How do big companies store their bitcoins?

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Combining multiple setups is also an option.

I don't know your implication with "Combine multiple setups" but I think complexity is terrible. I guess you implied that they, with big fund, can split their fund to different wallets, and they can use different methods for setup and backup of these wallets. Like 10 wallets with multisig, 10 wallets with cold wallets ...

If combine here means combination of different things in backup, it can lead to diaster when in the end they fail to recover these wallets.

How to backup a seed phrase.

Seed Backup Threat Model

We already know why we are creating seed backups - to protect against loss of whatever devices (if any) we are storing the keys on for regular use. But what do we need to worry about protecting the backups themselves against?

Loss due to destruction
Loss due to complexity / not being able to restore from backup
Loss to an attacker
Before we get into any specific backup methods, the first question you should answer is: how many backups do you actually need? One may not be enough!

[Pmalek]

I don't know your implication with "Combine multiple setups" but I think complexity is terrible. I guess you implied that they, with big fund, can split their fund to different wallets, and they can use different methods for setup and backup of these wallets. Like 10 wallets with multisig, 10 wallets with cold wallets ...

Exactly. They wouldn't have to keep all their bitcoin in multisig, for example. Some of it could be in multisig, another part in a hardware wallet, and a third part with a custodian. I am pretty sure that many institutions use custodial services to handle their bitcoin bags. These companies work with third parties for many other reasons, storing bitcoin and private keys is just an additional service. Even Saylor and MicroStrategy keep their coins with custodians. That's just how it is.

[passwordnow]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets.

There is no special approach that they do. They're the same as us, they can do multisig, use hardware wallets or even paper wallets. Depending on how confident they are with how they store their Bitcoin holdings.

The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

Those that are hired to maintain and keep these company wallets probably have signed their own contracts, the NDAs and they're paid very well to protect it. So someone doing a foul play with their wallets, it's close to impossible if they are keeping it with multisigs and a hardware wallet that's kept on a vault.

[EluguHcman]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

There is not going to be a specific wallet to hold upon in this margin but the fact is that big institution companies are usually stored their Bitcoins on the cold storage networks which as a hardware wallet, it is highily security offline reserved and are also multisig signatory to be accessed.

That is likely to be a cooperative assessments before gaining access to execute transactions in the wallet.
There in, it is well safe from an single individual in the institution to gain access to the wallet and so also from malwares and online scammers attacks.

[ancafe]

Their coins - their right to keep their secrets shut 
In all honesty, big companies know their business, surely.
We can only say about smaller companies that will flock to BTC in the near decade to have (just maybe) some issues or breaches in the future to come, and I am eager to see something like that to be set as an example for others.

It is certainly their right to secrecy and probably they will only talk about numbers with percentages that are likely to be known to the public. What kind of business are you talking about and how does it relate to the substance of the discussion we are discussing? There are many who come to bitcoin and it is more than just small companies, large and institutions, maybe the greater adoption will have an impact on the steps of guarding their assets and that is why the substance of the discussion is more about the use of much more secure wallets that will be used.

Spending large amounts of money must definitely think about the level of security and that is in line with what we want to hear. If not there is probably no point for companies to buy wallets especially for storing their bitcoins and if we refer to some of the things that have been explained maybe there we will find the answer.

[john_egbert]

Their coins - their right to keep their secrets shut 
In all honesty, big companies know their business, surely.
We can only say about smaller companies that will flock to BTC in the near decade to have (just maybe) some issues or breaches in the future to come, and I am eager to see something like that to be set as an example for others.

It is certainly their right to secrecy and probably they will only talk about numbers with percentages that are likely to be known to the public. What kind of business are you talking about and how does it relate to the substance of the discussion we are discussing? There are many who come to bitcoin and it is more than just small companies, large and institutions, maybe the greater adoption will have an impact on the steps of guarding their assets and that is why the substance of the discussion is more about the use of much more secure wallets that will be used.

Spending large amounts of money must definitely think about the level of security and that is in line with what we want to hear. If not there is probably no point for companies to buy wallets especially for storing their bitcoins and if we refer to some of the things that have been explained maybe there we will find the answer.

They wouldn't need to buy wallets per se - just have custodial service to do all the heavy lifting.
About smaller businesses  - I just put my five cents of thoughts into the mix, because it was already said about what big fellas could use to protect their funds, and there were no accidents on my memory from biggies in that regard.
And for me, the future brings much more to the table for smaller companies to shine and try Bitcoin for themselves - and they will need to guard themselves too. That's why I wrote about it in my post.

[Negotiation]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

The best method depends on the company's bitcoin volume transaction frequency and security requirements. Generally large companies use a combination of multiple methods big companies use different techniques and technologies to store bitcoins. Considering the volatility of bitcoin and the risk of hacking these storage methods are tried to be very secure and reliable. They are hardware wallets these wallets are used to store the bitcoin private key offline as it is the most secure option from hackers. Cold storage is also an advanced version of bitcoin storage for large companies it has multiple levels of security features and is commonly used to store large amounts of bitcoin.

[betswift]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

The best method depends on the company's bitcoin volume transaction frequency and security requirements. Generally large companies use a combination of multiple methods big companies use different techniques and technologies to store bitcoins. Considering the volatility of bitcoin and the risk of hacking these storage methods are tried to be very secure and reliable. They are hardware wallets these wallets are used to store the bitcoin private key offline as it is the most secure option from hackers. Cold storage is also an advanced version of bitcoin storage for large companies it has multiple levels of security features and is commonly used to store large amounts of bitcoin.

..Or they develop their own thing mixing things up and making it more convenient for themselves.