Secure way to store BTC over a long time - and its risks?

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What are the most secure way to store a huge amount of BTC over a long time and its (detailed) risks? A other assumption is that the owner does not have a very technical background, thus it will not be possible to verify the code of a wallet generator.

I am looking for a detailed overview of the risks. Even unlikely thinks like a biased random number generator of java script used by: https://www.bitaddress.org/ Or that the site is hacked and wallet generation script is malicious just when I want to use it. An other example would be, when I use MultiBit and I store the seed in safe-deposit box it might happen that the software is not longer available and it might be difficult to recover the keys from the seed.

user599464

Posted 2013-09-03T18:53:58.933

Reputation: 436

1

Related question: How to save bitcoins as paper

– Murch – 2013-09-04T23:25:07.563

Personally, I prefer offline storage on a USB over paper wallets. I’m working on an open-source project to solve this very problem available at coldstoragebitcoin.com. There is a scripts only version that still requires some technical knowledge but there's also a full project download that will have you plug in a fully ready cold storage USB in minutes. – None – 2014-04-06T16:48:54.977

Answers

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Bitcoin Armoury is the best thing out there for this.

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  • What you want to do is create a new wallet with armoury, create a receiving address and send your BTC there.
  • The best thing is you do not need to even be connected to the network, synchronized or anything. Armoury can run offline in the dungeons far underneath the earth (like your cellar :) )
  • You then create a paper backup and print it out 2 or three times. Go and store it in your bank, in your important documents and at your mums house.
  • Delete armoury. (Yes, but make sure you have your paper backups stored safely!)

Your coins will hang in limbo (on the network) without any transaction history or block chain tracking. COmpletely anonymous and unclaimed.

Now- You might feel like you just threw your coins into thin air and have this uneasy feeling of you will never get your coins back! I know I did. So this is what I did.

I followed the whole process I mentioned above. Created a test wallet. Went to another computer somewhere else and did the same, except I imported the wallet from the paper backup. SYnchronised to the bitcoin network. Viola - The coins appeared in the transaction blocks and in my wallet ready to spend

  • It is also good for managing many online wallets at the same time. One for savings, possibly donations from your websites or blogs, and a personal one, and even offline unsynchronized for the long term anonymous storing of coins.

As long as the bitcoin network will be running you will never lose offline transactions. Just make sure to keep your paper backup in atleast 3 secure seperate place- and no. Do not store it on picasa albums or gdrive.. keep it offline in a bank, locker and at your nans house under the bed, laminate it, put it in a box and bury it in your back yard next to the tree house.

Piotr Kula

Posted 2013-09-03T18:53:58.933

Reputation: 267

1

The best way to securely store bitcoin is by using what's commonly called "Cold Storage". You do this by generating and address/private-key pair, sending bitcoin to the address, and keeping the private key in a safe place until you're ready to spend it.

There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest I've found is to create a wallet with BlockChain.info. On the "Receive Money" tab, there is a "More Options" button that will allow you to create a Cold Storage address. The key pair is generated on your local machine, so you shouldn't have to worry about the private key getting out. In the future, you can use this private key to spend your funds using any client, including BlockChain.info.

Since we're trying to do this securely, keep in mind that nothing is absolutely secure. And that if someone has access to your computer during this process, either because you gave them access or because they hacked into it, they can still obtain your private key and spend your funds.

John Henry

Posted 2013-09-03T18:53:58.933

Reputation: 1 153

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The best way is to generate wallet off-line.

The secure of your storage is the same as secure of your off-line machine. You may aware off TEMPEST only, of course if only nobody can get access to your off-line machine.

You can use for this Vanitygen.

You can download vanitygen here.

Send your bitcoins to address that you generate on off-line machine, and keep private key of this address safe.

innocent-world

Posted 2013-09-03T18:53:58.933

Reputation: 156

0

I would say that a paper wallet stored in a bank vault with no other copies made would be the safest. The only risk is that the bank gets robed or the paper deteriorates (which could be solved by using a higher grade material.)

Though this is probably overkill. If your looking for a practical very secure solution I would recommend using Armory's cold storage system.

Loourr

Posted 2013-09-03T18:53:58.933

Reputation: 3 022

Asked: 2013-09-03T18:53:58.933

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Active: 2015-05-11T20:29:27.630