Pretty simple, create a secure wallet using the tutorial at the start of this topic. This should be your savings account. (you never want this file on a networked computer) (this is also the account with the big amount of money you have, preferably multiple sharing this amount (so if you happen to accidentally lose one, you don't lose all your money))
The wallet on your laptop you can use as your "spending account".
The simplest way to put it is, any wallet you have an a networked computer or at some service, you should handle like your real wallet. (don't put all your money in it, etc. accept risk of loss stolen)
Besides those you should create a very secure wallet (not networked, preferably offline/paper) which would be the same as your savings account (hence put it in a big bank vault or something) (protect these wallets, which at some point might contain a lot of money, like your life-savings account, and think what you would do to protect your life-savings account.)
Personally, I have 500 saving account addresses, 50% of these is hard-copy paper. Stored at several locations. (bank safety-deposit boxes are great, as they are also fire resistant, and you can put all those papers in there, if you encrypt it, they will still need a pass-phrase to get to the BTC's) The other 50% is on USB Flash drives, bought specifically for this purpose, which have not been used for anything else. These are also stored in vaults on hard to get locations, spread out. Every single address, I can get to in at least 3 different locations, so technically I shouldn't be able to lose my private keys.
The only problem is, due to the nature of BTC you preferably only want to use an address once. (to keep anonymity up) So after 500 txns I run out of addresses, and I have to visit all my backup locations again to update their backups. (with extra newly generated addresses)
You can take this up any scale you want... or down if you like. Though looking at that the fact that a BTC is currently 100 euros... Hackers are going to try more often to steal bitcoins, and the only way to really protect from a hacker, is making sure the data is not networked in any way. (aka offline) So the better sense of security you have now, the less amount of surprises you'll see in the future. (you other wise might find out at some point... that one of your accounts is empty... while you didn't spend any.)
Hi Mylon
Thanks ever so much for your helpful post.
Hope you don't mind, but I have more questions, as I am in the learning stage.
I put the questions in bold as they are scattered throughout the post and it will make them easier to see, cos I can see how busy these boards are.
I bought a USB drive yesterday, and I plan to make a wallet on it by following the instructions above.
I have windows 7 on my laptop. In the instructions above, are you suggesting that I make the USB drive wallet out of an operating system other than windows?Does this USB wallet count as offline?What do you mean by savings account?As Bitcoins are so expensive is it ok to only buy one and put half of that coin in one wallet and half in the other?
Am I right in saying, that as my laptop is only ever used by me, it is NOT classed as a netoworked computer?In the context of amounts, what does 'multiple sharing' mean please?For the 'very secure' wallet, would I print both wallets out? i.e. The windows one on my laptop and the ubuntu one on my usb drive?
I am going to need to learn a lot more about addresses and keys because I am having a real struggle with them.
Is it like this - For each transaction, you need a public address key, and a private one, which matches the public one?
Am I right in hurrying to buy bitcoins as they seem to be going up all the time?I hope you don't mind the extra questions Mylon, you have been very helpful.
Thanks again
