Brainwallets. Anyone still using them in 2017?

[flatfly]

I took a long hiatus from bitcoin and am back now.  Back in the day, brainwallets were a popular (though usually horribly insecure) storage option. Are people using them nowadays? Perhaps for storing small amounts?

[SyGambler]

I have never used a brain wallet actually , but when I first heard about it I thought that it's extremly cool
was planning to create one actually , but I didn't know that they are insecure !!
hope some one can explain why they are insecure ?? and are all of them generally not secure or just people who are using few words to create the wallet

[Dude.Lebowski]

I have never used a brain wallet actually , but when I first heard about it I thought that it's extremly cool
was planning to create one actually , but I didn't know that they are insecure !!
hope some one can explain why they are insecure ?? and are all of them generally not secure or just people who are using few words to create the wallet

There is nothing technically wrong with brain wallets. The problem is with humans and their ability to generate enough entropy.

Almost anything someone can think of and remember means someone else or a computer can think of it too.

This is the problem. If you truly have a good enough pass phrase with enough entropy then the braineallet will be fine.

[ebliever]

What's the point of a brainwallet except to lose your bitcoins at some point?

You hit your head, or HODL long enough, and then one day you realize you can't remember the full passphrase.

Or hackers that are running algorithms right now are trying more and then less common combinations of words, unearthing brainwallets with BTC and emptying them.

If you have used a brainwallet in the past and haven't checked recently, it would be a good idea to see if you still have your coins or if hackers have already emptied the account.

[Wendigo]

If I were you I wouldn't be taking any chances with any brainwallets. Invest a little bit of money in a nice hardware wallet and enjoy your time in Bitcoinlandia. Hardware wallets - that's the way to go  

[TryNinja]

In theory brain wallets should be safe to use.

I once thought that the real problem was that people are making up brainwallets with really poor choices of words. Electrum on the other hand selects 12 words randomly from a large word list, which is generally much, much safer.

There is this interesting article about the safety of those wallets: http://coin.furuknap.net/brainwallets-and-why-you-shouldnt/

But somehow they are not as safe as you think thery are, and people already have been robbed when using those wallets. https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/02/password-cracking-attacks-on-bitcoin-wallets-net-103000/

[freedomno1]

I took a long hiatus from bitcoin and am back now.  Back in the day, brainwallets were a popular (though usually horribly insecure) storage option. Are people using them nowadays? Perhaps for storing small amounts?

As a niche market the answer is yes in my opinion but it's far from mainstream usage if I recall correctly some altcoins use brainwallets as a default to registering them now but generally they are safe problem is the idea that people can rng it.

[pooya87]

I took a long hiatus from bitcoin and am back now.  Back in the day, brainwallets were a popular (though usually horribly insecure) storage option. Are people using them nowadays? Perhaps for storing small amounts?

As a niche market the answer is yes in my opinion but it's far from mainstream usage if I recall correctly some altcoins use brainwallets as a default to registering them now but generally they are safe problem is the idea that people can rng it.

in an altcoin is using brainwallet by default then it is very susceptible to hacks. all the security of a private key is from its randomness and human beings are known to be incapable of creating random enough passwords. also the fact that such altcoin (if it really exists and uses brainwallet as we know it) is not yet hacked is because probably there has not been enough incentive to do it because of low value.