Do you trust yourself to manage your own private keys?

[Xapo]

The security is the major issues of Bitcoin usage, just heard coinapult hot wallet got hacked and lost 150BTC, so if you own a great amount of Bicoin, you'd better hiring professional Bitcoiner to manage your private key.

Hot wallet hacks will continue. It happened to bitstamp, it happened to Coinapult, and could happen to anyone, even with the best security experts. 150BTC is extremely minor, just like how Bitstamps hack was considered minor by them (they absorbed the damage, and no one lost a cent). Do you realize how much Visa/Mastercard lose to fraud on a daily basis? A good company will factor this into operational costs.

[shogdite]

You've only got to look at the last bailouts (eg. Iceland, UK, US) to know that storing fiat in a bank is not without risk. You may be 'protected' up to a certain amount but you still have to put a lot of trust into these centralized institutions.

I completely trust myself to look after my private keys, if anything thing happens to them it's my fault and noone elses. Zero red tape and zero regulation, if I lose them I don't expect to be bailed out by other peoples taxes.

[Xapo]

I just cannot see why people cannot just print out a paper wallet and laminate and store it in a safe place? This takes 10 minutes. 

I still choose to have this freedom and control over my own financial destiny.   

You absolutely can, but what is safe? A safety deposit box is the only truly safe place I can think of. Maybe you keep it in your safe at home? But then you move, like my father did, and his truck burst into flames on the side of the highway and he lost all his personal belongings. You have to assume that that laminated piece of paper would have been one of the things lost in the fire had he been a bitcoin guy. If you tell me to make a fireproof, private key, you're missing the point. All I'm saying is, I move every 2 years or so, and it scares me thinking to think that I need to be responsible for any single piece of property. With the exception of a ring (which recently broke, is sitting in a drawer at my mothers house, and currently at risk of being "tossed out") and a guitar, I don't have anything that is more than 10 years old. Things get lost. Things get out dated. Mothers throw things out. Especially tiny pieces of paper with 64 random digits on it.

[inBitweTrust]

You absolutely can, but what is safe? A safety deposit box is the only truly safe place I can think of. Maybe you keep it in your safe at home? But then you move, like my father did, and his truck burst into flames on the side of the highway and he lost all his personal belongings. You have to assume that that laminated piece of paper would have been one of the things lost in the fire had he been a bitcoin guy. If you tell me to make a fireproof, private key, you're missing the point. All I'm saying is, I move every 2 years or so, and it scares me thinking to think that I need to be responsible for any single piece of property. With the exception of a ring (which recently broke, is sitting in a drawer at my mothers house, and currently at risk of being "tossed out") and a guitar, I don't have anything that is more than 10 years old. Things get lost. Things get out dated. Mothers throw things out. Especially tiny pieces of paper with 64 random digits on it.

Multisig laminated paper wallets solve all these concerns. Or a hardware wallet with BIP 32 backed up in several locations(not as secure as using multisig but very secure).

One of the most secure methods of cold storage is to take create a multisig 2 of 3 paper wallet (This makes it easy- https://mycelium.com/entropy), add one of the keys to an encrypted password manager and destroy the physical representation, laminate the remaining 2 keys or engrave them on steel and hide one in your home or place in your fireproof safe, and the last key can be laminated and placed in an offsite relatives home, bank safety deposit box, or time capsule. This allows for an extremely high level of security and protection against user error or mistakes with a fairly easy way of retrieving your assets within a couple minutes if needed.

The average user can simply use a hardware wallet and backup it with BIP 32  and place that in a safe. People with larger savings that aren't technical can always hire a professional security consultant.  

[MCHouston]

I trust myself.  After all my daily job is a Network Security Engineer, I think I will manage my own private keys.

[NeuroticFish]

Right now I keep the keys. It's the only safe way right now.

If ever this area will get regulated and insured, I may switch to 3rd party, because my wife and children don't have to be tech oriented to get the benefit.
Right now, if something happens to my brain, the coins will be lost.

[DeboraMeeks]

Keys ain't a problem keeping, the problem is storing them at a right/safe place.
I have seen viruses on PCs which steal them and the other day, you won't see your Bitcoins in your account just because you don't have some highly trusted Anti-Virus installed.

Storing them offline seems more secure to me than keeping them online with so many coins stored in a single key.

[blablaace]

this is a STUPID post from Xapo .. of course most people on bitcointalk trust themselves to manage their own private keys. Xapo and CoinBase are going after bitcoin newbies, not veteran users

[BitUsher]

I agree with most people that they should secure the bitcoins themselves or at minimum only use banks that can prove they aren't the ultimate custodians of the keys through multisig or other methods.

[neurotypical]

Criticism often comes to online wallet providers (Xapo, Coinbase, etc) saying, if you don't own your private keys, you don't actually own your bitcoin. On the other hand, if your cash is in a traditional bank, you don't really own your cash either. The only possible difference, traditional banks have been around longer, and more people trust them. Many bitcoin users who criticize bitcoin vaults, store their cash in a traditional bank. Hypothetically, if Bank of America, or Barclay, or DeustcheBank announced they've invested millions into a highly protected, advanced, security architecture, would you trust someone to store it then? I personally don't trust myself to store my own bitcoin, for now. That could change in the future, but right now, I'm not a fan of the options, as the technology depends too much on my ability to maintain hardware, or, not lose something. I think about pictures, movies, files, documents, I had on my computer 10 years ago (and I always backed up), and I probably couldn't retrieve a single one without relying on a cloud-based service (Facebook, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.). I have no idea where the original photos of my trip to Indonesia in 2008 are, but I know that album is still easily accessible on Facebook. Are critics right to say, don't use an online wallet provider, it's not safe?

I think there is a legit market for "bitcoin banks" specially if you can make interest out of your holdings, but a lot of people are into bitcoin precisely because they want to be their own bank, but yeah you can fuck up big time if you lose your wallet.

[Trance]

Of course, why would one not trust themselves!!

[Nude]

I only trust myself to manage my private keys.

[Karartma1]

Do you trust yourself to manage your own private keys?

Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I?

Criticism often comes to online wallet providers (Xapo, Coinbase, etc) saying, if you don't own your private keys, you don't actually own your bitcoin. On the other hand, if your cash is in a traditional bank, you don't really own your cash either.

They are both true. I don't trust any online service to keep my funds. I don't trust banks. You know governments have ability to freeze your bank account, and take all of your money.

I think about pictures, movies, files, documents, I had on my computer 10 years ago (and I always backed up), and I probably couldn't retrieve a single one without relying on a cloud-based service (Facebook, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.). I have no idea where the original photos of my trip to Indonesia in 2008 are, but I know that album is still easily accessible on Facebook.

Cloud services, are you serious? Privacy = 0
I never use cloud services. Do you like it if some random people view your photos just because they want and can?
I rarely upload a photo of me on the internet. I don't want to keep any of my files in cloud services or random sites.

Are critics right to say, don't use an online wallet provider, it's not safe?

They are not safe enough to keep all your funds, but they are useful if you will use small amounts or use them in short time.

[EcuaMobi]

Of course, why would one not trust themselves!!

Of course the question doesn't mean "do you trust you won't steal coin from yourself?", it means "do you think your tech-savvy enough to take all the security measures to keep your coins safe?".
So that's why some people could not trust themselves. I do as I posted earlier but of course a lot of people don't have the required knowledge to do it.
I hope this will change in the future, it's a requirement to get mass adoption while keeping the objective of bitcoin.

[jjacob]

Criticism often comes to online wallet providers (Xapo, Coinbase, etc) saying, if you don't own your private keys, you don't actually own your bitcoin. On the other hand, if your cash is in a traditional bank, you don't really own your cash either. The only possible difference, traditional banks have been around longer, and more people trust them.

The reason why I store money in a bank is that
(i) I earn interest on my deposits
(ii) Even in case the bank goes bust, my deposit (up to a certain amount) is insured.

With Bitcoins, I would rather secure my private key on my own.

[bitllionaire]

Who can manage your keys better than you?

that way you can exactly know the risks you are taking and you can know how safe are your coins.

If you don't keep your coins safe it would your fault and nobody else

[Hazir]

I like how from Op's post I can feel that he thinks: people are little retarded and stupid and it would be better for them if they keep all theirs private keys and money in online storage. That way people would be 'free' from thinking about all that unnecessary stuff like 'how to secure my bitcoins'. After all someone can do this better for them...

[EcuaMobi]

I like how from Op's post I can feel that he thinks: people are little retarded and stupid and it would be better for them if they keep all theirs private keys and money in online storage. That way people would be 'free' from thinking about all that unnecessary stuff like 'how to secure my bitcoins'. After all someone can do this better for them...

The thing is people don't need to be retarded not to be able to handle their own private keys. They just need not be informed enough.

I'm sure (almost?) everyone on this forum are able to correctly handle their own keys but unfortunately that's not the case for most people outside.

[OpenOcean]

1st) If you can't trust yourself to secure your own assets, you will never be rich and don't deserve to be. Get out of the space now, and wait for the inventors and entrepreneurs to create technology to suit your needs, then come back when all the hard work is done and the right people have been rewarded.

2nd) Hardware wallets are coming out for this exact purpose. So if you do decide that you want to take responsibility for your wealth, use a notebook (or two) to log your private and public key information and hold your stuff in cold storage like the rest of us. Just because it's tedious does not mean it's rocket science.

[BitBOOM]

Not 100% but I wouldn't have it any other way. I've made a couple mistakes that cost me coin over the last couple years. Live and learn