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I want to know if it is safe to use online wallets? Can we trust online storages which stores our privkeys, passphase and wallet.dat files?
I read that at least one android wallet was hacked so I think this is not safe when private keys stored into foreign remote storage. Maybe I misunderstood something?
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Holy war question in fact.
Yes, using online wallets means that you trust their developers. But the same situation is in standalone applications - you should trust their developers.
Many online wallets do not store your private keys. But it does not mean that they do not have an ability to steal/lose your funds
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I would only store as much in an online wallet as you would carry cash in your wallet...
Just like cash - online wallets are very practical - but not 100% safe.
Remember online wallets are NOT REGULATED. They are not like a bank - they do not have auditors or compliance officers etc... In fact they can just be some undergraduate sat in his bedroom.
If you are going to keep more than this - say what you earn in a week/month then do some due-diligence on the company - at least check they are more than a one-man-band and there is some hope they get someone to PEN test them (i.e. an external expert to try to hack them).
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If you use an online wallet you put your entire trust in the service provider. If the service provider is hacked, goes down or, disappears into the night then so does your BTC, permanently. They own all the private keys.
The risk of attack is generally considered to be greater for an online wallet provider than it is for a wallet on a personal PC since online wallets are believed to house so many more BTC's under one roof, although, if their security is good it may be easier to take over one single user's PC sitting at home if their security is not so good but the reward then is usually much lower. Online providers have been hacked and cleaned out more than once in the past.
The same risk applies to online exchanges. You should not keep more balance online than you absolutely need to at any one time.
The most sincere advice I can offer at a personal level is to use a reputable wallet from the official source at http://bitcoin.org/ and choose one that suits your needs.
1I think we can trust Bitcoin Core much much more then any other private wallets. Because it is opensorce and community supported. – alexey2baranov – 2017-11-02T09:49:46.890