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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo secure your bitcoins, print them out
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/to-secure-your-bitcoins-print-them-out-2014-02-26Feb. 26, 2014, 11:10 a.m. EST
To secure your bitcoins, print them out
Why the digital currency may be more secure in analog form
By Quentin Fottrell
Bitcoin was created to provide an anonymous, digital currency free from government control or physical existence. But after the implosion of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, and the apparent obliteration of millions of dollars of investor money, some crypto-currency experts say (ironically) that it may not be safe to store the digital money digitally. Bitcoin is most secure, they contend, after those ones and zeros are turned into paper.
Opening a bitcoin account on an online exchange is like opening a brokerage account in Zimbabwe, says Alex Daley, chief technology investment strategist for Casey Research, a global independent finance research company based in Stowe, Vt. Many investors on online exchangeslike the now-defunct Mt. Goxtook several months to pay up on trades, he says. Mt. Gox is not the first site to suffer problems and certainly wont be the last, he says.
But even the biggest bitcoin fans recommend a real wallet or physical safe. Printing off the private key from your bitcoin, putting it into a paper form and sticking it in your hip pocket or house wall safe is one way to make sure its safe, says Andrew Flip Filipowski, chairman and CEO of SilkRoad Equity, a cloud-based human capital management software company. Keep your bitcoin offline, Daley adds. He too suggests keeping the bitcoin private keya secret number that allows bitcoins to be spenton a thumb drive and advises against keeping a copy online: If a site is hacked and your bitcoin is stolen, the chance of recovery is effectively nil.
Some companies are even offering offline cold storage services, which also keeps the secret key in a physical location like a safe. Elliptic, a bitcoin cold storage company based in London, has had a bump in interest since the disappearance of Mt. Gox. The company charges a 2% annual fee. We keep them offline in a bank vault, he says. Were giving people the same kind of protection they get in a bank account, says Tom Robinson, who co-founded the company last October. Unlike a bank, Elliptic is not regulated by the financial services industry, but its insured against theft. Building trust is our biggest challenge, he says, but were slowly doing that.
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To secure your bitcoins, print them out (Original Post)
jsr
Feb 2014
OP
eShirl
(18,494 posts)1. Brilliant idea, paper money
Earth_First
(14,910 posts)2. heh. nt
bravenak
(34,648 posts)4. Finally! A new idea!
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,841 posts)5. What'll they think of next?
normally, I don't quote myself, but I'm going to have to make an exception here:
Bitcoin is like the Wright brothers cobbling together airplanes that don't go very far and crash frequently preaching the good news of the coming days of aviation to a society that has had jet travel for decades. Only with a lot more fraud.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)6. The Onion?