Wallet

[23732]

I use a local wallet, and backup my wallet.dat every day.

[Ray Anastasio]

Any good wallets for iPhone?

[favdesu]

Any good wallets for iPhone?

well, I use the blockchain.info app...

[mprep]

Any good wallets for iPhone?

well, I use the blockchain.info app...

How's it?

[RapidCoinz]

I needed a wallet, so have gone with Blockchain on the back of advice from a few trusted friends. 

Is there any proof that the likes of Bitcoin-QT, Multibit, Armory & Electrum are safer than Blockchain? 

Have any of these been hacked or taken advantage of to a point that screams to new users "stay away!"

Thanks 

[mprep]

I needed a wallet, so have gone with Blockchain on the back of advice from a few trusted friends. 

Is there any proof that the likes of Bitcoin-QT, Multibit, Armory & Electrum are safer than Blockchain? 

Have any of these been hacked or taken advantage of to a point that screams to new users "stay away!"

Thanks 

Not really. Offline wallets mentioned on the official bitcoin page are pretty trustworthy.

[westkybitcoins]

I needed a wallet, so have gone with Blockchain on the back of advice from a few trusted friends. 

Is there any proof that the likes of Bitcoin-QT, Multibit, Armory & Electrum are safer than Blockchain? 

Have any of these been hacked or taken advantage of to a point that screams to new users "stay away!"

Thanks 

There's the incident with StrongCoin.

They had a similar setup to Blockchain. They somehow got wind that, allegedly, the thief from the OzCoin hack was storing funds using their setup, and was about to send the funds elsewhere. Rather than alert authorities, or simply pointing out the alleged thief to the community, they changed their website code so that the next time the thief logged in, without even knowing it, the thief sent money to the "rightful owner" whenever he made a transaction. The thief realized what was going on after a few transactions, but by then quite a sum had been "recovered."

Now, was that a successful recovery of stolen goods, as opposed to the willful robbing of a wrongfully-accused customer? We on the outside may never know, but let's assume it was. Doesn't it bother you that that was carried out so easily? What if some hacker had gotten access to the website and done that to EVERYONE who used it? What if the owner of StrongCoin just decided to go rogue and swipe funds that way (and, say, just blame it on some anonymous hacker?) I'm pretty sure StrongCoin's business took a hit after the revelation of what they did.

With Blockchain, you can get a browser plugin that verifies the website code. Ok. But who writes the plugin? Does it auto-update? Does it work in a browser's privacy mode if that mode turns off plugins? Is there a way to write the website code such that it fools the plugin and still tampers with your transactions? These are all questions that, just because they're viable questions for those without in-depth knowledge of how it all works, effectively downgrade even Blockchain's security notably compared to a one-time download of a slightly-older, tested version of an app.

[favdesu]

Any good wallets for iPhone?

well, I use the blockchain.info app...

How's it?

great!

[hany103]

I use Electrum, its easy to use and lightweight, and it doesn't need to download the whole blockchain.

[DannyHamilton]

These are all questions that, just because they're viable questions for those without in-depth knowledge of how it all works, effectively downgrade even Blockchain's security notably compared to a one-time download of a slightly-older, tested version of an app.

If we compare lack of knowledge on proper security precautions on each wallet, then we are stuck having to make judgement calls on how likely we think a given individual is to make a particular security error or or likely they are to lack knowledge in a particular matter.  The one-time downloads of an app have security concerns as well if the individual isn't verifying checksums, and/or is downloading a pre-compiled executable.  In addition lack of knowledge about how the app operates at a technical level can lead to the user making errant assumptions that can lead to loss of bitcoins as well (assuming that they only need to back up once is just one example of a common mistake, there are others).

Any conversation about security and safety is dependent on may questions about the users knowledge, and willingness to learn, as well as their ability to put into place practices that they reliably execute.

[Trillium]

- Is the wallet owner experience with computer security and maintaining a healthy and safe operating environment? Then bitcoin-qt might be for them. But there are those who will claim that bitcoin-qt should never be used on an online PC for large wallets...
- Is the wallet owner not the above? Eg your stereotypical clueless computer user who's most used program is Outlook Express? Well then a blockchain.info wallet might be a good idea, although there certainly still vulnerabilities in this case, it might be safer than a software client.

[westkybitcoins]

- Is the wallet owner experience with computer security and maintaining a healthy and safe operating environment? Then bitcoin-qt might be for them. But there are those who will claim that bitcoin-qt should never be used on an online PC for large wallets...
- Is the wallet owner not the above? Eg your stereotypical clueless computer user who's most used program is Outlook Express? Well then a blockchain.info wallet might be a good idea, although there certainly still vulnerabilities in this case, it might be safer than a software client.

While all that's true, I think it's pretty much universally agreed that large wallets should only be stored offline (on paper, engraved metal tags, burned to CD, etc.)

Although if you're going to do something clever like engrave your private key on the inside of a silver ring you wear... I wouldn't advertise that fact. 

[minec0in]

Ok, so from what I understand I will be going with offline - software wallet. On the official website of the Bitcoin I can see 4 of the software wallets:
- Bitcoin - Qt
- Multibit
- Armory
- Electrum

Can I ask if any of the above is way better then the others? Or is there something special about each?

[mprep]

Ok, so from what I understand I will be going with offline - software wallet. On the official website of the Bitcoin I can see 4 of the software wallets:
- Bitcoin - Qt
- Multibit
- Armory
- Electrum

Can I ask if any of the above is way better then the others? Or is there something special about each?

Armory just expands Bitcoin-qt's abilities. It works on top of it.

[minec0in]

Ok, thanks for explaining. So what about other 2? Is there any that stands out or something?

Thanks.