How to secure the bitcoin "life economies" ? The method.

[OperationMortar]

If i'm not mistaken, we don't need to protect Bitcoin "life economies". It's self-correcting system with a really big ways to heal itself and secure itself.

[Meuh6879]

For example, i have recently recharged a december 2013 wallet in bitcoin-core ... not a problem.
  just need to scan 7Go of blocks ... (read debuglog to view this !)

19 000 confirmations. 

[Searing]

paper wallets (only 1 copy printed out correctly off usb unbuntu and d/c from inet on random part of wallet generation)

1 btc paper wallet


1 ltc paper wallet


in zip lock water proof sleeve and then in zip lock bag

place in your bank's safety deposit box

get a relative to co-sign in case you get hit by a truck


if something takes out the bank/safety deposit box in some manner ...I likely will have the alien *our soon to be overlords* ...problems

,,,, and won't have to sweat the paper wallets much

also a sure fire way to slow you down from panic selling BTC or LTC (assuming like me you are in this for the long haul btc kool aid drinker you may be)

[Kprawn]

Why are you using those Usb keys? They are notoriously unreliable. I would rather use a paper wallet, than using them for anything valuable.

The best way to keep them safe, is to keep it "offline" in cold storage, or just use a Trezor.

Keep small amounts and keep them separated from other coins. Spread the risk and lose less coins. 

[Meuh6879]

UP. 

[superresistant]

I have to say i have never ever had a wallet.dat file come back corrupt. never.

It happened to me or a friend I can't remember exactly. There was not much on it but you have to know that it can happen.

I have never had a wallet usb drive lock up and become corrupt either,

It happened to me many times and to a lot of people I know. Much less nowadays, I guess the USB stick are better quality now.

not sure if its just me maybe I am lucky or something.

I guess...

there is no need to be a complete computer geek to use bitcoins

If you want to really secure your bitcoins then yes, you need to be a damn geek.
Bitcoin will never reach mainstream unless a user friendly sort of bank manage bitcoins for non-geek (people like my grandma or people that hate computers)

I have stored my wallets on three usb keys from three different "high quality" companies, hoping that they are enough!

It should be enough.

Trezors are expensive... for normal expenditures it's not worth the money and effort.

Yes, now. Hopefully the competetion get the price down next year(s). I believe only the hardware wallets will make the Bitcoins secure for average users, so nice to see we have first hardware wallet available

Trezor is known to have been hacked few times.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TREZOR/comments/31z7hc/extracting_the_private_key_from_a_trezor_with_a/
http://www.hackinsight.org/news,303.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3213nc/all_trezor_users_should_update_their_firmware_for/


In France we have the cheapest hardware wallet on the market : the citadelle 12 EUR (13.11 USD)

[n2004al]

Very long post OP. And hard, very hard to be executed what is write there. Seems like the preparation for a plot. To not tell that seems even like a school lesson. From the boring ones. I can assure you that my bitcoin are very safe in one place, that is not my computer, and stored in much more easy way than that described by you in your main post. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't want to learn to no one my three year above told experience. Nor to invite someone to follow it. But if someone is interested I can tell only one name and who know it, will understand for what I am writing: Coinbase. Offer an infinity of securities and options which make me feel sure with them. Even are only a web wallet bitcoin. But I can assure everyone who don't know it to go at the homepage of this website and to read everything written there. Will find very interesting things according to me.

[superresistant]

if someone is interested I can tell only one name and who know it, will understand for what I am writing: Coinbase.

Are you crazy or a fool ? Coinbase is a registered company, therefore if it goes bankrupt, you may loose all your bitcoins.
If Bitcoin get banned, the authorities can seize your bitcoins because you gave your personal identity.
If Bitcoin get taxed, the authorities can tax your bitcoins because you gave your personal identity.

Coinbase is similar to a bank, any bitcoins that you put on it do not belong to you any more.

Read the User Agreement :

Coinbase reserves the right to refuse to process or to cancel any pending Bitcoin Transaction as required by law or in response to a subpoena, court order, or other binding government order. Coinbase cannot reverse a Bitcoin Transaction which has been communicated to and confirmed by the Bitcoin network.

Coinbase may: (a) suspend or terminate your access to any or all of the Coinbase Services, and (b) deactivate or cancel your Coinbase Account as required by a valid subpoena or court order, or if Coinbase reasonably suspects you of using your Coinbase Account in furtherance of illegal activity, or if you take any action that Coinbase deems as circumventing Coinbase's controls, including, but not limited to, opening multiple Coinbase Accounts or abusing promotions which Coinbase may offer from time to time.


But I guess it is better for the non-tech people that are ready to give their bitcoins in exchange of security.

[RealBitcoin]

Why are you storing blockchain on usb sticks?

You only need a wallet file which is less than 1 mb, you can put it on a floppy too, or multiple cd's

A cd is like 0.5$, buy 100 of them instead of 1 usb stick and it will be more safe

[superresistant]

Why are you storing blockchain on usb sticks?
You only need a wallet file which is less than 1 mb, you can put it on a floppy too, or multiple cd's
A cd is like 0.5$, buy 100 of them instead of 1 usb stick and it will be more safe

lol imagine someone storing bitcoins on floppy disks... awesome !

[Meuh6879]

A cd is like 0.5$, buy 100 of them instead of 1 usb stick and it will be more safe

You don't have store and burn many cd, yes ... ?
Well, me ... i have 1/3 of my converted minidisc library when cd mp3 rise with the good price.

Now, i use magnetic drive (1st = 2008 = 1To).
And hell, it's strong over the years (no corruption ... or predicted corruption with SMART indicator -reallocated sector- ).


Life durability :

CD-R (burned !) = less than 6,5 years
DVD-R (burned !) = less than 4,5 years

many mark used ... no solution on optical storage (except minidisc ... but little capacity).

[RealBitcoin]

A cd is like 0.5$, buy 100 of them instead of 1 usb stick and it will be more safe

You don't have store and burn many cd, yes ... ?
Well, me ... i have 1/3 of my converted minidisc library when cd mp3 rise with the good price.

Now, i use magnetic drive (1st = 2008 = 1To).
And hell, it's strong over the years (no corruption ... or predicted corruption with SMART indicator -reallocated sector- ).


Life durability :

CD-R (burned !) = less than 6,5 years
DVD-R (burned !) = less than 4,5 years

many mark used ... no solution on optical storage (except minidisc ... but little capacity).

Where are you keeping your CD's in a mixer?

I have CD's that ae over 20 years old, no scratch on it and works fine. If you put it in a plastic case that is kept on a shelf, and if you dont touch it a lot then it will remain usable forever.

Make sure you make many backups of course in case on cd gets corrupted. And also burn the wallet file many times into the cd, so if 1 parto f it gets corrupted the other part can still store the healty wallet data.

I also have some floppy disks and a reader that is still working

[Blawpaw]

IMO the best method to hold your Bitcoin Life Economies is to hold them in a papper wallet. Other than that you could consider using a hardwallet like Trezor, but the Paper wallet is the most secure way of storing them at this point.

[RealBitcoin]

A cd is like 0.5$, buy 100 of them instead of 1 usb stick and it will be more safe

You don't have store and burn many cd, yes ... ?
Well, me ... i have 1/3 of my converted minidisc library when cd mp3 rise with the good price.

Now, i use magnetic drive (1st = 2008 = 1To).
And hell, it's strong over the years (no corruption ... or predicted corruption with SMART indicator -reallocated sector- ).


Life durability :

CD-R (burned !) = less than 6,5 years
DVD-R (burned !) = less than 4,5 years

many mark used ... no solution on optical storage (except minidisc ... but little capacity).

Where are you keeping your CD's in a mixer?

I have CD's that ae over 20 years old, no scratch on it and works fine. If you put it in a plastic case that is kept on a shelf, and if you dont touch it a lot then it will remain usable forever.

Make sure you make many backups of course in case on cd gets corrupted. And also burn the wallet file many times into the cd, so if 1 parto f it gets corrupted the other part can still store the healty wallet data.

I also have some floppy disks and a reader that is still working

He was talking common CD and DVD durability with normal maintenance, if you have good CD or DVD quality & take care of it really well, it could life longer.
Even so, you better use other media which can last longer such as Sandisk Memory Vault (100 years) or M-DISC (1000 years)

Also, burn many same files into CD won't help much, better have more backup

Yes I have more backup, but i also write many many copies of the same wallt file into a CD, so that if one part is scratched, the data there is lost , but on the side that is not, its maintained.

[TipZ]

How the heck is anyone not obsessed with computers supposed to do this? Bitcoin needs to get more user-friendly. People need to be able to use it without being a nerd or a geek. This really is one of the reasons why it may ultimately fail - keeping Bitcoins safe has to be easier! Way easier than this!

I can't agree more. If it can't get easier, i doubt it will ever be popular. I just can't imagine some of my friends (or family) understanding how to get, store or spend bitcoins... And they are not stupid just not 'geeky' at all.