How is DPR securing his wallets from the Feds?

[theecoinomist]

^^ Encryption? Brainwallet? Please elaborate as I'm kinda of a newb regarding the technical part of things..

Also, what do you consider as bulletproof security regarding wallets?

[Shallow]

Very long and complex brain wallets

[theecoinomist]

Okay, I actually thought he had encrypted a his wallet file with a really strong password, anyways, what is a proper way to 'back-up' a brainwallet? (my knowledge concerning brainwallets are limited)

[BitcoinBarrel]

Easy he's not the real DPR

[beetcoin]

if he's not the DPR, then why did they bust him and get ahold of millions of dollars worth of coins? maybe there have been multiple DPRs in the past, but he's at the very least one of them.

if he were smart, he would spread his coins around.. some saved as .dat files, others on the cloud like blockchain.info, and then some brain wallets as well. it remains to be seen that he was really smart, so who knows? only he does, i guess.

[MysteryMiner]

good random password on standard wallet.dat file. It was designed (successfully at second try) to be secure against hackers trying brute forcing password. FBI computer forensic shitholes are lesser adversary when facing technical challenge.

[Dabs]

If you back up a brain wallet, it is no longer a brain wallet. It becomes a paper wallet or at least something cold storage.

If I were operating something like SR (and not even, just because you can do it even if you have a legit business), I would simply have paper wallets securely hidden where only I know where they are.

The bitcoin address and public keys would be out there (you need public keys for a watch-only clone wallet), but the private key would be safe and offline.

[bg002h]

uh....not all that well....who knows, maybe they ~150k bitcoins they got were his whole stash.

[Arksun]

good random password on standard wallet.dat file. It was designed (successfully at second try) to be secure against hackers trying brute forcing password. FBI computer forensic shitholes are lesser adversary when facing technical challenge.

I wonder how many characters long his password was.

Come to think of it, what is generally accepted as a good minimum length of primary password for a wallet.dat file?

[Dabs]

12, 15, 20, 24, 32, 64. The longer you can memorize, the better. 20 words looks good for a passphrase.

I used to be able to memorize 32 characters, alphanumeric, letters, numbers and a few symbols.

[crazy_rabbit]

12, 15, 20, 24, 32, 64. The longer you can memorize, the better. 20 words looks good for a passphrase.

I used to be able to memorize 32 characters, alphanumeric, letters, numbers and a few symbols.

I think the past tense "used" is particularly poignent when it comes to passwords. I think thats as good as saying, "I used to have some bitcoins".

:-)

[balanghai]

Maybe he's got some more wallets out of anyone's knowledge. And also he might invested on some shares to some cooperatives and also some gambling operators?

Maybe he's cool. We don't exactly know both sides of the coin.

[Dabs]

12, 15, 20, 24, 32, 64. The longer you can memorize, the better. 20 words looks good for a passphrase.

I used to be able to memorize 32 characters, alphanumeric, letters, numbers and a few symbols.

I think the past tense "used" is particularly poignent when it comes to passwords. I think thats as good as saying, "I used to have some bitcoins".

:-)

It's something I can do again, but I've since shortened my passwords. Still longer than most minimum recommended lengths I see on the interwebz, but shorter than 32... For about the past 2 years, I've been thinking about getting a yubikey too, so I could memorize 32 characters, and the yubikey can spit out another 32 characters for a 64 character total.

And if push comes to shove, I just destroy the yubikey (because it will always be on my person) and then no one can get access to whatever it was protecting. Or ... well, so many variables to consider, but that's a few ideas for you guys to think about.

[manuel]

What's a "brain wallet"?

[Dabs]

What's a "brain wallet"?

It's a wallet where the password that hashes to a private key(s) is only in your brain, or you memorized the private key.

The passphrase to a bitcoin-qt encrypted wallet does not count as a brain wallet, although it might look like the same thing.

[manuel]

What's a "brain wallet"?

It's a wallet where the password that hashes to a private key(s) is only in your brain, or you memorized the private key.

The passphrase to a bitcoin-qt encrypted wallet does not count as a brain wallet, although it might look like the same thing.

What is the advantage of that over just a strong passphrase?    What is the difference?  I'm having trouble picturing it.

[jantenner81]

What's a "brain wallet"?

It's a wallet where the password that hashes to a private key(s) is only in your brain, or you memorized the private key.

The passphrase to a bitcoin-qt encrypted wallet does not count as a brain wallet, although it might look like the same thing.

What is the advantage of that over just a strong passphrase?    What is the difference?  I'm having trouble picturing it.

you have your key in your brain and not on your computer or something similar ... if you lost your brain you lost your key^^
IF the feds want to seize your BTC they don't find key on your computer ... they must go into your head ... to get your passphrase ...

[manuel]

But if your key is on your hard drive and it's encrypted they can't get it unless they have your passphrase right?

[darkmule]

What is the advantage of that over just a strong passphrase?    What is the difference?  I'm having trouble picturing it.

The advantage is you don't need any copy at all of a private key, and therefore, you can't lose it other than by forgetting the passphrase, because you can use the passphrase to re-generate the private key.

The disadvantages can be pretty huge, though, because the passphrase is the ONLY thing protecting the wallet.  Anyone who comes up with the same passphrase can spend everything in the wallet.

[b!z]

But if your key is on your hard drive and it's encrypted they can't get it unless they have your passphrase right?

They can point a gun to your head and ask for the passphrase.