Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: mpj15 on April 24, 2013, 11:47 pm
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Ordeals like this make me consider the possibility of SR being permanently shut down by the LE, and all the bitcoins in my SR wallet going down the drain (hopefully we never see the day). Do any of you guys store your BTC in a separate source and only transfer them as you need them? I'm starting to think this seems like the sensible thing to do.
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it is indeed
also make a backup of your wallet to one or even more USB sticks so if you have to wipe your harddrive some day or even if stops working you´ll still have backups
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Another wallet? which one is the safest?
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Another wallet? which one is the safest?
Your own. Personally, I think Armory is the best of the best for all of its features, particularly the offline wallets. However, until there is a lighter version (which the developer has promised for a while), you need a relatively strong computer (especially in terms of RAM) to run it very well.
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I have a wallet on blockchain, but save a backup copy on Google Drive and Dropbox.
I have a horrible habit of losing flash drives.
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I have a wallet on blockchain, but save a backup copy on Google Drive and Dropbox.
I have a horrible habit of losing flash drives.
Which is still a third party.... which kind of defeats the entire purpose...
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I have a wallet on blockchain, but save a backup copy on Google Drive and Dropbox.
I have a horrible habit of losing flash drives.
Which is still a third party.... which kind of defeats the entire purpose...
Defeats the entire purpose of what?
It works for me. I rarely keep a ton of bitcoins sitting around.
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Another wallet? which one is the safest?
Your own. Personally, I think Armory is the best of the best for all of its features, particularly the offline wallets. However, until there is a lighter version (which the developer has promised for a while), you need a relatively strong computer (especially in terms of RAM) to run it very well.
Good info, looking into Armory now. So your saying it will run pretty choppy on a cheap laptop?
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I like my encrypted USB. Stays offline and well hidden when I'm not using it, so it can't ever be hacked. Wallet is in a hidden volume container with a crazy password and protected with AES-Twofish encryption algorithm.
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I dunno about keeping much btc on SR. I've heard stories of accounts being hacked and mysteriously drained..and I'm thinking a lot of people keep a decent balance on their accounts which is why SR could be under attack right now. It could be holding millions :O
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as many different wallets as possible, I like to leave no more than 25 BTC in each, and them back them all up onto usb
cant ever have enough backups, online AND off :)
~PB2k
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So many 'experts'.. even good old Max Kaiser suggest commodities such as silver are a good 'holding' for BTC while it still remains unstable. No doubt, if you are a keen gambler with a bit of cash to spare, forget ForEx, the BTC swings can earn you some great deals if you have a flexible wallet.
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I have a wallet on blockchain, but save a backup copy on Google Drive and Dropbox.
I have a horrible habit of losing flash drives.
Which is still a third party.... which kind of defeats the entire purpose...
Defeats the entire purpose of what?
It works for me. I rarely keep a ton of bitcoins sitting around.
What I meant is that it still puts all of your coins in the control of a third party. What if the owner of Blockchain decides to go offline and take all the coins? There is nothing you can do. Obviously no one EXPECTS that to happen, but no one has ever EXPECTED a wallet service to go rogue or they wouldn't have stored the coins there in the first place. Or even if they don't go rogue, they could get hacked. My point is that you are not truly in control of your coins when you're using a third party service. An illegal anonymous drug marketplace is higher risk than Blockchain... I'll give you that... but it's still a third party.
Good info, looking into Armory now. So your saying it will run pretty choppy on a cheap laptop?
Probably. It depends how involved in bitcoin you are. I believe in it as a currency. If you're just using it to buy drugs and don't hold many coins for very long, you probably don't need quite as secure a setup.
Many people have a hot wallet and a cold wallet (a hot wallet being similar to the wallet you have in your pocket and a cold wallet being similar to a safe you have in your house). A cold wallet (if you're being as secure as possible) has private keys kept on paper or in offline storage. I have an old computer which is never connected to the internet. I keep the cold wallet there. It is invulnerable to malware/hacking/keyloggers/whatever. I keep 90% of my coins there. My hot wallet (which is still encrypted) is on my internet-connected computer, which is where I keep the remaining 10%. I only keep as many coins there as I'm willing to lose if I should get hacked or something. I use the hot wallet to make my transactions (i.e. send to SR just before ordering, sports betting, any other bitcoin payments). In my opinion it is insane to use a 3rd party service for a wallet; not trusting anybody else with your money is one of the main reasons bitcoin was invented in the first place.
Yes, a cheap laptop will probably have issues running Armory, but there are plenty of other options for wallets, including wallets that don't need to download the entire blockchain, which takes days the first time you do it. If you want a lightweight wallet that doesn't need to download the whole blockchain, Electrum and Multibit are popular options. There are many others, though. All have their pros and cons. You just need to find out what works for you.
Whatever you decide, make sure you protect yourself as best you can and backup backup backup!
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Certainly considering the current swing variances, if you're dealing in any volume, you should extract immediately following transactions to currency or something else. To date, I have to admit, i am comfortable with transacting to USD or EUR at MtGox as they have always honored withdrawal to external accounts within the specified transfer period. In that respect, I've held in currency at MtGox for considerable periods without much concern. Perhaps I'm naive?
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so which ones would you recommend Bitcoin-Qt?
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blockchain.info
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bizzump