Is It Safe To Transfer Wallets Through The Internet?

[Fishbones78]

Hi.
Stupidly, I left my BTC wallet (it's on a thumbdrive) at home. I was wondering if it was safe for someone to e-mail it to me? The wallet has a MultiBit password but i'm not entirely sure it would secure it enough. Is there a way I can completely secure it if I were to pass it through e-mail or should i just be patient and wait a week until i'm home? I currently use a temporary wallet with nothing in it - but its still a wallet.
Thanks

[Farmer17]

Hi.
Stupidly, I left my BTC wallet (it's on a thumbdrive) at home. I was wondering if it was safe for someone to e-mail it to me? The wallet has a MultiBit password but i'm not entirely sure it would secure it enough. Is there a way I can completely secure it if I were to pass it through e-mail or should i just be patient and wait a week until i'm home? I currently use a temporary wallet with nothing in it - but its still a wallet.
Thanks

I won't send it directly with emails. If you need your bitcoin urgently I would suggest you to ask someone to further encrypt the file (using 7zip, winrar, or whatever software you trust) before sending it, and ofc don't include that encryption password in the email.

[Fishbones78]

Hi.
Stupidly, I left my BTC wallet (it's on a thumbdrive) at home. I was wondering if it was safe for someone to e-mail it to me? The wallet has a MultiBit password but i'm not entirely sure it would secure it enough. Is there a way I can completely secure it if I were to pass it through e-mail or should i just be patient and wait a week until i'm home? I currently use a temporary wallet with nothing in it - but its still a wallet.
Thanks

I won't send it directly with emails. If you need your bitcoin urgently I would suggest you to ask someone to further encrypt the file (using 7zip, winrar, or whatever software you trust) before sending it, and ofc don't include that encryption password in the email.

Okay, thank you

[minerpumpkin]

What encryption is concerned: it depends. The wallet will be only as secure as the encryption you used to encrypt it beforehand. If you don't encrypt it at all, there's no safety whatsoever. People using a truly random one-time-pad may be completely safe.
Oh, important: Never let a computer on the Internet that is able to decrypt the wallet (has the key to decrypt the wallet), since if that computer is compromised your wallet has to be considered compromised, as well.

[Fishbones78]

What encryption is concerned: it depends. The wallet will be only as secure as the encryption you used to encrypt it beforehand. If you don't encrypt it at all, there's no safety whatsoever. People using a truly random one-time-pad may be completely safe.
Oh, important: Never let a computer on the Internet that is able to decrypt the wallet (has the key to decrypt the wallet), since if that computer is compromised your wallet has to be considered compromised, as well.

Hi,
Thanks for the tip, I currently store my wallet on a flash drive that I carry around with me. I'll have a try at your idea when I get my wallet back.
Thanks

[El Emperador]

Hi.
Stupidly, I left my BTC wallet (it's on a thumbdrive) at home. I was wondering if it was safe for someone to e-mail it to me? The wallet has a MultiBit password but i'm not entirely sure it would secure it enough. Is there a way I can completely secure it if I were to pass it through e-mail or should i just be patient and wait a week until i'm home? I currently use a temporary wallet with nothing in it - but its still a wallet.
Thanks

If you need your "old" wallet urgently, someone could email it to you quite easily.
But I recommend to use some precaution; for example both of you can use Confidesk ( http://confidesk.com/ ), then your friend should send an encrypted email using a passphrase only you know. Using this method it's pretty sure to receive your funds without any concern.

[Professor Plums]

IF it's encrypted and your emails and computers are safe then you should be fine. If they're not safe then you've got problems and someone could always find a copy later so I'd only do it if you know it's safe and desperately need it.

[Amph]

why transfer it? you might just create a new one and transfer the amount you need, tell your friend to transfer the amount you need

[HeroCat]

If you do not have many BTC in your Multibit wallet, I think you can send it as attachment to your E mail. 

[Wed]

As long as they're encrypted with a strong password, It shouldn't be a problem.

[bitbaby]

You can do this but I suggest after you're done, don't ever use that wallet again and make a new one and move your funds there.

[PolarPoint]

You can do this but I suggest after you're done, don't ever use that wallet again and make a new one and move your funds there.

I was just about to say I wouldn't send my wallet through email even with encryption, but your solution is plausible. Send all the coins elsewhere and never use that wallet again is what OP need to do to protect his funds. Do not compromise security over convenience.

[Salmon1989]

why transfer it? you might just create a new one and transfer the amount you need, tell your friend to transfer the amount you need

If his friend doesn't work with bitcoin before, he may have trouble doing a bitcoin transaction, or may somehow make a costly mistake.
Also, he will need to tell his friend the Multibit password, and he will have to trust his friend.

[rz20]

If it is a trusted family member tell him the wallet password and tell him to send funds to a new address.

[Fishbones78]

Hi,
Thank you for all of the replies, I have had the wallet encrypted and sent to me. The wallet was my "spending" wallet and so it never has anything too valuable inside anyway (I have a savings wallet that is in "cold storage" (if that's the correct term)).

Thanks guys

[Honeybooboo]

why transfer it? you might just create a new one and transfer the amount you need, tell your friend to transfer the amount you need

If his friend doesn't work with bitcoin before, he may have trouble doing a bitcoin transaction, or may somehow make a costly mistake.
Also, he will need to tell his friend the Multibit password, and he will have to trust his friend.

This would be my concern. I don't think most of my friends would be able to do it nor would I trust them to (not trust them as in steal my coins but to successfully send them).

[Stedsm]

why transfer it? you might just create a new one and transfer the amount you need, tell your friend to transfer the amount you need

If his friend doesn't work with bitcoin before, he may have trouble doing a bitcoin transaction, or may somehow make a costly mistake.
Also, he will need to tell his friend the Multibit password, and he will have to trust his friend.

This would be my concern. I don't think most of my friends would be able to do it nor would I trust them to (not trust them as in steal my coins but to successfully send them).

If you can't trust them with something you left behind then you have trust issues or bad friends.

[LOBSTER]

I wouldn't recommend to store / transfer a wallet through the internet. But if you want to have a online backup, then please don't use Google Drive or Dropbox, better use Spideroak or your own cloud. Always encrypt it, maybe create a TC container with a strong password (alternatively Winrar). Good luck

[Fishbones78]

I wouldn't recommend to store / transfer a wallet through the internet. But if you want to have a online backup, then please don't use Google Drive or Dropbox, better use Spideroak or your own cloud. Always encrypt it, maybe create a TC container with a strong password (alternatively Winrar). Good luck

Thanks

[elliwilli]

Probably. if the wallet is encrypted then yeah sure. otherwise nope.
If it was unencrypted it could be MITMed.