Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Kurt Cobain on September 19, 2011, 10:31 pm

Title: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: Kurt Cobain on September 19, 2011, 10:31 pm
Hi,

i`ve red, that one should transfer BTCs through a couple of wallets before transferring to SR.

Which wallets should be preferred, - the usual client or instawallet.org (for example)? Somebody explained here, that a wallet should be deleted after use. If u are using the client, you can`t easily delete one wallet/account. Or do you really set up a whole new client and load the whole block-chain each time just to do one single transfer?

thx
Title: Re: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: Modoki on September 19, 2011, 11:50 pm
first, you can easily delete the wallet without having to reload the blockchain. If you just delete or exchange the wallet.dat your chain will be preserved (afaik there are merely the keys to your coins in it, and something else I don't remember right now :\)
Anyway, well - using several different services won't provide much protection IF LE discovers you sent money to SR. you would have to really launder the money by unlinking the coins you received and the ones you sent.
Much love
M
Title: Re: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: wannabud on September 20, 2011, 05:20 am
How to use the instawallet? You send your bitcoins to there, and they keep your bc for you? But you don't have to create an account, so how do they know it's your bitcoins?
Title: Re: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: treebeard on September 22, 2011, 08:49 pm
I'd like to get some more good info on this subject myself.

I was using the "MyBitcoin" wallet for awhile, until the whole thing went to shit.

I'm interested in which legit alternatives the big hitters of SR are using.
Title: Re: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: CaptainSensible on September 23, 2011, 04:33 am
How to use the instawallet? You send your bitcoins to there, and they keep your bc for you? But you don't have to create an account, so how do they know it's your bitcoins?

Right -- who's the owner of the Instawallet you sent coins to?  If you have the address to the Instawallet you're the owner.  So if you're asked about a bitcoin address you sent funds to you can just say it was for some service, or a legitimate product.  All sorts of businesses sell ordinary products for bitcoins -- look at https://bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade for a list of vendors who sell stuff like t-shirts, coffee, etc.
Where those bitcoins went after you sent them to a vendor is something you don't know.
Title: Re: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: epitome on September 23, 2011, 06:34 pm
Just because it can be proven you sent funds to SR, I don't think that is grounds to prove that you actually purchased anything. Unless of course you have gotten caught, and that is the reason your wallet is under scrutiny. To anyone's knowledge, has this actually occurred yet?
Title: Re: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: polysoph on May 29, 2012, 09:14 pm
So I've installed the bitcoin wallet , but for some reason it just doesn't work. Installation went without any problems but whenever I want to open the program some error message appears. Already deleted and reinstalled it, didn't help.
Is that a problem or is it enough to just stick with some e-Wallet? However, don't you need more than just one wallet, so if you launder your btcs you can send them to another one (or something like that, read it somewhere but don't remember if that's the exact way how it works)?
Title: Re: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: Cpt. Meow on May 29, 2012, 11:21 pm
I would rotate between different e-wallets to fund or exchange BTC and send random amounts spread over time to the destination acct, i.e. SR.

Generally speaking, it's always good advice to steer away from the big exchangers. 

Above all, be creative in your ways and if you have a magical bulletproof system that works for you it's probably better not to share it here.
Title: Re: What kind of wallet should be used?
Post by: vlad1m1r on May 29, 2012, 11:30 pm
I would rotate between different e-wallets to fund or exchange BTC and send random amounts spread over time to the destination acct, i.e. SR.

Generally speaking, it's always good advice to steer away from the big exchangers. 

Above all, be creative in your ways and if you have a magical bulletproof system that works for you it's probably better not to share it here.

Firstly I think it's important to say that no type of wallet is inherently more impervious to block chain analysis* - whatever way you look at it, a BTC address is a public key, regardless of whether the wallet's on paper, online or a program on your computer. Of course you can increase your security by moving random amounts of Bitcoins over a longer periods of time rather than do it one go, and of course by "tumbling" coins.

In terms of a day to day wallet I like SR's online one as you need a PIN code to make withdrawals and it has a built in mixer.

For long term savings, I would suggest a "brain wallet" which as the name suggests allows you to carry Bitcoins around in your head. In my opinion this is actually much easier and faster to set up than downloading wallet software.

I did a quick "How To" guide for this a couple of weeks ago:

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=23792

All comments are welcome.

V.

*With the obvious exception of a wallet stored in a mixer like Bitcoinfog!