Options for Securing your Bitcoin wallet

[inBitweTrust]

The CIYAM Safe (https://susestudio.com/a/kp8B3G/ciyam-safe) is another offline transaction signing solution (100% air-gapped by usage of QR codes and cams).

Thanks, I added that to the Offline Computer or device section. Great alternative.

Which one is best ?

There is no best. All have advantages and disadvantages. I personally like the option of combining Muti-sig Paper wallets where one of the partial-key is stored digitally and password protected.

[Amph]

usb cold storage connected for backup the wallet,  to a secure pc(secure erased first, first thing you do is connecting the usb) is the most secure/fast/anti-lazy thing to secure your bitcoin ihmo

i'm doing this, and never had any problem, i also use a wallet trap with a small amount, this let me know if my pc is secure

[1Referee]

i also use a wallet trap with a small amount, this let me know if my pc is secure

Same here.

I have a wallet without encryption with around 0.2XBT in it just to see if my pc is safe.

I know that doesn't mean your pc doesn't contain virus or mallware, but it helps.

[inBitweTrust]

Added -

https://www.ledgerwallet.com/
29.00 €

http://www.coindesk.com/ledger-launches-usb-bitcoin-wallet-bank-grade-security/

readded - 4) https://www.bitalo.com/why_bitalo
 2-of-2 multisignature

[The Bad Guy]

Voting for Offline wallets like Electrum . and in case a computer failure , you can just get your wallet back without any issues.
Brain wallets are very secure too but really hard to remember with time...

[picolo]

Voting for Offline wallets like Electrum . and in case a computer failure , you can just get your wallet back without any issues.
Brain wallets are very secure too but really hard to remember with time...

Electrum can be very secure but a simple plastic paper wallet in a safe works fine.

[inBitweTrust]

Update on Trezor-

No longer open source LGPLv3 as of  v1.3.0 and switched to restrictive Microsoft Reference Source License

https://github.com/trezor/trezor-mcu/commit/2147c5fc88a28151d66afa46df0d918e598c0428


Updated all prices and removed
https://www.cryptmint.com temporarily till more info comes in. 

[BitUsher]

This is some great information. Thank you for keeping it updated.

[moko666]

i prefer paper wallet, as only thing to worry about is physical theft, but for physical theft you can't blame bitcoin of other as gold and fiat currency are also not secure against physical theft

[CIYAM]

i prefer paper wallet, as only thing to worry about is physical theft, but for physical theft you can't blame bitcoin of other as gold and fiat currency are also not secure against physical theft

One thing to be very careful about is how you generate your paper wallet as @gmaxwell has recently pointed out you would not be wise to use any current .js wallet generator (such as bitaddress.org and even if offline) due to potentially poor random number generation and code that has not been thoroughly peer reviewed.

[7Priest7]

Secure Paper Wallets

Paper wallets are the most secure.
They are vulnerable to physical theft,
read my post to have the most secure cold storage possible.

[inBitweTrust]

New Hardware wallet added-

6) BWallet
https://bidingxing.com/   http://www.coincola.com/products
28.00 USD

Appears to be a Trezor Chinese knockoff

[mlferro]

Secure Paper Wallets

Paper wallets are the most secure.
They are vulnerable to physical theft,
read my post to have the most secure cold storage possible.

very good your post. I enjoyed the reading I've done. Congratulations.

[Q7]

Well I use paper wallet but nowadays I develop that sense of insecurity of having the paper getting stolen and the private key revealed. And also since it is just a paper, there's a chance for the ink to fade off someday. Been looking into hardware wallet so more or less I have narrowed down to few options such as trezor or btchip.

[shogdite]

i prefer paper wallet, as only thing to worry about is physical theft, but for physical theft you can't blame bitcoin of other as gold and fiat currency are also not secure against physical theft

One thing to be very careful about is how you generate your paper wallet as @gmaxwell has recently pointed out you would not be wise to use any current .js wallet generator (such as bitaddress.org and even if offline) due to potentially poor random number generation and code that has not been thoroughly peer reviewed.

Are there any better ways of generating paperwallets? (ideally not too complicated)

Kind of assumed that offline bitaddress was very secure.

[CIYAM]

Are there any better ways of generating paperwallets? (ideally not too complicated)

Kind of assumed that offline bitaddress was very secure.

Without any proper peer review I'm not sure why you assumed it is secure (just because others use it?).

The latest version of Bitcoin does display a QR code when you create a new receive address so although not perfectly simple it shouldn't be too hard to print that from an offline computer that is running it (it is simpler when using a console when you have tools such as "qrencode" but I understand that isn't easy for most).

[turvarya]

Well I use paper wallet but nowadays I develop that sense of insecurity of having the paper getting stolen and the private key revealed. And also since it is just a paper, there's a chance for the ink to fade off someday. Been looking into hardware wallet so more or less I have narrowed down to few options such as trezor or btchip.

I recently bought a laminator for that purpose. Haven't used it, yet ^^

[inBitweTrust]

Well I use paper wallet but nowadays I develop that sense of insecurity of having the paper getting stolen and the private key revealed. And also since it is just a paper, there's a chance for the ink to fade off someday. Been looking into hardware wallet so more or less I have narrowed down to few options such as trezor or btchip.

Combining physical security and digital security is good option. Use acid free or Archival paper that is laminated with multisig. One concern is that with hardware wallets you ultimately still have to back it up and typically with 12 word mnemonic from a HD wallet which essentially makes it only as secure as a non-multisig paper wallet. You can split the words up between multiple locations but than if one of the shards of your 12 word mnemonic gets lost or stolen than you lose the ability to recover your wallet unlike with a m of n multisig which allows you to lose some of the keys.

I personally like multisig wallets where 1 key is encrypted in a password manager, one key is laminated in a safe, and one key is in a off site time capsule. This ensures that I am both protected from viruses and trojans, thieves breaking into my house, accidents or forgetfulness, and still can move the funds fairly quickly to my cell phone if I am in a hurry. For this reason it may also be wise to split your savings between multiple paper wallets so you don't have to restore all of your savings from a paper wallet either and a smaller portion if you need some quick cash.

 

Are there any better ways of generating paperwallets? (ideally not too complicated)

Kind of assumed that offline bitaddress was very secure.

Currently, the best way to generate secure paperwallets is to perform a fresh install of a linux distro combined with armory on a spare computer.

The easiest and most secure way to generate multisig paperwallets will be the Mycelium Entropy once it is released. When I get mine I will audit and review it for everyone.

[shogdite]

ok thanks for the info, think I'll try out Armory on Linux and see how I get on.

[Kazimir]

I consider brainwallets to be one of the easiest and safest option - except you store it as a paper wallet, not actually remembering it by head.

A random mnemonic word list as brain wallet input, e.g. private key = SHA256("fiction bronze tent grant stock sister across hotel document mad afford faith assume dust") which you can simply write down on a piece of paper is very safe, imho.

Of course, granted you're entering these words (and generating the SHA256 hash, and base58-encoding it to a Bitcoin private key, and extracting the corresponding address) on an offline computer. A local copy of bitaddress.org would suffice.