The secret Swiss mountain bunker where millionaires stash their bitcoins

[vit05]

https://qz.com/1103310/photos-the-secret-swiss-mountain-bunker-where-millionaires-stash-their-bitcoins/

 “The bunker is in one of those mountains,” says Maxim Kon, gesturing at a fog shrouded peak on the opposite shore as he pilots his BMW convertible.
Kon is taking me to see one of the vaults where Xapo, the company he works for, stores its customers’ bitcoins. It’s no ordinary vault: I’ve been told it’s inside a decommissioned Swiss military bunker dug into a granite mountain. Its precise location is secret, and access is limited by security measures that would put a Bond villain to shame.

[Opquar]

Isn't that a little overkill? Then again, these millionaires are probably on the crosshairs of hackers around the world. I suppose you can never be too secure.

[ZenFr]

Bitcoin is virtual, no needs of a bunker to stock them.
Bitcoins are in the blockchain and everybody can have a copy of this blockchain.
To access of this bitcoin, only a private key is needed.

[annmarie]

https://qz.com/1103310/photos-the-secret-swiss-mountain-bunker-where-millionaires-stash-their-bitcoins/

 “The bunker is in one of those mountains,” says Maxim Kon, gesturing at a fog shrouded peak on the opposite shore as he pilots his BMW convertible.
Kon is taking me to see one of the vaults where Xapo, the company he works for, stores its customers’ bitcoins. It’s no ordinary vault: I’ve been told it’s inside a decommissioned Swiss military bunker dug into a granite mountain. Its precise location is secret, and access is limited by security measures that would put a Bond villain to shame.

I mean it's an impressive bunker but is way over the top for storing Bitcoin. I can understand with gold and the like but bitcoin is virtual and doesn't need to be stored in such a big bunker. Not even a private key a safe would be fine to store your private key.

[davis196]

What if some of the people working inside this bunker decide to steal some bitcoins?
Maintaining such facility isn`t cheap and the millionaires have to pay a fee for such high security.
If i was a millionaire i wouldn`t care that much about the safety of my wealth.

[talkbitcoin]

... the vaults where Xapo, the company he works for, stores its customers’ bitcoins...

it doesn't matter if they use a simple setup with a simple server with basic security or a vault in the heart of a mountain that even aliens can not penetrate. in the end you (as a user) are still using a third party who is controlling your funds and if you rely on things like XAPO it means you didn't  even understand what bitcoin is.

bitcoin was created so that we no longer need "bunkers" like this. every single person is his own bank and can secure his "money" with simplest of steps.

[vit05]

Bitcoin is virtual, no needs of a bunker to stock them.
Bitcoins are in the blockchain and everybody can have a copy of this blockchain.
To access of this bitcoin, only a private key is needed.

And how could you secure a private key that is worth millions?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Wish bitcointalk had security that good.  All the donations could probably buy a nice, cozy bunker in Idaho or somewhere, one of those abandoned missile silos maybe.

Too bad Xapo sucks ass as a wallet.  The only time I used them was for their affiliated faucets, but now there's Coinpot.  Their service sucks, their fees are ridiculous--but hey, beautiful bunker!

[gentlemand]

What's with all the bubbleheads in this thread saying this type of security isn't necessary?

Xapo stores over half a million bitcoins, and no doubt a few hundred thousand more as the owner is responsible for getting some very deep pockets involved in the early days and storing their coins too.

That's now somewhere in the region of $3 billion or more that could be had away.

[BingoDog]

Bunker for bitcoin? I'm not buying that, bitcoin is virtual currency and don't need such physical storages. This is just some try to advertise something that doesn't exist. Millionares don't need such things, especialy not for their bitcoins.

[mostkey]

maybe they mean this where they work to produce bitcoin so they have a sense of security to work, of course this bitcoin is virtual and does not need to use crops, which is called bunker here is where they work whether it is mining, trading or even other forms of bitcoin, it is clear that this is projected and run as an office

[Slow death]

 I must remind those guys that made this bunker that one of the things that no one in the world should forget, no matter the level of security. there will always be someone who will break this security, so I hope they have some technology that erases workers' memory when they leave work, because if someone wants to rob them, they only need access to the workers

Bitcoin is virtual, no needs of a bunker to stock them.

they do this to show they have money

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Fuck that I’m well capable of looking after my own bitcoin’s. Not sure how anybody else can be trusted to have some kind of ownership or control of your private keys no matter how James Bond it looks.

[maku]

I wonder how they have been able to afford that bunker. The whole company is located there or only servers?
Personally, I wouldn't worry about physical security that much - where you run an online bitcoin wallet the most important is online security after all.
Nonetheless, it's good to know that Xapo is not some garage company with the servers stacked in the basement of some random building.

[Hydrogen]

I never knew the people behind xapo have their own super villain lair. That is great.

For all those who make "would bitcoin survive a nuclear apocalypse" threads on this forum. Perhaps now we have a definitive answer.

No images of armed guards. There's a slight chance their approach is more security-through-obscurity based. I hope they have some type of armed security detail at a bare minimum. A more likely answer may be they do not allow their security measures to be photographed and visible to the public.

There are a lot of bunkers built for wartime purposes being sold at discount to the general public. Typically they're remodeled and sold as doomsday shelters. This is the best example I've seen of the trend being utilized towards a useful purpose.

[nskendrovic]

The irony is too much for me to handle because I remember him giving a speech on why BTC is better than gold because gold is so primitive in that it takes billions of dollars to dig it out of the ground and then lock it underground in vaults. Now he is trying that is where BTC is stashed. I don't care how much you mine and what cold storage setup you have you do not need vaults underground.

[iamTom123]

Oh well, I would love to one day explore the place...who knows that place is actually made to protect the Bitcoin of Xapo's clients so that everybody would be feeling safe in dealing with the company and there would be no hacker that can enter the place either literally or through any hacking tool. We all know that one of the greatest weaknesses of many wallet service providers is that they can be hacked and Bitcoin can be transferred to another wallet address and then that's it. Always upgrading for protection is always imperative to protect a provider's name and reputation as business revolves around this very critical area.

[audaciousbeing]

Bitcoin is virtual, no needs of a bunker to stock them.
Bitcoins are in the blockchain and everybody can have a copy of this blockchain.
To access of this bitcoin, only a private key is needed.

I was wondering too that I almost started doubting everything I have come to believe that bitcoin is virtual that there actually be a physical coin to it where people like who Op is portraying are hiding their stash away from the public eye.

But again I don't know how much this people who have that would made them build as large as this bunker because if they could, I wonder how large the bunker of Satoshi would be if the report on the internet is anything to go by about his purported stashing of about 1 million bitcoins. This is not only misleading but could cast doubt over the believe of newbies bitcoin without even reading the article.

[hatshepsut93]

What's with all the bubbleheads in this thread saying this type of security isn't necessary?

Xapo stores over half a million bitcoins, and no doubt a few hundred thousand more as the owner is responsible for getting some very deep pockets involved in the early days and storing their coins too.

That's now somewhere in the region of $3 billion or more that could be had away.

You are right, many people here are taking security too lightly, they think that a company that holds giant amounts of money should just have an office in some building because "Bitcoin is on the blockchain". I guess they don't think that data can be stolen by physical means, starting from plain robbery at gunpoint and ending with sophisticated side-channel attacks or infiltration. There's no such thing as too much security and we definitely don't want to see another Gox-like incident with Bitcoin.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

What's with all the bubbleheads in this thread saying this type of security isn't necessary?

Xapo stores over half a million bitcoins, and no doubt a few hundred thousand more as the owner is responsible for getting some very deep pockets involved in the early days and storing their coins too.

That's now somewhere in the region of $3 billion or more that could be had away.

You are right, many people here are taking security too lightly, they think that a company that holds giant amounts of money should just have an office in some building because "Bitcoin is on the blockchain". I guess they don't think that data can be stolen by physical means, starting from plain robbery at gunpoint and ending with sophisticated side-channel attacks or infiltration. There's no such thing as too much security and we definitely don't want to see another Gox-like incident with Bitcoin.

Yes, definitely. Those images have reminded me the “offices” where online casinos in Gibraltar have their servers. They are very similar. It’s not just about storing bitcoins, as the article says what Xapo have there is a data center to secure a lot of information. They are not stupid. If they could secure all the info in a cheapest place while at the same time keeping the info equally safe they would do it.