How to keep your bitcoins secure if you suddenly disappear (jail or prison)

[Flashman]

so your brain ( remembering seeds or mnemonic ) is the safest place to store your Bitcoins... In this case if they wanna know your passphrase they have to break your head in two...  

Maybe Hal heard that this was in the pipeline...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429934.000?cmpid=NLC|

Which is why he erred to the safe side and had his brainwallet put in cold storage.

[QuestionAuthority]

so your brain ( remembering seeds or mnemonic ) is the safest place to store your Bitcoins... In this case if they wanna know your passphrase they have to break your head in two...  

Maybe Hal heard that this was in the pipeline...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429934.000?cmpid=NLC|

Which is why he erred to the safe side and had his brainwallet put in cold storage.

[Flashman]

Yup and if you want random parts of your body chopped off, put subdermal NFC chips in them.

[p2pbucks]

Id probably do a mutil sig paper wallet where you only need 2 of the 3 keys. you keep one in a safe place and give the other two to people you trust with your life and tell them to put it in a safe or safe deposit box. Or you can just do a plain paper wallet, but I believe the multi sig is actually safer, that means if one paper is compromised then you just need the other 2 to gain access. Basically, one person cant get to the coin.

Or you can do just a plain paper wallet/cold storage.. But given the scenario that you described, id opt for the mutli sig i think..

In this case , 1 of the 10 keys mutilsig might be much better

[inBitweTrust]

Classic slashdot meme right there.... and very true.... except, technically you can jump through a few hoops and even make this attack difficult. Setup a dead mans switch/trigger to send the coins to an ntimelock or wallet that you don't have immediate access to and cannot get immediate access to.

[KingOfSports]

Easy here:

You gives copies of half of the private key for a wallet and the other half you sign up for one of those email dead switches - after 60 days of not being around or something similar it emails out the rest of the code.

[QuestionAuthority]

Classic slashdot meme right there.... and very true.... except, technically you can jump through a few hoops and even make this attack difficult. Setup a dead mans switch/trigger to send the coins to an ntimelock or wallet that you don't have immediate access to and cannot get immediate access to.

That's good, they'd think you were lying about not having access and just beat you to death. The good news is they wouldn't have the money. lol

[nioc]

Why bother going to the trouble and going threw the worry about will you be able to get your Bitcoins when/if you get out of your fema camp. Give your coins to somebody you love, but i guess you thought about that>?? Greedy then you should get a (uv tattoo) randomised only you know will do the trick. Personally a family member would have mine.

I guess they should love you too

3 people have access to my coins anytime they want.  They will never touch them unless something happens to me.

[The Bad Guy]

Since I use Electrum , I guess I will just keep the seed on my head to recover the wallet later ?

[inBitweTrust]

That's good, they'd think you were lying about not having access and just beat you to death. The good news is they wouldn't have the money. lol

When you are being tortured you can prove to them that your money has been transferred or ntimelock'd with the public ledger.

[QuestionAuthority]

That's good, they'd think you were lying about not having access and just beat you to death. The good news is they wouldn't have the money. lol

When you are being tortured you can prove to them that your money has been transferred or ntimelock'd with the public ledger.

Hum, maybe, but I'm not sure someone willing to beat you for your money would be reasonable or intelligent enough to understand. I think I'd rather have the money available to give them on the off chance they would let me go.

[inBitweTrust]

Hum, maybe, but I'm not sure someone willing to beat you for your money would be reasonable or intelligent enough to understand. I think I'd rather have the money available to give them on the off chance they would let me go.

This is why Truecrypt and its decedents used encrypted containers so one could give up a one of the passwords revealing some of the keys or hidden information and there would be no way of knowing if their were other containers within.

This same practice could be used with Bitcoin were you give up some of your private keys when tortured.

[QuestionAuthority]

Hum, maybe, but I'm not sure someone willing to beat you for your money would be reasonable or intelligent enough to understand. I think I'd rather have the money available to give them on the off chance they would let me go.

This is why Truecrypt and its decedents used encrypted containers so one could give up a one of the passwords revealing some of the keys or hidden information and there would be no way of knowing if their were other containers within.

This same practice could be used with Bitcoin were you give up some of your private keys when tortured.

That might be the solution. Have a stash of btc to give up if you need to.

[crazy-pilot]

Hum, maybe, but I'm not sure someone willing to beat you for your money would be reasonable or intelligent enough to understand. I think I'd rather have the money available to give them on the off chance they would let me go.

This is why Truecrypt and its decedents used encrypted containers so one could give up a one of the passwords revealing some of the keys or hidden information and there would be no way of knowing if their were other containers within.

This same practice could be used with Bitcoin were you give up some of your private keys when tortured.

IMO this is still too big of a risk. When you are being tortured, you are much more likely to give up information, so if you are asked if you gave up all your private keys/information then you will be more likely to tell the truth 

[DieJohnny]

I think this thread is exactly why Bitcoin hasn't taken off yet. There is no good answer to how to protect your coins.

Sadly the only solution that will come along is.... you guessed it....... trusted third parties with insurance.

To damn funny.

[inBitweTrust]

Sadly the only solution that will come along is.... you guessed it....... trusted third parties with insurance.

You think this traditional banking is secure? Even if you ignore the institutionalized theft you have significantly more amortized security costs.

[DieJohnny]

Sadly the only solution that will come along is.... you guessed it....... trusted third parties with insurance.

You think this traditional banking is secure? Even if you ignore the institutionalized theft you have significantly more amortized security costs.

I am not saying it is a good solution, but it will ultimately be the solution for the masses. Nobody is going to mull over for weeks on end on how to keep their bitcoin hoard safe. They will deposit them with a third party that has insurance and let them worry about it.

Average guy will gladly pay a fee to have someone else protect his coins. pretty obvious

[inBitweTrust]

I am not saying it is a good solution, but it will ultimately be the solution for the masses. Nobody is going to mull over for weeks on end on how to keep their bitcoin hoard safe. They will deposit them with a third party that has insurance and let them worry about it.

Average guy will gladly pay a fee to have someone else protect his coins. pretty obvious

I agree that usability is crucial, but with more bitcoin hardware wallets being developed security will be trivial for the masses.  

Trezor and the HW.1 chip still aren't quite there as far as usability for our grandmothers but https://mycelium.com/bitcoincard and future competitors may be.

There isn't one path going forward either.

Many people will simply deal with the risks of theft from taxes or legal threats with using a service like circle and coinbase because they can at least  avoid the risks of inflation and quantitative easing seen in fiat.

[Dabs]

Average guy will gladly pay a fee to have someone else protect his coins. pretty obvious

I've been thinking about launching a service that is akin to offshore paper wallets. But ... maybe I'd have to be a bank of some sort. Otherwise I just operate on reputation alone. Maybe later. I don't know.

[Kimowa]

Average guy will gladly pay a fee to have someone else protect his coins. pretty obvious

I've been thinking about launching a service that is akin to offshore paper wallets. But ... maybe I'd have to be a bank of some sort. Otherwise I just operate on reputation alone. Maybe later. I don't know.

Banks generally operate on reputation alone (although they also often rely on the reputation of the government insurance that backs deposits as well).