The irony of leaving your private keys in a bank

[Despairo]

I think even your home got robbed, the robbery wouldn't always can find your hardware wallet since you can hide it on any places that you think the robbery wouldn't know. Just like hide it inside on the chair leg, inside flower vase, under pile of stones etc etc.

In case if the robbery know if you're a Bitcoin enthusiast, make sure you've have another wallet with low amount, so you can give them the seed phrase of this wallet and you can still have the another wallet that contain most of your wealth.

[spectre71]

I guess it's how big a target you have made yourself.

If you could end up under the eye of the gvmt the bank will assist them handing over the contents of your box. When gold was made illegal (USA) safe deposit boxed provided zero protection. If the IRS thinks you are hiding x amount of dollars and they find this, I bet they could throw you in the klink until you cough it up.

If anyone but you knows you have money or keys at your home a safe won't matter. They hold a gun to your kids head until you open it.

Whether it's gold, silver, diamonds or cash keeping your mouth shut is the single most important AND hardest thing to do.

Never keep everything in one place. Split it up.

[Doan9269]

Does anyone use a bank safe service to leave your trezor or whatever you use in there?

I think you should go for more alternative than bank in anything that had to do with your asset with bitcoin because you wanted to avoided them at the first day that makes you come with the idea of bitcoin and Trezor, try look into a more private place in your house andbsafe keep it, remember going to the bank will require KYC and their protocols and you wouldn't want to have an experience of been denied access whenever you wanted to acess it back.

I have been considering which would be the ways in which one could leave physical backups somewhere else than your own home

Why shouldn't your home be a suitable place? then try get to find a garden or vineyard owned by you and make an underground safe there and put it in a metal box that has unlocking keys which could be access by you alone and if you're the type that's very bad in handling things then you can secure it with your grandma but ensure she told you where it is, if not you loose it for life.

[Mate2237]

Does anyone use a bank safe service to leave your trezor or whatever you use in there? I have been considering which would be the ways in which one could leave physical backups somewhere else than your own home. If you don't trust anyone to do a good job in keeping the device safe, the only way I see is that you either own 2 homes, which I don't, or that you hire a service in a bank where you can leave the stuff in there. Im assuming there's good security, and no one could realistically get in there, at least in any developed country. The only way would be that an employee is dumb enough to attempt a heist from inside but that's also unlikely.

Could you explain your experience doing this and what to considering when hiring such a service?

Private key is a personal key which supposed to be kept in a private place by the owner. I will not advise you to keep or safe your keys in the hands of a banker. You have to keep your key in your house.

Home is the best place to keep the keys. trezor should be kept at home, don't give someone your keys to keep for you. That should be very dangerous for your hardware wallet.

If you give your wallet to someone and in the process of keeping the wallet in his office or house and the wallet got missing or he misplaced the wallet, what will you do? Write the keys for like 4 places and spread them in different places.

[Cookdata]

Does anyone use a bank safe service to leave your trezor or whatever you use in there? I have been considering which would be the ways in which one could leave physical backups somewhere else than your own home. If you don't trust anyone to do a good job in keeping the device safe, the only way I see is that you either own 2 homes, which I don't, or that you hire a service in a bank where you can leave the stuff in there. Im assuming there's good security, and no one could realistically get in there, at least in any developed country. The only way would be that an employee is dumb enough to attempt a heist from inside but that's also unlikely.

Could you explain your experience doing this and what to considering when hiring such a service?

The first reason bitcoin exists is the concept of seeking out a trustworthy person. According to Satoshi's original white paper^[1] from the abstract overview of bitcoin, bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency that you can use without depending on anyone. Therefore, bringing your bitcoin to the bank for security is equivalent to destroying what bitcoin is in the first place.

You may have other valuable goods to the banks, which is why they were created, but Trezor should be in your own care and your seed phrase or recovery phrase should be punched on a metal plate and stored in a different safe place, that's the best measure that experts have recommended and so far, no one has complained about that measure except you didn't do it as instructed.


Let me add to what has already been said: the banks you see are very self-centred, opportunistic, and always want to take from what they don't sow. If they announced that they have an emergency and fire outbreak in the banks, you will have to deal with loss or max get compensated, there could also be a heist and if your property is taken, you will have to deal with the losses with them. God forbid, if you happen to have a bitcoin that you bought in 2010 and lose it at this current price would hunt you for the rest of your life. Avoid banks, that is my 4 cents.

[1] https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/training/annual-national-training-seminar/2018/Emerging_Tech_Bitcoin_Crypto.pdf

[Bobrox]

Believing to save your private keys in third party as the bank seems not good choose because how bad trusted reputation from the bank around my country, ever have been normal activities with publishing our document from mobile phone until address home located for assurance financial company by the bank. Here become my reason why not give more recommended use the bank as place for saving your private keys. Better you can build in your home safe-deposit box and seems most safety about your private key document.

You can put your private key in the safe-deposit box and keep safety because you have own controlling than trusted third party like the Bank because we can't guarantee with their employee could be trusted.

[Bitstar_coin]

I would much rather store my keys in a place where I can easily access them anytime and have absolute control, I get why the OP is unease about storing keys at home, anything can happen that will pose trouble such as burglars, natural disasters, or completely forgot where you have them stored.

Storing them with the bank on the other hand gives a sense of security of knowing exactly where they are and where to find them even if 20 years after (well that is... if the bank still exits) otherwise that's double trouble  
I think either way has its advantages and disadvantages, so depending on the individual's ability to keep valuables safe, both options should be considered otherwise it is better to keep it safe yourself.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Leaving your private keys in a bank's vault defeats the brilliance of digitally owned property. You can find perfect hideouts, and no one will ever know. The only thing you need to do is to insure the security of 12 words. Use your basement, bury them in the ground, in your house's garden, in your cottage's garden, put it inside the walls, in places a thief doesn't have the time to look for. If you don't feel confident enough, use multiple places. Use backups. Use passphrase; some funds will be at the seed-phrase-only wallet, and most on the passphrase-protected wallet.

Just be creative. It's your money.

[Hispo]

I agree what leaving one's keys at the bank (inside a security box) does not make much sense since undermines the purpose of Bitcoin and other crypto-assets: Decentralization and independence from the traditional banking system.

However, there is an special case I could see myself leaving part of a Shamir seed inside a bank vault.
The bank it would not have the complete seed, I would be just storing there a partial key to access my wallet which would require others (strategically hidden by me), in the end nothing would happen is a partial Shamir key get lost or seized, one only needs to generate a reasonable threshold for the recovery.

[goldkingcoiner]

So let me get this right: You first buy decentralized money which you bought because you do not wish it to be in the hands of a single entity that controls what happens to your funds. So you then decide to take that decentralization and centralize it all over again by giving the bank your wallet(s)? That seems to defeat the purpose of Bitcoin, which is to BE YOUR OWN BANK. If you cannot handle the responsibility of handling your own money then I guess you can give it to a relative or a friend and hope he does not steal it, lose it or gamble it away. Same thing will happen if you give it to a bank.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Could you explain your experience doing this and what to considering when hiring such a service?

Well, for me, I will never hire such a service, not in this present country that I live in where no body is trusted, banks are not trusted, let alone the bank manager.

Have you or did you consider the possibility of a bank being robbed? Let's assume you have your fiat money deposited In the bank, the bank can easily pay you your money through the help of their central money printing headquarter (central bank).

Now also imagine you deposited a personal belonging like your trezor wallet or private keys containing all your crypto coins worth hundreds or even millions of dollars in the bank's safe, and in the cause of a robbery, that item(s) got stolen, how are you going to recover that item and the money contained in it back???

So, I personally would never use a bank service to store any of my stuff that has to do with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.

[Oilacris]

So let me get this right: You first buy decentralized money which you bought because you do not wish it to be in the hands of a single entity that controls what happens to your funds. So you then decide to take that decentralization and centralize it all over again by giving the bank your wallet(s)? That seems to defeat the purpose of Bitcoin, which is to BE YOUR OWN BANK. If you cannot handle the responsibility of handling your own money then I guess you can give it to a relative or a friend and hope he does not steal it, lose it or gamble it away. Same thing will happen if you give it to a bank.

Agree on this one and we know that there are indeed ways which you could really able to keep those coins without the need of touching these banks or any services which would really be the cause of

of losing funds because you do believe that they do offer full and assured security on those things that you had entrusted to them.I cant really sleep with those kind of set-up,knowing that your

coins are really on the hands of something thats too centralized and anytime they would really be accessing those things if things becomes shit.
Its better to hide on your own and finding up ways which it is actually that possible.

[Asiska02]

You are only storing your private key with a third party when you keep it in a centralized bank. Even though there is a written agreement to that, it can still be expensive and you can't be completely certain that it can't be compromised. I'd rather keep the key to a decentralized exchange safe at home and know how to make it more secure than keep it in a centralized system.

[Lucius]

Banks are the usual targets for crooks - I don't think anyone can afford losing their hardware wallet even if the thief cannot unlock it. Better to keep it in a safe at home. At least then your home will only be robbed if you have aroused their suspicions.

Banks are always at risk of armed robberies, but I can't remember a single case in my country where robbers stole something from a safe deposit box, because they are concentrated on cash and on the principle of "quick in, quick out". However, this does not make such storage safe, but only a less likely target of the average bank robber.

~snip~
Whether it's gold, silver, diamonds or cash keeping your mouth shut is the single most important AND hardest thing to do.
Never keep everything in one place. Split it up.

A chattering language cost many people a lot more than being robbed, but also losing their lives. Today, a lot of people talk about how they own Bitcoin and how they made a lot of money trading cryptocurrencies, which is very bad for their security. However, even if you keep quiet and don't brag about it, hacking a database like the one with the well-known hardware wallet opens up some completely new questions about what you need to do to stay under the radar of hackers and common thieves.

[jrrsparkles]

Does anyone use a bank safe service to leave your trezor or whatever you use in there? I have been considering which would be the ways in which one could leave physical backups somewhere else than your own home. If you don't trust anyone to do a good job in keeping the device safe, the only way I see is that you either own 2 homes, which I don't, or that you hire a service in a bank where you can leave the stuff in there. Im assuming there's good security, and no one could realistically get in there, at least in any developed country. The only way would be that an employee is dumb enough to attempt a heist from inside but that's also unlikely.

Could you explain your experience doing this and what to considering when hiring such a service?

I would say it is not a smart decision to keep the private keys in safe storage like bank because we know they can access the safe at anytime so I assume if someone got the knowledge of what is private keys they can simply snap your keys without actually stealing it and take all your money away and ironically you can never find who stole your money.

So its always good to keep the keys safe in your own custody and you can also buy lockers for few hundred dollars to keep the valuable assets in your home itself instead of trusting the banking locker system.

[NeuroticFish]

I would say it is not a smart decision to keep the private keys in safe storage like bank because we know they can access the safe at anytime so I assume if someone got the knowledge of what is private keys they can simply snap your keys without actually stealing it and take all your money away and ironically you can never find who stole your money.

So its always good to keep the keys safe in your own custody and you can also buy lockers for few hundred dollars to keep the valuable assets in your home itself instead of trusting the banking locker system.

If it's a sealed envelope with a bit of security measures they will not touch it. Of course, a very important requirement is to not brag about your coins if you have so many.
On the other hand, if one is paranoid enough and doesn't trust banks - understandable after all - he can do (as already said in some of the previous posts) something like Shamir backup and split the seed between multiple banks' deposit boxes.

The advantage of having the wallet seed at a bank is that it can be easier to get it into the hands of your family after you die.

[Franctoshi]

Does anyone use a bank safe service to leave your trezor or whatever you use in there? I have been considering which would be the ways in which one could leave physical backups somewhere else than your own home. If you don't trust anyone to do a good job in keeping the device safe, the only way I see is that you either own 2 homes, which I don't, or that you hire a service in a bank.

Leave centralized system alone, learn how to secure your funds/cryptos yourself and be your own bank, this is one of the major reason why Satoshi created Bitcoin, for me I would never store my keys in the Bank and wouldn't advise any of my friends to do so. One of the ways to secure your cryptos at home don't allow many people know that you own cryptos, hence it could put you into being attracted to kidnappers or robbers coming to your house and request you transfer all cryptos to them, if you're living in an unsecure areas. Therefore, Buy Or work an iron safe voult and store your keys inside and leave Bank.

[fenican]

Hardware wallets are typically 2FA, meaning a PIN is required, so loss of the wallet shouldn't compromise your private key. For the wallet words, you could store those in an encrypted file system on an offline device. Printing them out in a folder labeled "my private keys!" or keeping them in a safety deposit box, particularly, is not very secure. Safety deposit boxes are very common theft targets and a thief will assume anything he gets out of one must have value.

[Smartvirus]

Banks are the usual targets for crooks - I don't think anyone can afford losing their hardware wallet even if the thief cannot unlock it. Better to keep it in a safe at home. At least then your home will only be robbed if you have aroused their suspicions.

My thoughts for sure.
There is always a price that comes with knowing. Knowing always leads to testing or trying out. We've heard of hacking being a way to test how a platform might be secure and some hackers do that just for the pleasure of it or to expose bugs that needs fixing and just take credits for it.

Similar approach is used on where we hope to consider safe. Why some may Rob Banks for the purpose of going on record and others to enrich themselves, these ideas builds up because they understand that there are valuables there.

The better idea would be, never letting anyone know what is that needs securing and yet, you find a best way to ensure its safety. However it is, people are most likely not to search out value where they don't hope to find it or are ignorant to have value. That's why privacy remains a a priority in cryptocurrency.

[Welsh]

I would much rather store my keys in a place where I can easily access them anytime and have absolute control, I get why the OP is unease about storing keys at home, anything can happen that will pose trouble such as burglars, natural disasters, or completely forgot where you have them stored.

Well, it's a limitation that Bitcoin will face. Simply, Bitcoin isn't for everyone, and therefore you'll always have people who don't want to be responsible for their wealth, at least from a security point of view. That's completely acceptable, and is probably the reason that banks will also offer Bitcoin services in the future, or simply people will leave their seeds in a safety deposit box.

While, that does defeat the fundamentals of why some of us use Bitcoin, it's a reality the rest of us must accept. Not everyone is going to want to go into great depths to secure their assets, when they can rely on a third party. Obviously, relying on a third party also has its issues, but there's no real middle ground, it's either one or the other.