How to safely store big amounts of BTC?

[fenican]

1. Never put large amounts in an online wallet or on an exchange. Those are frequently hacked or stolen. That is a very common way people lose huge amounts of BTC.

2. A local online wallet is great, but is only as great as the security on your PC.  If your computer is at home, is connected through a modern router, and you use mostly web based or Steam bought applications than your chance of being hacked is somewhere between zero and very remote. Multi-signature wallets can mitigate a lot of this by requiring that multiple devices sign the transaction. That means if your PC gets hacked, it can't spend money unless your phone or other device has also been hacked. Always be sure to encrypt local wallets, and make sure you have a good quality anti-virus program installed.

3. Hardware wallets are the most secure, but there is an added cost that may exceed the value they are providing. If, for example, someone keeps $10k in a (local) online wallet but has a .5% chance of being hacked, then the cost of the hardware wallet is greater than the amount they would expect to lose on average. At that point, a decision needs to be made whether it is better to self insure or to pay to buy that extra insurance.

4. An offline PC is also very secure, but there is always the risk it might be compromised locally and generating the transaction to spend money requires extra work to copy it off the offline storage.

5. Paper wallets are very insecure, since anyone who gets access to it can spend the money without passwords or any multi-factor authentication. I don't think people fully appreciate the risk they take when they put wallet words in obvious places; homes are robbed regularly, and crooks nowadays are savvy. I believe you're safer putting wallet words in an online location that is known to be highly secured, i.e. Google products, than in a desk drawer where even a family member who knows you are into crypto could drain your wallet.

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[UmerIdrees]

Hello,

Suppose I would expand my BTC portfolio to 10 or 15 BTC.....how would you store such a big amount of coins?

Ofcourse I would use a hardware wallet, but if I store them all on 1 wallet and I lose the wallet, or the house gets on fire and it burns, then I have lost those coins forever? Or are there still ways to get to the coins somehow in that case?

Would you advise to store let's say 15 BTC on 3 different hardware wallets (5BTC each), or would you spread it out even more? Ofcourse I'm not gonna buy more than max. 3 hardware wallets but in that case maybe 15 different laptop wallets (Electrum, Jaxx, Exodus etc.) with 1BTC each on it is safer?

I'm looking for the safest way to store a big amount of BTC and to minimize the risks of losing a big amount.

You have only 10 to 15 btc and there are people who are storing 100 btc on a single wallet. You do not need to make things complicated. More the wallets, more the private keys and it will make every thing confusing. Just keep a single hardware wallet and keep the private keys in two different places and that will be enough.

[dmty.0809]

Many risks to avoid the number of hackers. To anticipate, you can share your assets. If my advice is, I will divide it into several coins, for example eth. You can use MEW. Save multiple wallets on e-mail, PC or other devices.

[Gabah56]

if in my opinion, bro.
if we have a large amount of BTC, don't keep it in one wallet. if you can save it in 3/4 of a wallet because from the experience I got at the beginning of 2018 I lost 63 BTC. because I keep it in one wallet

[Real-Duke]

if in my opinion, bro.
if we have a large amount of BTC, don't keep it in one wallet. if you can save it in 3/4 of a wallet because from the experience I got at the beginning of 2018 I lost 63 BTC. because I keep it in one wallet

Can you explain a little bit more how you lost all your BTC? Because only writing this makes me think you lost your coins from hot wallets that have been hijacked?

[joshy23]

Hello,

Suppose I would expand my BTC portfolio to 10 or 15 BTC.....how would you store such a big amount of coins?

Ofcourse I would use a hardware wallet, but if I store them all on 1 wallet and I lose the wallet, or the house gets on fire and it burns, then I have lost those coins forever? Or are there still ways to get to the coins somehow in that case?

Would you advise to store let's say 15 BTC on 3 different hardware wallets (5BTC each), or would you spread it out even more? Ofcourse I'm not gonna buy more than max. 3 hardware wallets but in that case maybe 15 different laptop wallets (Electrum, Jaxx, Exodus etc.) with 1BTC each on it is safer?

I'm looking for the safest way to store a big amount of BTC and to minimize the risks of losing a big amount.

You have only 10 to 15 btc and there are people who are storing 100 btc on a single wallet. You do not need to make things complicated. More the wallets, more the private keys and it will make every thing confusing. Just keep a single hardware wallet and keep the private keys in two different places and that will be enough.

Having a deeper understanding to what you are dealing with can give you much better anticipations, if you do  use single wallet but you have a good anticipation to what possibilities to happen, you can do that without any worries about your assets.

[sehoon]

Having different wallets is confusing. I think when it comes to safety, I would suggest you buy a separate laptop or computer where the only thing you do there is cryptocurrency related stuff and invest in having a hard wallet like a ledger. Just be careful so you won't lose your ledger and just always remember where you put it.

[Marcus yoyo]

I advise you to save your bitcoin in several crypto currency wallets. Maybe you should at least use 3 crypto currency wallets. I suggest this to minimize your risk of losing all your bitcoins when you become a victim of hacking. It is one of the risk management that you must implement. Besides that, you also have to make sure all security procedures are going well. Meaning you don't have to worry about the security of each wallet you have.

[candra raditya]

To be safer, it is better to keep it in your hardware wallet, but for 15 btc ownership it would be better if you don't keep it in one wallet.

[coolcoinz]

Personally, I find hardware wallets a waste of money. They are just another electronic device you have to charge and store somewhere safe and dry. If I have to remember about a hardware wallet I could as well remember about a laminated paper wallet in a safety deposit box, especially since I can have 2 or more of them and be sure that they will never get destroyed all at once. I'm all about the classics. If I wanted to store my coins for a long time, I'd put a paper wallet in a tightly closed container and bury it in the garden. I don't get floods or earthquakes in my area so I'm pretty sure it would survive for another 20 years, or more. 

[Ridwan Fauzi]

Hardware wallet is the best choice for everyone who has a huge amount of bitcoin. Because the susceptible thing when someone has a bitcoin and he save in some exchange then he will find the security he makes will not provide a security side that is truly maintained.

Especially with the centralized exchange, beside the hacker thing which will be a frightening specter for every bitcoin user the exchange itself is decent to be suspected. I found some case that the user an exchange cannot withdraw their bitcoin to the other exchange for several reasons. This is not will happen if you use hardware wallet, you are free make your wallet is secure or not and you are free when you decide to send your coin and sell it to money fiat.

[Lucius]

3. Hardware wallets are the most secure, but there is an added cost that may exceed the value they are providing. If, for example, someone keeps $10k in a (local) online wallet but has a .5% chance of being hacked, then the cost of the hardware wallet is greater than the amount they would expect to lose on average. At that point, a decision needs to be made whether it is better to self insure or to pay to buy that extra insurance.

I would not agree with your assessment, $10k in crypto is big money at present time (at least for me), and the value in the future can be xx times higher. Some $60 for hardware wallet is a very inexpensive investment, given the security that comes with such device. Any hot wallet (desktop&mobile) can not be measured in security with hardware wallets. Even 0.5% chance of losing coins is to big, when such a thing happens, there is no way back.

Personally, I find hardware wallets a waste of money. If I wanted to store my coins for a long time, I'd put a paper wallet in a tightly closed container and bury it in the garden. I don't get floods or earthquakes in my area so I'm pretty sure it would survive for another 20 years, or more. 

It is your opinion and your choice, but you can not be sure that floods or earthquakes are not something which can not happen in your area. Maybe you can be sure if you do not have any big river near by, or you are far from the sea, but the earthquake is something that can not be predicted. In case of hardware wallets most important thing is seed, the device itself can be stolen, but it is protected with PIN and it will wipe itself in case that wrong PIN is entered few times in the row.

We can read recently that one hardware wallet is survive fire and firefighters' intervention (lot of water), and one manufacturer is offering hardware wallet made from anodized aluminum.

[thesmallgod]

Personally, I find hardware wallets a waste of money. They are just another electronic device you have to charge and store somewhere safe and dry. If I have to remember about a hardware wallet I could as well remember about a laminated paper wallet in a safety deposit box, especially since I can have 2 or more of them and be sure that they will never get destroyed all at once. I'm all about the classics. If I wanted to store my coins for a long time, I'd put a paper wallet in a tightly closed container and bury it in the garden. I don't get floods or earthquakes in my area so I'm pretty sure it would survive for another 20 years, or more. 

Sorry to say this but what if you die. what do you think will happen to your asset. your talk about natural disaster like flood and earthquakes but since you think that has never happened in your area you think flood cannot take place in the next 20 years. What if there is climatic change. Finally, I hope the container you intend to put your paper wallet is non-biodegradable because if it is your laminated paper wallet can become unreadable in the next 20 years. despite the hard scenario surrounding the storage of huge coin, I still believe the hardware wallet is the best option for now.

[AngellSky]

It seems to me who is best to make anonymous his person and then there will be no third parties, including interested in your information and personal data.  Only if you attract interest, then your funds will certainly be under threat.

[thirdprize]

You want at least 3 hardware wallets and you MUST memorise all the seed phrases, that way you don't have to write them down and they won't get lost/stolen.  Even better, get them tattooed inside your eyelids.  That way, only you can see them. 

Seriously though, get an old iPhone, wipe it and install a local wallet on it.  Remove the sim card and only turn wifi on when you want to send/receive.  Fingerprint recognition to open the phone and the wallet.  You can't get much more secure AND convenient than that.  You could even store you pass phrase in that and fingerprint protect it.  I would like to see that get hacked.  You can even encrypt the iTunes backup just for extra redundancy.

[roosbit]

OP is your desired storage restricted to only hardware Wallet's? I think you can go with two to reduce on cost and responsibility of remembering where each one is (if they will be stored separately) Unfortunately Am not so much into hardware wallets because am not convinced they are the outright answer to storing a portfolio as yours and other wallets an do a good job too.

Imo you could use a vanity segwit wallet that you can generate from a clean machine that guarantees no third party knows or has access to your private keys.
Guide on how to create a vanity segwit wallet follow link here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5144752.0

[MonsterV]

I think 2 or 3 wallets are the best and share them into several btc. The most important thing is how you secure this wallet, always use cold storage and not give internet access when not in use. Oh yes, don't use a wallet that is close source because you will have limitations in accessing your wallet.

Maybe this can be a reference: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

[Achargeturry78]

I mostly recommend buying a hardware wallet and put it the safe place that only you can access it. Don't trust anybodies computer on accessing your hardware wallet. That's all i have done in the past 2 years of owning a hardware wallet. Nothing so suspicious occurs in the 2 years run of my hardware wallet.

[stadus]

I'm glad you see that risk which is possible to happen.
If you are not contented with 2, make it 3 wallets, the more the better and put it in different places which should be very far from your home that does not also have the same weather situation. Don't limit the possibility to fire alone, earthquake and flood could also destroy your bitcoin in your wallet.

Maybe [1] from your home, [2] from your parent's house [3] from your sibling or friends that you trust the more.

You are aiming for long term, if we take a look at the price of 10-20 BTC now, maybe we can afford to lose, but in 10 to 20 years, that would be a different story.Probably the value that time would increase and if you lose that, that would bother your lifetime since the you should be part of the big holder of bitcoins.

[coin-investor]

Using a hardware wallet is highly recommended but still depends on how good are you on keeping the pass phrase safe, so spend funds for bank vault for safekeeping, you can use two hardware wallet and also keep a small portion on Exodus in case you need money to trade.