Can I burn my wallet on a DVD?

[NationOwnedCCNow]

And how would it work? Can I burn Down the wallet files and a wallet program on the DVD and then keep the adress on my computer and keep sending bitcoins to my DVD under my matress? 

[WetSeals]

Yes, just make sure you dont break the dvd or that no one steals it.

[roslinpl]

And how would it work? Can I burn Down the wallet files and a wallet program on the DVD and then keep the adress on my computer and keep sending bitcoins to my DVD under my matress? 

I do not see a need to record wallet program files on a DVD. You will be not able to start this application from a DVD on some other device..

Anyway a compact disk is a not good data storage option.. as it can be broken/damaged very easy.

[Malin Keshar]

well, if it is made of bits, you can. Do not mean this is a good idea

[NationOwnedCCNow]

And how would it work? Can I burn Down the wallet files and a wallet program on the DVD and then keep the adress on my computer and keep sending bitcoins to my DVD under my matress? 

I do not see a need to record wallet program files on a DVD. You will be not able to start this application from a DVD on some other device..

Anyway a compact disk is a not good data storage option.. as it can be broken/damaged very easy.

In what way is a disc in its folder not a safer Storage than for example a USB memory-stick?


Ok so skip the wallet program. That was just stupid.

[Flashman]

I trust DVDs over flash RAM.

Obviously you ain't gonna leave it kicking round on your desk to get scratched up. Yup copy the wallet files over and stash safe.

[shorena]

I trust DVDs over flash RAM.

Obviously you ain't gonna leave it kicking round on your desk to get scratched up. Yup copy the wallet files over and stash safe.

-snip-
In what way is a disc in its folder not a safer Storage than for example a USB memory-stick?


Ok so skip the wallet program. That was just stupid.

There are several reason why CD/DVD is a worse data storage than USB.

#1 You have to take more care. (Dont scratch, easier to break, heat, cold, sun, etc.)
#2 The data is burned into a chemical substance that decays over time and can no longer hold your data. Lifespan of a selfmade CD is ~5-10 years. Lifespan of data on an USB device 10-30 years

Only sources I could find are in german, but Im gonna post them anyway.

http://www.netzwelt.de/news/75456_2-haltbarkeit-speichermedien-daten-richtig-liegen.html
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langzeitarchivierung#Haltbarkeit_der_Tr.C3.A4germedien

Edit:

but yes you can just burn your wallet.dat on a CD. DVD would be a waste...

[hilariousandco]

And how would it work? Can I burn Down the wallet files and a wallet program on the DVD and then keep the adress on my computer and keep sending bitcoins to my DVD under my matress? 

I do not see a need to record wallet program files on a DVD. You will be not able to start this application from a DVD on some other device..

Anyway a compact disk is a not good data storage option.. as it can be broken/damaged very easy.

In what way is a disc in its folder not a safer Storage than for example a USB memory-stick?


Ok so skip the wallet program. That was just stupid.

Don't just back it up to one medium once. Burn a few copies and have a back up on a USB or two.

[blacksails]

I've got a back-up of my wallet on a CD. So far it works great.
Just make sure you have other mediums of back-up as well!

[ie007cheung]

I doubt if some years later your CD/DVD players may not function well and you will find it difficult to buy a new CD/DVD player 

[shorena]

I doubt if some years later your CD/DVD players may not function well and you will find it difficult to buy a new CD/DVD player 

You might have that problem with USB devices too, I doubt it though. You can still get floppy drives as well as old magnetic tapes.

[NationOwnedCCNow]

But when the next solar storm hits Earth and wipes out all Electronics and therewith bitcoins, I'm gonna be one of the few who's bitcoins survived.

How safe does that make you feel, if you saved it on an Electric unit?

[hilariousandco]

But when the next solar storm hits Earth and wipes out all Electronics and therewith bitcoins, I'm gonna be one of the few who's bitcoins survived.

How safe does that make you feel, if you saved it on an Electric unit?

Since when do solar storms wipe out all the electrics on earth forever?

[Holm]

And how would it work? Can I burn Down the wallet files and a wallet program on the DVD and then keep the adress on my computer and keep sending bitcoins to my DVD under my matress? 

it is not a good idea, better use flash card

[oli123123]

Of course, you can burn your walllet data on a DVD but you should be careful.

[Flashman]

Anecdotal if you like, but I have never failed to recover data from a writeable optical disk, and I have some that are 15 years old now. On the other hand I've had several flash memory devices fail on me.

Also, you don't need a solar magnetic storm of the 1 in a hundred years variety to damage flash, lightning strike on the same block, utility transformer on in the neighbourhood blowing up, your own microwave oven catastrophically  failing, all of those could create a local EMP event big enough to disrupt data on flash storage.

Additionally, they are prone to bit rot from cosmic ray damage, the chances of a single bit error on these larger capacity devices are becoming close to a yearly event rather than the 10-15 years that lower density SRAM was thought to have for a risk factor in the 80s and 90s. If the device is in use regularly the single bit error may be corrected, close to when it occurs, if you leave it in a drawer for 3 years and it accumulates several errors, it may be unrecoverable. There are also local radiation sources that may be locally intense enough to cause errors, such as xrays from static discharges nearby (Such as when pulling scotch tape off the roll) and careless static discharges to the device itself.

Recovery; off optical media, do-able, you can resurface it, resilver it, recover most data off a disk sawn in half, recovery off corrupt/dead flash memory... good luck with that.

[dogechode]

As shorena said, cds and dvds can and do decay over time. Even if you leave it in a case protected from sunlight, temperature, scratching, etc it can simply lose data over a long period of time.

[shorena]

-snip-
Recovery; off optical media, do-able, you can resurface it, resilver it, recover most data off a disk sawn in half, recovery off corrupt/dead flash memory... good luck with that.

While you have many valid points, there is a big difference between self burned CD/DVD's and factory "printed"/"burned" CD/DVD's. Those you make yourself are usually of a very bad quality and the chemicals used dont last very long. They decay over time and there is no way to resurface the CD/DVD if the chemical layer below the plastic is "gone". Storing data electronically for a very long time is still a problem today and there are very limited possibilties for home use. Out of those flash based memory (flash cards, usb sticky, etc.) is the most reliable. They are not perfect. They also suffer from "decay" as the magnetic fields that hold the data lose power, but they decay at a slower rate compared to the chemicals used in CD's.

If you want something to hold your data for a very long time: use stone or metal. Even "home use" paper might not hold your data over 5-6 years depending on the pen / printer ink you used.

How much bits are flipped each year due to background radiation I cant tell, since I have never read any reliable information about that. ECC might prevent people from noticing the effect while the systems are in use though. Same with xrays from static electricity. Sounds like bogus to me, but what do I know.

Edit:

Searched a bit on google scholar and found a paper on the topic. Its not the one I read, but its the same basic information, so I might as well give this as a reference.

“Depending on the media type and in
tensity of the light, a disc
may fail due to exposure to direct
sunlight in as little as a few
weeks. This will be especially tr
ue when coupled with the heating
effect of exposure to sunlight or combined with any other heat
source.”

Basically: Dont store valueable data on CD/DVD's.

Full paper here: http://www.imaging.org/ist/publications/reporter/articles/REP26_3_4_ARCH2011_Lunt.pdf

[baokychen]

You can burn into dvd, but you have to keep it safe if your wallet is having lots of BTCBTC

[GTO911]

Best to store in multiple dvd's and places