Newbie DO'S and DONT'S?

[Jamie_Boulder]

Do:
Your research (about BTC)
Teach yourself the fundamentals of computer security
Contribute to the community
Replace paypal/visa etc with BTC

Don't:
Gamble (This is coming from someone opening a BTC casino)
Trust anyone
Purchase bitcoins for the purpose of 'investment'
Don't replace your bank account with BTC, only supplement it for a credit card/paypal/visa/WU etc

[odolvlobo]

I only use blockchain for now. I'm not that techie so how can i make mine secure?

stop using blockchain, download bitcoin core and transfer the bitcoins to your new address
there are numerous ways to protect your OWN wallet, once you have a wallet on blockchain it's not actually your wallet

That is wrong. The Blockchain.info wallet is your own wallet. You have the private keys. Blockchain.info only holds an encrypted copy and they do not have the password.

In my opinion, the Core wallet is unfortunately not appropriate for most people, because of the size of the data and the time it takes just to launch it.

You can make your Blockchain.info wallet more secure by backing it up and turning on all the security features. Also, never use Google to go to the blockchain.info site. Google frequently lists fake sites that will steal your password.

[oli123123]

Don't use online wallets

Anything serious with online wallet what happen why you use " Don't use online wallets " . because I am using online wallet I want to aware about any issue with online.

Because of seccurity problems, there is always a risk that your account or the site can be hacked.

[cech4204a]

You can earn bitcoins by signin up for a signature campaign or maybe free faucet(i don't recommend you to waste your time on free faucets). If you are without any work and have a lot of time, get a sig campaign. You can see mine, i'm paid for every post i make, like many other people, so think about it. It costs you zero.

[monbux]

Don't go into the marketplace section until you read all the stickies
Do always provide a collateral when requesting a loan.

[Coef]

Newbie here in the forum, i just want to know what to do and not to do, and some tips to earn BTC 
Thank you! 

Do your own research and don't blindly trust what other said, especially if it is related to your money.

[Coef]

Don't use online wallets

Anything serious with online wallet what happen why you use " Don't use online wallets " . because I am using online wallet I want to aware about any issue with online.

Because of seccurity problems, there is always a risk that your account or the site can be hacked.

For online wallets (exchanges and casinos), you don't have the private keys for your bitcoin.
So, the site owner can take your bitcoin and vanish at any time, and this kind of thing has happened multiple times.

[botany]

Don't use online wallets

Anything serious with online wallet what happen why you use " Don't use online wallets " . because I am using online wallet I want to aware about any issue with online.

Because of seccurity problems, there is always a risk that your account or the site can be hacked.

For online wallets (exchanges and casinos), you don't have the private keys for your bitcoin.
So, the site owner can take your bitcoin and vanish at any time, and this kind of thing has happened multiple times.

Ouch.
Should take note when I have some btcs.

[lynn_402]

Don't use online wallets

Anything serious with online wallet what happen why you use " Don't use online wallets " . because I am using online wallet I want to aware about any issue with online.

Because of seccurity problems, there is always a risk that your account or the site can be hacked.

For online wallets (exchanges and casinos), you don't have the private keys for your bitcoin.
So, the site owner can take your bitcoin and vanish at any time, and this kind of thing has happened multiple times.

Blockchain.info is cool though, because the site owner doesn't have access to the private keys of the users.

[coinsolidation]

Blockchain.info is cool though, because the site owner doesn't have access to the private keys of the users.

That is not entirely true.

The blockchain.info wallet is code that runs in the browsers, if it can work with your bitcoins after you've unlocked your wallet, and they provide the code, then it stands to reason that they can modify the code to take actions using your private key after you have unlocked it.

Or simply, they can change their javascript to be malicious. It is still a trust based service.

[BunsenBurner]

Blockchain.info is cool though, because the site owner doesn't have access to the private keys of the users.

That is not entirely true.

The blockchain.info wallet is code that runs in the browsers, if it can work with your bitcoins after you've unlocked your wallet, and they provide the code, then it stands to reason that they can modify the code to take actions using your private key after you have unlocked it.

Or simply, they can change their javascript to be malicious. It is still a trust based service.

Or their server could be hacked and then give you malicious code and steal your password for decrypting the server side wallet file.

[btchris]

Blockchain.info is cool though, because the site owner doesn't have access to the private keys of the users.

That is not entirely true.

The blockchain.info wallet is code that runs in the browsers, if it can work with your bitcoins after you've unlocked your wallet, and they provide the code, then it stands to reason that they can modify the code to take actions using your private key after you have unlocked it.

Or simply, they can change their javascript to be malicious. It is still a trust based service.

Or their server could be hacked and then give you malicious code and steal your password for decrypting the server side wallet file.

The important point is that online wallets are less secure than desktop ones, but at the same time not all online wallets are created equally.

Some, like Blockchain, publish their in-browser code as open source (on GitHub) and do not do any private key handling on their servers making them somewhat safer. Others store your private keys on their servers, making the service more PayPal-like than Bitcoin-like.

You could lose your Bitcoin in either scenario, but the former (Blockchain-style) service is the safer of the two.

[BunsenBurner]

Blockchain.info is cool though, because the site owner doesn't have access to the private keys of the users.

That is not entirely true.

The blockchain.info wallet is code that runs in the browsers, if it can work with your bitcoins after you've unlocked your wallet, and they provide the code, then it stands to reason that they can modify the code to take actions using your private key after you have unlocked it.

Or simply, they can change their javascript to be malicious. It is still a trust based service.

Or their server could be hacked and then give you malicious code and steal your password for decrypting the server side wallet file.

The important point is that online wallets are less secure than desktop ones, but at the same time not all online wallets are created equally.

Some, like Blockchain, publish their in-browser code as open source (on GitHub) and do not do any private key handling on their servers making them somewhat safer. Others store your private keys on their servers, making the service more PayPal-like than Bitcoin-like.

You could lose your Bitcoin in either scenario, but the former (Blockchain-style) service is the safer of the two.

That's true.
In summary, in terms of safety level, offline wallet (best) > hot wallets running on your machines > blockchain.info wallet > exchange wallets (worst)

[InwardContour]

Blockchain.info is cool though, because the site owner doesn't have access to the private keys of the users.

That is not entirely true.

The blockchain.info wallet is code that runs in the browsers, if it can work with your bitcoins after you've unlocked your wallet, and they provide the code, then it stands to reason that they can modify the code to take actions using your private key after you have unlocked it.

Or simply, they can change their javascript to be malicious. It is still a trust based service.

Or their server could be hacked and then give you malicious code and steal your password for decrypting the server side wallet file.

The important point is that online wallets are less secure than desktop ones, but at the same time not all online wallets are created equally.

Some, like Blockchain, publish their in-browser code as open source (on GitHub) and do not do any private key handling on their servers making them somewhat safer. Others store your private keys on their servers, making the service more PayPal-like than Bitcoin-like.

You could lose your Bitcoin in either scenario, but the former (Blockchain-style) service is the safer of the two.

That's true.
In summary, in terms of safety level, offline wallet (best) > hot wallets running on your machines > blockchain.info wallet > exchange wallets (worst)

It depends by the security knowledge of the user, a casual Joe with an obsolete Windows OS who installed some cracked programs/games could be the worst of all.

[BunsenBurner]

In summary, in terms of safety level, offline wallet (best) > hot wallets running on your machines > blockchain.info wallet > exchange wallets (worst)

It depends by the security knowledge of the user, a casual Joe with an obsolete Windows OS who installed some cracked programs/games could be the worst of all.

If the guy has a keylogger on his pc, all his bitcoin on a hot bitcoin-qt wallet, blockchain.info and coinbase will be gone very soon (assuming he has no idea what 2FA is). 

[odolvlobo]

In summary, in terms of safety level, offline wallet (best) > hot wallets running on your machines > blockchain.info wallet > exchange wallets (worst)

You left out multisig wallets, which are new. I would rate them about the same as the blockchain.info wallet:

offline wallet (safest) > hot wallet running on your machines > multisig wallet = blockchain.info wallet > exchange wallet (riskiest)

[Minnlo]

In summary, in terms of safety level, offline wallet (best) > hot wallets running on your machines > blockchain.info wallet > exchange wallets (worst)

You left out multisig wallets, which are new. I would rate them about the same as the blockchain.info wallet:

offline wallet (safest) > hot wallet running on your machines > multisig wallet = blockchain.info wallet > exchange wallet (riskiest)

What about the Trezor hardware wallet (http://www.bitcointrezor.com/ and https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=122438.0)?
Is it as safe as an offline wallet?

[odolvlobo]

What about the Trezor hardware wallet (http://www.bitcointrezor.com/ and https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=122438.0)?
Is it as safe as an offline wallet?

The Trezor is an offline wallet. Though you connect it to send a transaction, the wallet itself is not accessible.

[bengtåke]

Just off the top of my head (some of them were probably mentioned already)

• Don't use online wallets (if you don't own the private keys you don't own the coins)
• Don't trust anyone (including me!)
• Never use exchanges as a wallet, try to only store small amounts or only store them when you want to actually trade!
• Don't invest in altcoin IPOs. No, just don't. A few of them are legit (like 0.001%), but in most cases you're basically giving money away
• Don't invest more than you can afford to lose
• Always do your due diligence with software released on these boards (research before investing/running it)
• Avoid closed-source software
• Never ever send anyone your private keys, for any reason (doh!)
• If you use someone's software here, say thanks. it won't hurt you

[coinsolidation]

Just off the top of my head (some of them were probably mentioned already)

• Don't use online wallets (if you don't own the private keys you don't own the coins)
• Don't trust anyone (including me!)
• Never use exchanges as a wallet, try to only store small amounts or only store them when you want to actually trade!
• Don't invest in altcoin IPOs. No, just don't. A few of them are legit (like 0.001%), but in most cases you're basically giving money away
• Don't invest more than you can afford to lose
• Always do your due diligence with software released on these boards (research before investing/running it)
• Avoid closed-source software
• Never ever send anyone your private keys, for any reason (doh!)
• If you use someone's software here, say thanks. it won't hurt you

I would add:

• Don't rush to make decisions, especially when trading or investing
• If you think a currency has potential, wait a while, track the discussion, perhaps join in, maybe later invest, and maybe not at all once