for a beginner until to an intermediate user of bitcoin is the hardware wallet. They have the 2 factor authentication which is impossible to crack, for example the security card in the ledger hardware wallet which gives you 3 alphabets and numbers and below them the corresponding cryptography , i.e A with capital letters in reality is number 2, b with low letters is D with capital and so on. Only the user with the security card can send money from this wallet. It is important to set it up the first time in a Linux environment and then you can use it wherever you like, as long as you have the physical hardware wallet together with the security card.
This kind of cryptography was used by Julius Caesar in old times, when he sent a letter to some other person he started for example from the 4th letter of alphabet, i.e D was A so only he and the receiving person knew this kind of cryptography, the messenger did not, or if the messenger was attacked the attackers could not decipher the letter.

[|Admiral|]

I store my bitcoins in my segate external hard drive , i have invested some of my bitcoins in different altcoins and thus i manage to get profit with them.

[Qartersa]

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet. Why are offline wallets the safest? What are your recommendations?

Hi!

I think the safest way to store Bitcoins is through cold storage or paper wallet because it never connects to the internet, thus, there is no chance it can get hacked unless they brute force your private key which is theoretically impossible. The reason for its advantage is that cold storage is technically creating a system that does not connect to the internet.

[Velkro]

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet. Why are offline wallets the safest? What are your recommendations?

They are not safest, because they are vulnerable to physical stuff like theft, robbery etc.
Safest is to encrypt it on offline computer probably, because so few people can handle computer security at level which allows to keep bitcoin on online computer.

[susila_bai]

My safest way to store my Bitcoins is Electrum desktop wallet, as it is very easy to use and only passphrase is enough to keep it in safe as with this passphrase i can reload my wallet any time and any where. Web wallets are not safe as you are not in control of that wallet address.

[swogerino]

I am using Electrum wallet since I joined the bitcoin community and I have not had any problem with it. It is one of the most secure desktop wallets they say and I think they are right on this. It gives you many addresses so you can use different addresses for different purposes and this ensures the user better privacy.

I don't have a hardware wallet so I cannot tell you how good or bad they are but people here say they are one of the best methods to store your bitcoins.

[EricliusW]

AFAIK, there isn't much difference between the safety level of:
- a paper wallet
- a cold (offline) wallet
- a hardware wallet

the difference is in the price and usability.
- a paper wallet is allmost free (the cost of a piece of paper), but can only be used to collect unspent outputs. When you need the funds, you have to sweep the paper wallet and throw it away. It's also a bit tricky to make a paper wallet in the correct way

- a cold (offline) wallet costs a lot more, since you need an old PC that can never be connected to the internet as soon as you start using it to store your funds. However, if you set it up correctly, it's not that hard to use, and you can send and receive as much as you want, but you can also access the full feature set (like signing messages, creating raw transactions, broadcasting,...)

- a hardware wallet (trezor, ledger nano S,...) is actually pretty cheap, can be used to send and receive, can usually be used in different places,... It is my personal favorite. you are bound by some restrictions tough (for example, if you use the official ledger chrome plugin, it can not be used to sign messages)

thank you, now I know how to store my bitcoin safely, I just lost 0.5btc yesterday.

[Zicadis]

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet.

Yep you heard right that is why many service providers use them to store their large amounts of Bitcoin.

Why are offline wallets the safest?

because they are not connected to a network @mocacinno explained

What are your recommendations?

choosing the right wallet comes down to how security conscious your are with your funds and i would recommend something easy to use for yourself and has been around for a long time like blockchain.info ,
then there are desktop and hardware wallets which will be the most preferred for the security conscious users the only downside is the time is takes to sync if you do not regularly use it.

[Eternu]

Im relatively new to crytocurrency. I have read in manys sources that the safest place to store bitcoins is in a offline wallet. Why are offline wallets the safest? What are your recommendations?

Well i personally use Blockchain Wallet, and i must say that i am happy with how it works. For now i did not have any kind of problems, and i think they have good protection, maybe i am wrong, but even if i am i do not store too much of bitcoin in wallet. I have heard about offline wallets, but if i got it right they server to transfer bitcoin even without internet connection. There are some useful topic that talk about wallet security, maybe you can check them out.

[bitcoinstress]

I think Offline wallet or computer it's more secure you possible payment is received online, but all funds and private keys are still secured and stored on the computer offline.