Online Wallet or Offline wallet

[bitgod2]

Hi,

I am new to Bitcoin and wanted to know if having an online wallet such as blockchain is better than having Bitcoin QT.

Also, are there any exchanges where I can buy bitcoins thru credit card ?

Thanks in advance. Hope to learn more about bitcoin very soon.

[jonanon]

An offline wallet is always the best option and is a lot more secure.

Currently the only legit place I can think of to use cc is virwox.com although the fees are quite high.

[Dannie]

An offline wallet is always the best option and is a lot more secure.

+1
Don't forget to encrypt and backup your wallet as well.

[hilariousandco]

An offline wallet is always the best option and is a lot more secure.

Currently the only legit place I can think of to use cc is virwox.com although the fees are quite high.

Offline wallets are only as secure as you are. Blockchain.info is pretty reliable and has several great security features; just make sure you use them.

[Dial595]

Offline wallets with the possibilty of backiup is the most secure

[tompa555]

I agree that online wallet is more secure (Blockcanin.info). I had offline wallet , MultibitQt. I put encryption on it but somehow i get malware or some  backdoor virus and all my coins gone to some address. I where they gone but i can't do nothing. Now i have online wallet and i think it's much safer that way.

[pietje]

Depends on your own security.
An cold wallet (so not on your pc) is more secure, but an offline or online wallet can be secure too. Depends on how secure you are.

[Rsveen]

just remember to have a backup

[cdznutz]

Hey, im new to BitCoin. I want to assume that an offline wallet would consist of some sort of authenticated piece of printer, with your UID somewhere on that piece of paper. Is this correct? Can you use any printer (ie ink jet, lazer, etc) to print these offline wallets? Any answer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[joeyjones]

Offline wallets can mean many things.

Hot Wallet: You can simple have the wallet installed on your computer
Cold Storage: Use Armory for running the wallet as cold storage for large amounts of coins
Paper Wallet: a printed representation of your wallet
Brain Wallet: I'm not too sure about this one, but it is based around you remembering a passphrase to access your wallet.

In general I would recommend using an offline wallet for and balance you would be hard-pressed to have stolen, and use an online wallet for day to day use.

[tmcgough]

In my openion this is the best OFFLINE paper wallet generator.  Use on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.
It will generate as many Paper wallets as you want.   Remember though if you spend a paper wallet you must spend it all or end up loosing some of the money not spent also since you have to submit your private key when spending the wallet it is a good idea to throw it away after using it.

https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/bitcoinpaperwallet/generate-wallet.html

[odolvlobo]

I am new to Bitcoin and wanted to know if having an online wallet such as blockchain is better than having Bitcoin QT.

First some terminology.
Both blockchain.info and bitcoin-qt are "online" wallets. You have to be connected to the internet to use them. An offline wallet is one that is not connected to the internet, whether it is on a computer, a USB stick, or a piece of paper. Online wallets have all the security risks related to being connected to the internet, but are primarily susceptible to key loggers and trojans.

It is important to remember that "hosted" wallets, such as exchange wallets and coinbase, have the additional risk of losing your bitcoins as a result of the server going down or being hacked. I don't recommend keeping your bitcoins in someone else's wallet.

Blockchain.info is convenient because it can be accessed from anywhere and it is easy to use. Bitcoin-qt is not as easy to use, but it has some advantages.

Do not use a wallet that you cannot encrypt or that you cannot back up to another location.

Also, are there any exchanges where I can buy bitcoins thru credit card ?

It is easier to get a cash advance from your credit card and buy bitcoins with the cash advance than to buy bitcoins directly using a credit card.

[FortuneNVirtue]

Online wallet (web-base) for receiving for some specific amount of BTC
and transfer to the offline wallet (your PC) which needs to be backed up.
However, I also recommend the paper wallet.

[jordant]

I use Blockchain.info to do both, where I have two wallet addresses.

One is my so-called "checking" account, and the other is my "savings" account where I store 95% of my funds.

I printed out a paper wallet with Blockchain. So when I buy coins on Coinbase, I send them directly to the paper wallet. They can't be spent from the paper wallet without the encryption code.

I think the ideal setup is something like this.

[tmcgough]

Don't print out paper wallets from online services as they can be viewed by spyware.  It is best to create a paper wallet while off line.  You can still send BTC to that wallet anytime you want and the data will be safe as there will be no trace of the private key anywhere on line.

If you use a connected PC and print out a wallet there is a chance that the Private key can be viewed by online trojans and other viruses that love to take over the pc as well as insecure HTTP instead of HTTPS websites will display the Private key across the wire if connected.

There are a couple of really good offline browser based generators out there that will prevent anything from getting to the private key.  Once the key is generated and printed out, it is recommended to clear any cache and turn off the PC before reconnecting or use a dedicated offline (airgap) pc for paper wallet generation only.

Another good tool is using something like a live cd such as tails which is pretty secure and deletes all trace of it self in memory when exited.

Just my 0.0000292 BTC worth of advice.

[nerobie]

an offline or online wallet can be secure too. Depends on how secure you are

[nickgrand]

I personally like the idea of a USB wallet, so that's what I am trying out for now.

[hilariousandco]

I personally like the idea of a USB wallet, so that's what I am trying out for now.

Make sure you have several back-ups or burn the wallet.dat file to discs etc.