[2018-08-31] Storing a Lot of Bitcoins in One Wallet Is a Bad Idea

[ruthbabe]

Interest has piqued in a bitcoin wallet that’s lain dormant for four years. This week’s movement of the funds it contains, worth close to $850 million, has sparked intense debate over whose address it might be. Regardless of which whale holds the rights to it, the wallet’s very existence demonstrates the drawbacks of holding a lot of bitcoins in one address. See more for yourself here.

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[jjacob]

I really wouldn’t mind storing my bitcoins in one wallet - as long as I am sure about securing it. As far as the privacy perspective is concerned, there are enough mixers and software out there which can be used to obscure one’s identity.

[Lucius]

People are always curious when large amounts of BTC are moving around, but not maybe because of security issue, but because those coins are sent to the exchange with the intention of being sold. From a security point of view maybe it looks like this person is not too smart, but maybe he/she just move that coins from exchange/desktop wallet to hardware wallet. Although it would be much smarter regarding privacy and not to attract attention to send this BTC in few transactions then in one.

The one who did this simply do not worry too much that someone will discover his identity. By some research this coins are related to SilkRoad or MtGox, almost 40 000 BTC in this wallet is deposit back in 2011.

[Slow death]

this is very danger, even in the case of banks for example, people must have many accounts in several different banks, so with cryptos should be the same thing. we have to have several wallets with our coins. Let's imagine that some thief find that we have 50 btc in his wallet and he points us a gun to remove all bitcoins for his wallet, if we have all 50 bitcoins in a single wallet we will lose all our bitcoins, but if we have 5 wallets with 10 bitcoins in each wallet , so the maximum the thief can steal will be 10 bitcoins from a single wallet. ha days ago I was commenting on this, we always have to diversify things. be it investments, banks or portfolios ... many people are fighting over gold vs. bitcoin; about bitcoin vs banks. But people do not notice that it's much better to use everything.

[Shaftdel]

Obviously, it’s not a good idea. Having one wallet is more dangerous because, make it easy to be fraud by scammers even having many wallets though is not all that safe but reduces the chance to barest minimal.

[squatter]

People are always curious when large amounts of BTC are moving around, but not maybe because of security issue, but because those coins are sent to the exchange with the intention of being sold. From a security point of view maybe it looks like this person is not too smart, but maybe he/she just move that coins from exchange/desktop wallet to hardware wallet. Although it would be much smarter regarding privacy and not to attract attention to send this BTC in few transactions then in one.

I think it's always prudent not to "put all your eggs in one basket." The parallel would be putting all your BTC into one address. Fundamentally, that means you're completely reliant on one security procedure, built on one set of security assumptions. What if that procedure turns out to be flawed?

I especially wouldn't put all my coins onto a hardware wallet. I feel like the attack surface hasn't been studied well enough.

[Lucius]

People are always curious when large amounts of BTC are moving around, but not maybe because of security issue, but because those coins are sent to the exchange with the intention of being sold. From a security point of view maybe it looks like this person is not too smart, but maybe he/she just move that coins from exchange/desktop wallet to hardware wallet. Although it would be much smarter regarding privacy and not to attract attention to send this BTC in few transactions then in one.

I think it's always prudent not to "put all your eggs in one basket." The parallel would be putting all your BTC into one address. Fundamentally, that means you're completely reliant on one security procedure, built on one set of security assumptions. What if that procedure turns out to be flawed?

I especially wouldn't put all my coins onto a hardware wallet. I feel like the attack surface hasn't been studied well enough.

When it comes to cryptocurrency the question of security is always of the utmost importance, so it is smart that the risk is reduced to the greatest possible extent. So far hardware wallets have proven to be quite safe method of storage for crypto, far better then any desktop or online wallet - but that does not mean they are completely safe from hacking.

I agree that in case person has a bigger amount of coins, most of them should be in cold wallet (best option is paper wallet), but that is also not 100% safe - paper can be lost, damaged by fire or water, stolen and who knows what else.

[Aikidoka]

I really wouldn’t mind storing my bitcoins in one wallet - as long as I am sure about securing it. As far as the privacy perspective is concerned, there are enough mixers and software out there which can be used to obscure one’s identity.

Well, you would mind if someone hacks your wallet and steals your bitcoins. There are good hackers and amateur hackers. The good hackers are considered to be really good at hacking. So, if you came across them, they really would hack your wallet despite the security you have. The Amateur hackers cannot surely hack your wallet because they are still beginners. So my advice for you is to store your bitcoins in many wallets and secure them.

[veleten]

I do not think storing alot of bitcoin is safe anywhere be it one place or several separate wallets
each has its own drawbacks and advantages :
if you store everything in one place and lose access or get hacked etc. you lose everything
if you store it in multiple places, you effectively increase the risk of getting hacked or lose access or forget passwords
but at least you have alot of bitcoins to worry about  

[milewilda]

People are always curious when large amounts of BTC are moving around, but not maybe because of security issue, but because those coins are sent to the exchange with the intention of being sold. From a security point of view maybe it looks like this person is not too smart, but maybe he/she just move that coins from exchange/desktop wallet to hardware wallet. Although it would be much smarter regarding privacy and not to attract attention to send this BTC in few transactions then in one.

I think it's always prudent not to "put all your eggs in one basket." The parallel would be putting all your BTC into one address. Fundamentally, that means you're completely reliant on one security procedure, built on one set of security assumptions. What if that procedure turns out to be flawed?

I especially wouldn't put all my coins onto a hardware wallet. I feel like the attack surface hasn't been studied well enough.

When it comes to cryptocurrency the question of security is always of the utmost importance, so it is smart that the risk is reduced to the greatest possible extent. So far hardware wallets have proven to be quite safe method of storage for crypto, far better then any desktop or online wallet - but that does not mean they are completely safe from hacking.

I agree that in case person has a bigger amount of coins, most of them should be in cold wallet (best option is paper wallet), but that is also not 100% safe - paper can be lost, damaged by fire or water, stolen and who knows what else.

No matter what type of wallet we would use up it would really have that kind of certain risk.Safety or security would always vary on how a certain holder would keep up those keys out of others awareness.If i do have that
111k Bitcoins i would probably diversify or divide it up into lots of wallets.People do mostly like to track movements when it do have big amounts and when you do partition it on a non noticeable numbers then you might able to gradual encash those btc to fiat if you decide not to hold up for long time but still the trail can really be seen if they are serious to trace it up.

[Dogtanian]

What's to say this isn't just a long-term holder cashing out or just moving his coins? Doesn't have to be anything sinister.

I really wouldn’t mind storing my bitcoins in one wallet - as long as I am sure about securing it. As far as the privacy perspective is concerned, there are enough mixers and software out there which can be used to obscure one’s identity.

Agreed. Having lots of smaller address could just lead to more loses if you have to worry about securing each and every one of them, especially if you use different passwords and so on. People should just practice better security and make sure you have multiple backs up if something goes wrong.

[1Referee]

I currently have distributed my Bitcoin holdings over 5-10 cold wallets, but not for security reasons.

In case one of my cold wallets gets linked to my personal information for whatever miraculous reason, I 'legally' own only the funds sitting in that wallet, and thus can only be taxed for what's in there. If all my funds were pooled in one single wallet, I have some explaining to do in case there is a strong link to my personal information, and that's what I want to avoid.

I have no problems paying tax over that what I trade with on centralized exchanges, but no way in the world will I ever "voluntarily" gift the government any tax income over my cold wallet holdings.

[Olalomi]

I think its a bad antecedent to stored a whooping large amount of bitcoin in single wallet such action might be subjecte to hackers trying to steal it of course we had read stories of hacked exchanges where a large amount of bitcoin and other coin were stolen, its a good a idea to distribute such a large amount of bitcoin in different wallets this is  backed by a proverb which says ''Don’t Keep All Your Bitcoins in One Basket".