Saving Bitcoin to USB for security purposes.

[WorrenBuffert]

Is this too simple? What am I missing here?
Why cant you just send your bitcoins to your wallet on your computer. Backup the wallet.dat to a usb stick. Close the bitcoin wallet. Delete the wallet.dat from your computer. Restart bitcoin wallet so it creates a new fresh wallet with no bitcoins. Unplug USB containing your bitcoins.

Doesn't this make your bitcoins completely inaccessible to everyone except the person holding the usb drive?

[WorrenBuffert]

This newbie forum concept is ridiculous also. So annoying. What are chances of getting a real reply here?

[escrow.ms]

Is this too simple? What am I missing here?
Why cant you just send your bitcoins to your wallet on your computer. Backup the wallet.dat to a usb stick. Close the bitcoin wallet. Delete the wallet.dat from your computer. Restart bitcoin wallet so it creates a new fresh wallet with no bitcoins. Unplug USB containing your bitcoins.

Doesn't this make your bitcoins completely inaccessible to everyone except the person holding the usb drive?

Or Buy a cheap android phone, Install only 1 app (Bitcoin) and send all your bitcoins there. Use it to send and receive bitcoins.
Take a backup in memory card also.

[WorrenBuffert]

This still leaves your coins vulnerable because if someone gets access to your phone, they can steal them. I'm talking someone hacks their way into your phone in some manner. Not physically grabbing it from your hands.

Your idea may work if your phone didn't have service and when you wanted to transfer your coins you would turn on the service and transfer the coins.

I'm looking for 100% way to pull my bitcoins from internet/computer and put them onto a USB drive so only way to get access to them is to have the USB drive.

[WorrenBuffert]

I just need someone to confirm this works before I go and delete the wallet.dat off my computer and potentially lose my coins. I'm almost positive it should work. The only other step I would need to do is make sure there is no trace on my computer of the coins. Could download program that searches through files to make sure no hidden history/files to solve that issue though.

[escrow.ms]

This still leaves your coins vulnerable because if someone gets access to your phone, they can steal them. I'm talking someone hacks their way into your phone in some manner. Not physically grabbing it from your hands.

Your idea may work if your phone didn't have service and when you wanted to transfer your coins you would turn on the service and transfer the coins.

I'm looking for 100% way to pull my bitcoins from internet/computer and put them onto a USB drive so only way to get access to them is to have the USB drive.

Well no one can access your phone unless you install some rougue app, for more security you can turn off that phone when you are not using it.

Your method is good but what if you need to spend bitcoins, that time you need to plug it in some pc and copy your wallet there.

I don't know why you want to do that but If you are worried about viruses/trojans etc use linux.


Ps: Your method is ok, but make sure to take a backup because incase it gets damaged or lost or something bad happens, you will loose your all bitcoins.

[matt188]

I think Electrum is the best client for newbies - http://electrum.org/

It generates a secret phrase for your wallet that lets you restore the full wallet at anytime.  You can just write it down on a piece of paper, or put it in a text file on a USB stick if you like. 

My understanding is that with other clients you have to backup the wallet often if it is in use for transactions.  Otherwise the old backup will not contain the addresses used for sending you change.

[WorrenBuffert]

This still leaves your coins vulnerable because if someone gets access to your phone, they can steal them. I'm talking someone hacks their way into your phone in some manner. Not physically grabbing it from your hands.

Your idea may work if your phone didn't have service and when you wanted to transfer your coins you would turn on the service and transfer the coins.

I'm looking for 100% way to pull my bitcoins from internet/computer and put them onto a USB drive so only way to get access to them is to have the USB drive.

Well no one can access your phone unless you install some rougue app, for more security you can turn off that phone when you are not using it.

Your method is good but what if you need to spend bitcoins, that time you need to plug it in some pc and copy your wallet there.

I don't know why you want to do that but If you are worried about viruses/trojans etc use linux.


Ps: Your method is ok, but make sure to take a backup because incase it gets damaged or lost or something bad happens, you will loose your all bitcoins.

I'm storing them on USB so no one can gain access to them unless they have my USB stick(savings account). I'll keep most BTC on the USB so I know they are safe and then leave smaller denominations in my wallet to use for buying/trading(debit account).

If I want to be extra safe I can copy the wallet.dat onto 2 external storage devices before deleting the original from my wallet. If one fails or gets damaged I could always use the other.

All I have to do access the coins is plug the USB back in and replace current wallet.dat with saved wallet.dat from USB.

If there are any flaws in this someone please point them out.

[WorrenBuffert]

I think Electrum is the best client for newbies - http://electrum.org/

It generates a secret phrase for your wallet that lets you restore the full wallet at anytime.  You can just write it down on a piece of paper, or put it in a text file on a USB stick if you like. 

My understanding is that with other clients you have to backup the wallet often if it is in use for transactions.  Otherwise the old backup will not contain the addresses used for sending you change.

Still sounds like the bitcoins are stored on the computer. If someone figured out secret phrase coins go bye bye.

[sgh858]

Yes, you're right. But if you lose your USB stick or USB stick spoil, your coins are gone forever. So better has several copy of your wallet, in several media, e.g: USB stick, CD-ROM etc.

Is this too simple? What am I missing here?
Why cant you just send your bitcoins to your wallet on your computer. Backup the wallet.dat to a usb stick. Close the bitcoin wallet. Delete the wallet.dat from your computer. Restart bitcoin wallet so it creates a new fresh wallet with no bitcoins. Unplug USB containing your bitcoins.

Doesn't this make your bitcoins completely inaccessible to everyone except the person holding the usb drive?

[TheSpiral]

Just make a shortcut to the client with the flag -datadir=[client directory].
If you put BitCoin-QT on say.. your E: drive, shortcut would be:
E:\bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe -datadir=E:\bitcoin

To keep your current settings, just cut and paste everything in %appdata%\Roaming\Bitcoin (just type that in the address bar) into the new folder.

[nelisky]

On the practical side, you can keep the wallet there, run from USB, copy to disk and back (kinda hard to keep doing if you are using the wallet constantly, but good for long term storage), you can also use a brain wallet, a deterministic one like electrum supports, etc.

BUT BE CAREFUL! USB drives die, they die much more often than you would expect particularly but not limited to the cheap ones. Keeping a single copy of your wallet in any medium is a bad idea anyway.

[escrow.ms]

I think Electrum is the best client for newbies - http://electrum.org/

It generates a secret phrase for your wallet that lets you restore the full wallet at anytime.  You can just write it down on a piece of paper, or put it in a text file on a USB stick if you like.  

My understanding is that with other clients you have to backup the wallet often if it is in use for transactions.  Otherwise the old backup will not contain the addresses used for sending you change.

If someone got that seed or phrase he can recover your wallet easily.

Also OP read it
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=197275.0

Wallet.dat got stolen from PC,it can get stolen from usb too, if you plug it in some infected pc.
Better use linux and your USB drive method.

[Endgame]

Storing your wallet.dat on a usb should work fine. Recommend you follow this guide: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=17240.0

[DannyHamilton]

Is this too simple? What am I missing here?
Why cant you just send your bitcoins to your wallet on your computer. Backup the wallet.dat to a usb stick. Close the bitcoin wallet. Delete the wallet.dat from your computer. Restart bitcoin wallet so it creates a new fresh wallet with no bitcoins. Unplug USB containing your bitcoins.

Doesn't this make your bitcoins completely inaccessible to everyone except the person holding the usb drive?

No, it isn't "too simple". It's just simple enough.  You aren't missing much.  And, yes, generally, that would make your bitcoins completely inaccessible to everyone except the person holding the USB drive.

As long as you don't lose the USB stick, nobody else gets access to the USB stick, and the USB stick still works when you want to recover the bitcoins, your plan will work fine.  To increase your faith in the plan, perhaps try it once with a small amount of bitcoin.

Concerns to be aware of:

If your computer is already hacked, has a key logger, or any other bitcoin aware malware, then it is possible that the information from the wallet.dat will be stolen before it ever gets to the USB stick.  Then in the future the thief can steal any bitcoins you send to those wallet addresses even though the USB stick isn't plugged in.

If the delete leaves the wallet.dat recoverable somewhere on the hard drive, then in the future someone could still access your bitcoins if they find the contents.

If your computer is compromised when you try to restore the wallet.dat from the USB stick, a thief could steal the bitcoins before you get your wallet running.

This newbie forum concept is ridiculous also. So annoying. What are chances of getting a real reply here?

100%

This newbie forum concept is ridiculous also. So annoying. What are chances of getting a real reply here?

Zero.

That's just silly.  There are several SMEs that review and reply to the posts in the Newbie Forum every day.

[WorrenBuffert]

Just make a shortcut to the client with the flag -datadir=[client directory].
If you put BitCoin-QT on say.. your E: drive, shortcut would be:
E:\bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe -datadir=E:\bitcoin

To keep your current settings, just cut and paste everything in %appdata%\Roaming\Bitcoin (just type that in the address bar) into the new folder.

Dumb this down a little for me. Is this moving the entire wallet to the USB? Little confused on where you're putting what.

[WorrenBuffert]

Storing your wallet.dat on a usb should work fine. Recommend you follow this guide: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=17240.0

Thanks for reply. I tried using search on here but assumed it wouldn't let me because I'm newbie. Didn't get any results couple times.

[sgh858]

I think it's better not to put all your egg into one basket. You should have two, three or four wallets and you should put your coin into all those wallets too.

[anyroll]

Is this too simple? What am I missing here?
Why cant you just send your bitcoins to your wallet on your computer. Backup the wallet.dat to a usb stick. Close the bitcoin wallet. Delete the wallet.dat from your computer. Restart bitcoin wallet so it creates a new fresh wallet with no bitcoins. Unplug USB containing your bitcoins.

Doesn't this make your bitcoins completely inaccessible to everyone except the person holding the usb drive?

No, it isn't "too simple". It's just simple enough.  You aren't missing much.  And, yes, generally, that would make your bitcoins completely inaccessible to everyone except the person holding the USB drive.

As long as you don't lose the USB stick, nobody else gets access to the USB stick, and the USB stick still works when you want to recover the bitcoins, your plan will work fine.  To increase your faith in the plan, perhaps try it once with a small amount of bitcoin.

Concerns to be aware of:

If your computer is already hacked, has a key logger, or any other bitcoin aware malware, then it is possible that the information from the wallet.dat will be stolen before it ever gets to the USB stick.  Then in the future the thief can steal any bitcoins you send to those wallet addresses even though the USB stick isn't plugged in.

If the delete leaves the wallet.dat recoverable somewhere on the hard drive, then in the future someone could still access your bitcoins if they find the contents.

If your computer is compromised when you try to restore the wallet.dat from the USB stick, a thief could steal the bitcoins before you get your wallet running.

This newbie forum concept is ridiculous also. So annoying. What are chances of getting a real reply here?

100%

This newbie forum concept is ridiculous also. So annoying. What are chances of getting a real reply here?

Zero.

That's just silly.  There are several SMEs that review and reply to the posts in the Newbie Forum every day.

Agreed+1

[Birdy]

*some suspicious link*

PHISHING LINK?