Is old 3.5 floppy safer than USB drive for cold storage?

[johnyj]

Ageis secure key is my current selection, but they have only 3 years warranty, means electronic components might fail in future

[Dabs]

Alkaline paper has a life expectancy of over 1,000 years for the best paper and 500 years for average grades.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/how-long-is-the-life-span-of-us-paper-money.htm

Paper money can last 15 years, when actively used. When stored in a safe or folder or envelope, probably will last longer.

That's more than these floppies and flash drives, but not as long as that rock DVD. You might as well engrave on some plastic or metal.

[shogdite]

Paper wallets should last 200 years, if kept in a cool dry place.

How old is the original declaration of independence? How old are some bibles?

How old are those paintings in the cave walls?

You could even laminate the paper wallets to make them last longer, when I can afford it I'm going to get some small engraved metal wallets. reckon they'd look pretty cool aswell.

[Dabs]

You could even laminate the paper wallets to make them last longer, when I can afford it I'm going to get some small engraved metal wallets. reckon they'd look pretty cool aswell.

After they are done, add some small paint (for contrast), let it dry, then clear coat it, or submerge it in some sort of clear acrylic or amber or resin, like they do for insects and sculptures.

Then those will last forever (or at least several generations of your family.)

[Q7]

Floppy disk? I remember had those couple of years ago and then had to throw away everything due to fungus growth. At least usb has longer lifespan

[cozk]

Ageis secure key is my current selection, but they have only 3 years warranty, means electronic components might fail in future

[img]http://www.apricorn.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/e/securekey_fips.jpg[/img

lol

A key gets stuck on that device and your fucked. GREAT !

I'd stay away from this crap.

[ChekaZ]

Wouldnt do that either, could stop working anytime.

[Moria843]

I guess most people are missing the main question. I already have paper backups in a safety deposit box. The only thing I'm temporarily storing are files created on my cold storage (offline computer), or the only computer that contains the private keys. These "signature files" are stored to the floppy, then my online computer will read them from the floppy and broadcast the transaction. I can do this with a USB drive also but because of the BadUSB hack I was wondering if the old technology would be safer - I know the USD hack won't work on an FDD controller.

[Newar]

Maybe change the topic title. It is a bit confusing.

[johnyj]

Ageis secure key is my current selection, but they have only 3 years warranty, means electronic components might fail in future

lol

A key gets stuck on that device and your fucked. GREAT !

I'd stay away from this crap.

Of course you always have at least two copy of the private key

The good thing with secure USB drive is that you need only one number to open the key, the private key can be unencrypted if you need to give your wallet to relatives/friends. They only need to know one number to use the coin

[blastmaster]

While 3.5" floppy is safer than a USB drive, if you really wanted to be safe you should use a 5.25" floppy (the ones that were actually floppy).

[tvbcof]

I tried to read some old floppies from the mid 90's the other day and could not do it even after trying multiple floppy drives.  Why I don't know, but I absolutely would not want to have this problem in the heat of battle...though I could see the 'problem' having some utility in certain corner cases now that I think about it.

Consider good old cloud storage (possibly in addition to others options.)  Encrypt with something as least likely as possible to contain an exploit.  I use OpenSSL.  Keep the password ONLY in a safe deposit box so that someone would have to take out to the bank and let you free to access the thing in order to extort you, and you can easily slip the bank teller a note.  Optionally, or in addition, use a huge pass-phrase split into multiple parts distributed to multiple hiding places.  If a friend who had a chunk of the pass-phrase were threatened they could give the attacker what they wanted and you still would not lose your BTC.

These are pretty stone-age methods, yet they offer the very real possibility of washing ashore naked on an unknown land and still having access to one's wealth with a little organization.  And, of course, it would be very challenging for a criminal to steal one's BTC even if they were willing to kill a person in trying.

[1Referee]

Floppies seem to have a life of about 15 years (give or take). And flash media needs to be powered up every once in awhile to prevent you from losing data.

I personally have password protected wallets inside a TrueCrypted file, copied and stored on multiple forms of digital backup. If one backup fails, I have plenty of other methods. I highly suggest this.

I save my wallet files on seven different usb flash sticks, how long can they survive without using?

I'm looking to find more ways of storing wallet files for longterm, perhaps few years without using.

[allthingsluxury]

For transferring, an offline computer with a CD burner is good enough.

For long term storage, engraved metal is the best bet.

Make sure that the metal also has a high melting point to ensure maximum safety in case of fires. Along with a fireproof safe.

Good point.

[seoincorporation]

i think its better a paper wallet.

Now i have 2 paper wallets in a safe place for cold storage, and in my blockchain i have that addys in "watch only" mode.

That is the way i manage my cold wallet.

[leopard2]

all rubbish

use magneto optical media with low density (like 128MB 3,5") (100 years)

or a Mini-DVD-RAM (30 years)

[deepceleron]

Paper wallets should last 200 years, if kept in a cool dry place.

How old is the original declaration of independence? How old are some bibles?

How old are those paintings in the cave walls?

How many cave paintings have been lost for each that we might still see? Not a good example of permanence.

The declaration of independence was fading within 40 years, and in 1894 the State Department announced: "The rapid fading of the text of the original Declaration of Independence and the deterioration of the parchment upon which it is engrossed, from exposure to light and lapse of time, render it impracticable for the Department longer to exhibit it or to handle it. For the secure preservation of its present condition, so far as may be possible, it has been carefully wrapped and placed flat in a steel case." It was later sealed with molten lead in a helium-filled container.

We might say that a five-year paper wallet is fine, but it won't survive a fire and is put in jeopardy by water damage also. Also, when the safe deposit box or attic trunk is opened in 100 years, it would be a shame if someone couldn't rejoice in their found bitcoins due to illegibility.

Metal punches might be a good solution for a DIY. Something a local Bitcoin club could have and loan out; a different definition of key party. They don't seem to come in Base58 though.

[TheButterZone]

I have a punch set for sale. I think the only way to distinguish upper and lowercase is to turn them sideways for lowercase.

[Dabs]

I use scrabble tiles, and other kiddie alphabet toy things. Superglue them in the correct sequence. Makes for a fun afternoon project.

Realistically, I would just print them and laminate that paper.

[SW725]

Ive read that article already.. Anyone should test this one..How safe it is and then share the result in bitcointalk