Wallet

[minec0in]

Hello

I would just like to ask which wallet is better to have, an online one or a software?

Thanks.

[kuriboh]

That depend on you

Ex. I use Online Wallet because I use different PC and my Network is not too fast to download the chain quickly

[Anon136]

depends on your needs. what do you plan to do with your coins?

[greyhawk]

Well, the question is if you want your coins to be stolen or not? If you want them to be stolen, take an online wallet. Lot's of people do that. I don't know why, but I guess they feel generous.

[cesmak]

I use the official Bitcoin Qt, i have a desktop computer and i use also to mine, so is powered on 24h a day, i prefer to have mi coins in my computer and to do regular backups of the wallet in my home network nas.

[RodeoX]

Well, the question is if you want your coins to be stolen or not? If you want them to be stolen, take an online wallet. Lot's of people do that. I don't know why, but I guess they feel generous.

lol +1
Online wallets come with risk. Even if you use strong passwords, you may not be able to trust the website holding your coins. One strength of bitcoin is that you can do it yourself and not have to trust anyone.

[TBonez777]

I like the flexibility of an online wallet (allows me to move from computer to computer) but security of an offline wallet. I am new to all of this but that's my impression. I wonder if I can have multiple wallets and transfer from online to offline, hmmm.

[westkybitcoins]

You don't want an online wallet; that's just asking for trouble. About the closest you may want to come to that is a wallet from blockchain.info; you keep control of your keys, but at any point a hacker (or the website owner, as StrongCoin demonstrated) may interfere with your transactions or worse. Even with a blockchain.info wallet, I still wouldn't keep in it any more coins than you can afford to lose.

If the resource requirements (disk space, bandwidth, and download time) of the Bitcoin-Qt client are too steep for you, at least consider an alternative like Electrum; even an Android wallet like BitcoinSpinner is far superior to online wallets.

Of course, once you have more than a few dollars worth of bitcoins, you'll want to keep the bulk of your coins in cold storage anyway; either stored on an electronic device that has no internet/remote access, or ideally in a paper wallet (or something similar.)

[DannyHamilton]

When used correctly, the blockchain.info wallet can be safer to use than the typical use of Bitcoin-Qt, Electrum, or Multi-Bit. It can also be far more convenient.

With Bitcoin-Qt, Electrum, and MultiBit you have the tools necessary to be a bit safer, but most people don't put forth the effort to take advantage of that opportunity.  Blindly using any wallet (online or offline) without understanding what you are doing and how to properly secure it will generally result in increasing the likelihood of losing bitcoins.

[greyhawk]

When used correctly, the blockchain.info wallet can be safer to use than the typical use of Bitcoin-Qt, Electrum, or Multi-Bit. It can also be far more convenient.

Serious question: How is the blockchain.info wallet secured against piuk going rogue and absconding with everyone's coins?

[DannyHamilton]

When used correctly, the blockchain.info wallet can be safer to use than the typical use of Bitcoin-Qt, Electrum, or Multi-Bit. It can also be far more convenient.

Serious question: How is the blockchain.info wallet secured against piuk going rogue and absconding with everyone's coins?

Serious answer: The same way that Bitcoin-Qt (and other wallets) are secured against the developers going rogue and absconding with everyone's coins.

The javascript code is available for review.  Anyone can read it.  There are plugins for some browsers that verify that the code hasn't changed and will warn you if it does, so Piuk and/or a hacker can't change it on you unexpectedly.  The private keys are encrypted in your browser on your computer and then sent to the blockchain.info database in encrypted form only, so they are useless to Piuk without the password to decrypt them.  Your password is not sent to blockchain.info, but rather is kept locally in your browser session and used to decrypt the encrypted private keys there when the blockchain.info database sends them to your browser.

Since Piuk doesn't have access to your password, and only has access to encrypted private keys, he cannot abscond with your bitcoins unless he changes the javascript code that runs in your browser to either send the decrypted private keys or your password to him.  Installing the proper browser plugin will keep him (or anyone else) from doing that without your knowledge.

A developer could change any of the other wallets (Bitcon-Qt, Electrum, MultiBit) to secretly send your private keys to themselves.  The assumption is that because the code is available to review, it would be noticed before they can get away with it.  The same is true of the blockchain.info wallet.

[greyhawk]

Thanks. 

[bitcoinboyscout]

Hi, Im new here and have an online wallet at coinbase.com... is safety and a good site? If not, what could I do, I dont have a lot BC but still want to start with the right foot.

[mellowman]

Personally I use MultiBit on my PC, does everything I need and is easy to use.

[ShameOnYou]

depends what u use for....... offline here

[gollygosh]

thank's for this - https://blockchain.info/wallet/
I now know something new

[ronalchn]

Electrum is a good choice. Being a lite client, resource usage is very reasonable. Online wallets can be risky - even if they do not store your key online, changes to the website could grab your key. On the other hand, a desktop client will not do that unless it was already in the executable when downloaded.

[tomman]

Personally I use MultiBit on my PC, does everything I need and is easy to use.

also

[favdesu]

I use blockchain. However, if I had several 100 BTC i'd use an offline wallet.

[badgersong]

A good rule I think is to only store small amounts online and keep large amounts offline. That way you have the convenience of online but not as much risk.

I compare it to my wallet i have i have in RL and my savings which i keep in the bank.