[ExI] bitcoins

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Tue Apr 9 09:02:37 UTC 2013


On Tue, Apr 09, 2013 at 12:21:34AM -0600, Kelly Anderson wrote:

> In point of fact, bitcoin is actually somewhat independent of the Internet.

Not really, because it's the distributed ledger that prevents double
spending.

> You can write (or print) the numbers on a piece of paper. Yes, you'll need

There's a bit of JavaScript (which you can use offline) which 
can generate you a brain wallet from a (suitably strong, orelse
your wallet will be hacked even if always offline) and allow
you to completely print everything as a hard copy, including
QR code for it. Or you could just generate a wallet offline
with a well-primed entropy source, and never put it online
(you could do so briefly, to validate the amount, or just
query the network for that account).

> the Internet to share the fact that you have transferred the numbers to
> someone else, but you could just hand the numbers to someone if they
> trusted you not to spend them. Not the best security in the world, but some
> have made actual physical bit coins that have some kind of hidden hash tag

Casascius coins, with a hologram sticker.

> inside, so you need to break it open to spend it? I guess.
> 
> One of the bigger problems I am aware of is that if you don't make backups,

Treat your bitcoin wallet like a regular wallet. Do not lose it, do not
allow it to get stolen, and don't keep massive amounts of cash in it.
An always-offline account is like a wall safe.

> you can lose your bitcoins. This happened to about $250,000 worth of
> bitcoins at one of the exchanges, which promptly went out of business.

This is what you get if you trust your money to a 17 year old.



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