Pros and cons of Wallet.dat and Priv Keys

[BossBee]

What is everyone's preferred  method of backing up your wallet and why?

[Codinggg]

simple not encrypted paper wallet generated on offline computer printed and stored at safe place. thats the best for me. not sure if others like this way

[jackg]

simple not encrypted paper wallet generated on offline computer printed and stored at safe place. thats the best for me. not sure if others like this way

Not sure I'd particularly follow that idea. Paper can be easily destroyed. Place data on a hard drive are a read-locked SD card (bit more secure than just paper)

What is everyone's preferred  method of backing up your wallet and why?

The new bitcoin core wallet.dat backup is very good as it has the HD part inside of it you you only need one backup of the wallet to get all of your addresses back (considering previously, you had to back it up every ~100 addresses/transactions, it's a much better system).

[Codinggg]

hard disk drive more secure than paper? ok, then use glass instead or a metal plate.

[buwaytress]

I'm afraid I still don't have a favourite. With private keys, or seeds, I don't like the idea that I could somehow lose them. I use electrum, and developed a sort of mnemonic jingle to try to memorise my seed. But I realise if I don't practise every few weeks I forget it anyway haha.

With wallet.dat, I worry they'll either get corrupted or somehow become incompatible with a future upgrade. And now with SegWit, I'm still not sure how exactly I will want to switch addresses, as may require new set of seed/privkey/dat. Silly reason I guess but because of that still sitting on my legacy addresses.

[BossBee]

hard disk drive more secure than paper? ok, then use glass instead or a metal plate.

Well they probably both are respectably susceptible to damage in their own ways equally. You cant destroy a paper wallet by dropping it but it could quickly be ripped or chewed up. If some one was able to get a photo of your paper wallet it may be recoverable. In a hard ware wallet you can encrypt it and go a step further and even mask your data in random files. 

[Turk Ace]

I don't think it matters as long as they do have a method of backup and you use it. I'd you don't use it there is no point of having it to begin with. .wallet files are nice and was to back up. Private key can be kept anywhere or even printed out for safe keeping.

[Sithara007]

I prefer taking multiple printouts of paper wallets and storing them somewhere safe. I don't prefer exporting the backup in wallet.dat format, as the chances of someone stealing it is quite high.

[Red-Apple]

these days almost all the bitcoin wallets are "deterministic or HD" wallets. which means they have a master private key which you need to back up. most of them are using seed words to get that master private key and make it easier to back up.
use a wallet that offers that (like electrum for example) and then write down the seed on a paper.)

[White sugar]

Private keys aren't software dependent.

wallet.dat may be hard to recover in the future if software changes, specially if you forget which wallet you used to generate the wallet.dat

[bilman]

for me.. i note down on a piece of paper and store it in the safe...

[BossBee]

I prefer taking multiple printouts of paper wallets and storing them somewhere safe. I don't prefer exporting the backup in wallet.dat format, as the chances of someone stealing it is quite high.

But doesn't the wallet.dat file keep it encrypted while paper wallets lose the encryption?

[RoommateAgreement]

I prefer taking multiple printouts of paper wallets and storing them somewhere safe. I don't prefer exporting the backup in wallet.dat format, as the chances of someone stealing it is quite high.

But doesn't the wallet.dat file keep it encrypted while paper wallets lose the encryption?

you can also encrypt what you print out. it is not really that hard either. you just use a tool such as bitaddress.org to encrypt your private keys with BIP38 and then print that encrypted text out.

and if you want to make your life easier when you import it later in the future, add a QR code of the same text to your print so you can scan it in the future

[pranaja]

2 Factor Authentication to give an extra layer of security to the wallet. 2 Factor Authentication is usually a verification via SMS pin that will go into the mobile phone number that is listed when creating a wallet, or a pin of Google Authenticator that can be installed on a laptop or on a smartphone. The result, every time you want to login to the wallet should be able to enter the e-mail address, password and pin SMS or pin GA to access the wallet.

[CryptoBry]

simple not encrypted paper wallet generated on offline computer printed and stored at safe place. thats the best for me. not sure if others like this way

Yes, I heard that this is one of the best ways to secured a wallet away from the interconnected world we are in so that it is really impossible for hackers and phishers to steal. I have been a victim of hacking and phishing in MyEtherWallet.com and I know how important it is to make sure that evil people will not victimized us. As more and more people are getting into cryptocurrency, the more evil people are making sure that they can get something out from us. This whole thing has to stop and we must be always ahead of the game otherwise we might lost what we already gained so far.

[jubalix]

I would always keep both.

Private key is >> then wallet.dat, as its harder to corrupt inmho,

but why not both?

use pywallet to extract keys or dump priv key from console or similar.

[Suffes]

paper wallets are good enough. just keep min. 5 copies at different locations ofcourse where noone could find it.

[jtipt]

What is everyone's preferred  method of backing up your wallet and why?

For cold storage I prefer paper wallet with nice encryption and then keeping it in a safe. As for backup of my desktop wallet, well the seed and encrypted private keys is what I keep of course offline, on paper.

[Reid]

I prefer both. If I am away with my laptop I can still somehow get my private keys in my email then just delete it.
Actually this is one of my problem now.
My laptop got broken and is now at the repair shop.
I am scared that the man who will repair it might see my private keys and wallet.dat also my accounts are auto lo ins.
I changed all the passwords and trying to send all my funds at a different location now just using my phone.
He needs 3 days to repair the laptop which makes it more scary. I hope he doesn't know a thing about bitcoin.

[Wurx]

My wallet.dat file was generated on an offline pc. The wallet encrypted with a 54 character password, stored in an encrypted usb stick, encrypted in a file container. Same file container also encrypted with a different 54 character password and also stored on a cloud service.

To remember the password a hint was written via nfc to nfc sticker tags hidden in places I only know of. (not that I really need a hint for the password as I have been using it for years.