Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: antigrid on July 03, 2012, 07:43 pm

Title: Connecting to BTC wallet through Tor and where / how to keep wallet secure?
Post by: antigrid on July 03, 2012, 07:43 pm
I have read several threads and comments on connecting to your BTC wallet with Tor and connecting to other services such as mtgox with tor. Some say don't, others say do. I am assuming there is an option in the bitcoin wallet app that allows connecting through tor, is it safe to connect to my wallet through my regular IP and not use tor when sending BTC to SR or wherever? Is it safe to use Tor for this or can it be intercepted somehow?

What about services / websites such as coinapult , mtgox, etc; is it safe to log on to these sites using regular IP or should I be using tor? If the answer is neither of the two, then should a vpn be used ( a safe one)?

As far as keeping my wallet(s) secure, where is the best place to store them and keep them secure if using a live USb for SR activity? Is it unsafe to keep them on a windows machine? If so, is this due to hacking or LE reasons?
Title: Re: Connecting to BTC wallet through Tor and where / how to keep wallet secure?
Post by: Hungry ghost on July 03, 2012, 08:30 pm
As far as I know there is no reason to have the bitcoin software on your machine at all. I'm no expert by any means but I always just use instawallets accessed only through TOR with a different identity each time.  However you buy your BTC in first place there's no need to have them " stored" on your machine.
    I understand bitcoins like I understand quantum physics: like, I sort of get it.....Your knowledge of the private wallet address is what entitles you to spend them and the public address allows people to pay you. I don't think bitcoins are stored anywhere really the block chain is like a tally. Have I got this right? Anyone?
Title: Re: Connecting to BTC wallet through Tor and where / how to keep wallet secure?
Post by: frank-butcher24 on July 04, 2012, 06:42 pm
The bitcoin client can be made portable in Windows, and what this means in as close to layman's terms as I can get: you can keep your wallet software and the entire blockchain on a USB stick (which could be encrypted with something like Truecrypt for example). If you ensure you only ever connect it via TOR, that's a pretty secure way of using Bitcoin in my opinion. I like to be responsible for my own security, so I don't like using online wallets particularly, certainly not for long term storage of BTC anyway.
Title: Re: Connecting to BTC wallet through Tor and where / how to keep wallet secure?
Post by: jameslink2 on July 06, 2012, 01:45 am
    I understand bitcoins like I understand quantum physics
Anyone?

I got this one, We can start at the planck layer were a potential wave crosses from an m-brain and becomes a subatomic particle or wave. The energy of each quantum is equal to the frequency of the radiation multiplied by the universal constant: E=f*h, where h is 6.63 * 10E-34 Js.

It really is simple  ;D

As to bitcoins, Lets start by connecting it to TOR. Start Vidalia and connect to the TOR network. Load your bitcoin client and under settings-->options you will find the option "Connect through SOCKS4 proxy" Check that and set the ip to 127.0.0.1 (You systems loop back device) and port 9050. This is where the tor client proxies connections to the onion network. You will have to wait a while for everything to get synced up. In the bottom right corner of the client there is a symbol, it becomes a check once you are connected to the piers. Make sure you encrypt your wallet with a pass phrase as well!!!!!

Once you are connected, go to "Receive coins" and click "New Address" Give it a label and it will add an address. Ever address under the receive coins tab is one you can use to receive bit coins one. You can have as many as you want or need. One way of staying anonymous is to always create a new address for EVERY transaction. However, at the moment there is a limitation that it sends from the address it received the coins to. So, if you have 200 bitcoins and they were received in 5 BTC chunks to different addresses, and you go to pay someone 100 bitcoins it will send them in 5btc chunks from all the addresses. You can transfer them all to something like bitcoin fog and them receive them back into one address after mixing and eliminate that problem as well as several others. I would do this before sending out to something like MtGox. Hides/launders who they are from.

Now, connecting to any of the sites like MtGox or coinapult can be done from outside of tor. Doing it from a tor exit node may arouse suspicion. I do not know how well they are watched.

You can make your wallet portable. I prefer to have my wallet on an encrypted pen drive.

ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR WALLET!!!!!!!!! Do so after receiving coins, creating a new receive address, or making changes to your wallet in any way!! I have had my wallet crash once and had to restore from backup. IF YOU LOOSE YOUR WALLET, YOU LOOSE YOUR MONEY!!

Hope this helps.
Title: Re: Connecting to BTC wallet through Tor and where / how to keep wallet secure?
Post by: jameslink2 on July 06, 2012, 02:30 am
It does if you create a new address for every time you receive coins.  ;)

Though I could be a little over cautious. Never hurts to have extra backups.  ;D
Title: Re: Connecting to BTC wallet through Tor and where / how to keep wallet secure?
Post by: jameslink2 on July 06, 2012, 02:41 am
Or you could pay all all the coins out of the wallet you receive into and into a different wallet. Pulling them together at that point, or as I suggested, pay them to bitfog and take them out to a single wallet afterwords.
Title: Re: Connecting to BTC wallet through Tor and where / how to keep wallet secure?
Post by: deflodz on December 03, 2012, 10:00 am
As to bitcoins, Lets start by connecting it to TOR. Start Vidalia and connect to the TOR network. Load your bitcoin client and under settings-->options you will find the option "Connect through SOCKS4 proxy" Check that and set the ip to 127.0.0.1 (You systems loop back device) and port 9050. This is where the tor client proxies connections to the onion network. You will have to wait a while for everything to get synced up. In the bottom right corner of the client there is a symbol, it becomes a check once you are connected to the piers.
Thanks for this information, though I've been waiting for a good 10 mins and connection icon in the bottom right of  my wallet s.ware hasn't changed. I've tried all (I think?) of the diferent combinations on the "Network" tab in the wallet s.ware without success. Not sure what else to try.
Here's my setup;
Tor – Latest
Settings in Tor on the Advanced Tab – Tor Control “Use TCP connection” checked, with these settings (Tor set them, not me) 127.0.0.1:9051

Wallet - Bitcoin Version v0.7.0-beta
Settings, Options, Network Tab (tried with checked too)
Map port using UPnP – Unchecked
Connect through SOCKS proxy – Checked
Proxy IP – 127.0.0.1
Port – 9051
SOCKS Version – 4 (tried 5 also)