Newbie here

[Aemon]

Thanks again for the responses.

I was trying to read up on Securing your wallet, slightly confused on it.  Are there any good recommendations on where to go and how to do this?  Like I said I am using Coinbase and do they do it for me, or is this just an online service that doesn't do much?

Thanks!

[anivia]

just remember to back up the wallet balance in 1 co location on a cloud and remember this each time.

[BitcoinMillionaire]

Faucets are a nice thing to get people started, but you won't get rich. Not even close. Just Grab some dollars and buy some Bitcoin. And keep them in cold storage, so you won't get scammed!

[Aemon]

You said put it in the cloud?  Any guides on how to do that?  Keep in mind I am brand new and still learning

[DrG]

You said put it in the cloud?  Any guides on how to do that?  Keep in mind I am brand new and still learning

Not cloud - cold storage.  Essentially you're putting the coins somewhere that they are able to be accessed from the internet regularly.  This way they can only be destroyed in your house or stolen if somebody breaks in.

Armory has a very simple to follow step-by-step procedure for cold storage.  It might be a little over the top for $50, but it is definitely secure, especially with an M of N paper wallet:
https://bitcoinarmory.com/about/using-our-wallet/

[Buziss]

You said put it in the cloud?  Any guides on how to do that?  Keep in mind I am brand new and still learning

Not cloud - cold storage.  Essentially you're putting the coins somewhere that they are able to be accessed from the internet regularly.  This way they can only be destroyed in your house or stolen if somebody breaks in.

Armory has a very simple to follow step-by-step procedure for cold storage.  It might be a little over the top for $50, but it is definitely secure, especially with an M of N paper wallet:
https://bitcoinarmory.com/about/using-our-wallet/

Armory definitely is great and very secure, especially for setting up a fragmented m-of-n wallet.
But for $50, a paper wallet generated with bitaddress (when your computer is disconnected with internet) should be good enough.

[Aemon]

Sounds great I will be reading up on this and if I need some help I will try back here hopefully for some answers:)

[whitefly]

You said put it in the cloud?  Any guides on how to do that?  Keep in mind I am brand new and still learning

Not cloud - cold storage.  Essentially you're putting the coins somewhere that they are able to be accessed from the internet regularly.  This way they can only be destroyed in your house or stolen if somebody breaks in.

Armory has a very simple to follow step-by-step procedure for cold storage.  It might be a little over the top for $50, but it is definitely secure, especially with an M of N paper wallet:
https://bitcoinarmory.com/about/using-our-wallet/

Armory definitely is great and very secure, especially for setting up a fragmented m-of-n wallet.
But for $50, a paper wallet generated with bitaddress (when your computer is disconnected with internet) should be good enough.

For me, Armory was quite hard to start...
For first month of playing with BTC, I'd go with simple blockchain.info wallet.

[DrG]

You said put it in the cloud?  Any guides on how to do that?  Keep in mind I am brand new and still learning

Not cloud - cold storage.  Essentially you're putting the coins somewhere that they are able to be accessed from the internet regularly.  This way they can only be destroyed in your house or stolen if somebody breaks in.

Armory has a very simple to follow step-by-step procedure for cold storage.  It might be a little over the top for $50, but it is definitely secure, especially with an M of N paper wallet:
https://bitcoinarmory.com/about/using-our-wallet/

Armory definitely is great and very secure, especially for setting up a fragmented m-of-n wallet.
But for $50, a paper wallet generated with bitaddress (when your computer is disconnected with internet) should be good enough.

For me, Armory was quite hard to start...
For first month of playing with BTC, I'd go with simple blockchain.info wallet.

Armory is overkill if all you have is play money.  If you have a week of income or more in BTC I would secure it in a cold wallet. A small amount can be kept in an online wallet and if it gets hacked it's not such a terrible loss - it's the price to be paid for convenience.

There's nothing that says you can't have 2 wallets.  Most people have more than 2 places they store money - cookie jar, bank, wallet, car glove box, under the mattress lol

[whitefly]

You said put it in the cloud?  Any guides on how to do that?  Keep in mind I am brand new and still learning

Not cloud - cold storage.  Essentially you're putting the coins somewhere that they are able to be accessed from the internet regularly.  This way they can only be destroyed in your house or stolen if somebody breaks in.

Armory has a very simple to follow step-by-step procedure for cold storage.  It might be a little over the top for $50, but it is definitely secure, especially with an M of N paper wallet:
https://bitcoinarmory.com/about/using-our-wallet/

Armory definitely is great and very secure, especially for setting up a fragmented m-of-n wallet.
But for $50, a paper wallet generated with bitaddress (when your computer is disconnected with internet) should be good enough.

For me, Armory was quite hard to start...
For first month of playing with BTC, I'd go with simple blockchain.info wallet.

Armory is overkill if all you have is play money.  If you have a week of income or more in BTC I would secure it in a cold wallet. A small amount can be kept in an online wallet and if it gets hacked it's not such a terrible loss - it's the price to be paid for convenience.

There's nothing that says you can't have 2 wallets.  Most people have more than 2 places they store money - cookie jar, bank, wallet, car glove box, under the mattress lol

Well, point for you...
But I'm poor, so I don't need any cold storage right now, haha 

[BunsenBurner]

For first month of playing with BTC, I'd go with simple blockchain.info wallet.

blockchain.info wallet isn't bad as only you have the access to your private keys, and you could get better safety by setting up 2FA.

[lyth0s]

Thanks again for the responses.

I was trying to read up on Securing your wallet, slightly confused on it.  Are there any good recommendations on where to go and how to do this?  Like I said I am using Coinbase and do they do it for me, or is this just an online service that doesn't do much?

Thanks!

If you're using coinbase you don't really have a "wallet" to secure, rather just a login. You could however, use coinbase vault to at least make it so if your user/pass/FA gets hacked it would also require a second email and a 48 hour delay before your bitcoins are gone.

If you want to be the true owner of your bitcoins I suggest busting out an old laptop, wipe it clean, disable the ethernet and wireless internet connections. Then install electrum (recommended) or armory as a cold (offline) storage and use that as your bitcoin "savings account". Then encrypt the harddrive (i still recommend the old version of truecrypt) and also have a strong password on the wallet. That way these bitcoins are unhackable. Make a few backups from that laptop onto USB's and CD/DVD etc in encrypted containers in case your laptop breaks.

[Aemon]

If you're using coinbase you don't really have a "wallet" to secure, rather just a login. You could however, use coinbase vault to at least make it so if your user/pass/FA gets hacked it would also require a second email and a 48 hour delay before your bitcoins are gone.

If you want to be the true owner of your bitcoins I suggest busting out an old laptop, wipe it clean, disable the ethernet and wireless internet connections. Then install electrum (recommended) or armory as a cold (offline) storage and use that as your bitcoin "savings account". Then encrypt the harddrive (i still recommend the old version of truecrypt) and also have a strong password on the wallet. That way these bitcoins are unhackable. Make a few backups from that laptop onto USB's and CD/DVD etc in encrypted containers in case your laptop breaks.

Wow that seems like a lot to do doesn't it?  I mean, if the computer is not even online how would people have access to it? 

[Bitsaurus]

If you're using coinbase you don't really have a "wallet" to secure, rather just a login. You could however, use coinbase vault to at least make it so if your user/pass/FA gets hacked it would also require a second email and a 48 hour delay before your bitcoins are gone.

If you want to be the true owner of your bitcoins I suggest busting out an old laptop, wipe it clean, disable the ethernet and wireless internet connections. Then install electrum (recommended) or armory as a cold (offline) storage and use that as your bitcoin "savings account". Then encrypt the harddrive (i still recommend the old version of truecrypt) and also have a strong password on the wallet. That way these bitcoins are unhackable. Make a few backups from that laptop onto USB's and CD/DVD etc in encrypted containers in case your laptop breaks.

Wow that seems like a lot to do doesn't it?  I mean, if the computer is not even online how would people have access to it? 

Online people cannot hack it short of some NSA funny business.  But a robber/burglar can break into your house and take the laptop (which most burglars do) and the end-user might know what to do with the wallet.

If you have a decent passphrase on Armory no hacker will be able to hack your password even with a crazy powerful dictionary attack - at least not in the 2 weeks you would have time to notice the theft and restore your paper wallet.

Going with truecrypt is asking for trouble unless you already use it on a regular basis.  If you make things complicated you'll end on the forums asking for help unlocking your wallet.

[Mobius]

Thanks again for the responses.

I was trying to read up on Securing your wallet, slightly confused on it.  Are there any good recommendations on where to go and how to do this?  Like I said I am using Coinbase and do they do it for me, or is this just an online service that doesn't do much?

Thanks!

If you're using coinbase you don't really have a "wallet" to secure, rather just a login. You could however, use coinbase vault to at least make it so if your user/pass/FA gets hacked it would also require a second email and a 48 hour delay before your bitcoins are gone.

What you really need to keep your coinbase account secure is to use 2FA (two factor authentication), this way an attacker would need, your email address, your password and access to your 2nd device (likely your cell phone) in order to access your account.

[harlenadler]

To be fair, faucets were worth it, once upon a time. Now that they pay so much less (not just in BTC but in fiat value), no way.

[griffga]

Coinbase just started their cold storage service so you can use that. However if you also wanted to keep some coins within your own control, you can use the bitcoin-core wallet software. Please know that to "be your own bank" you need to backup and keep multiple copies of your wallet and make sure that the computer you use it on is really secure.

[Rocket Launcher]

if you really start  with this all . make sure you use f2a to protect your bit[Suspicious link removed]d luck entiring this activity

[silvestar]

To be fair, faucets were worth it, once upon a time. Now that they pay so much less (not just in BTC but in fiat value), no way.

I knew faucet payments were in the unit of btc in the very beginning (when btc is worth nothing), and then switched to mbtc, ubtc and now satoshi, but I have no idea how much faucets paid in terms of USD back then...

[nwfella]

Peruse the threads and figure out what service or good you have to offer that might be of some use to people with bitcoin and start advertising in the appropriate thread.  i.e. Services, Marketplace, etc.