The only way to properly store your bitcoin wealth is by using a safe wallet solution. It is hard to quantify what makes one wallet safer than the next, as users have their individual preferences and needs in this regard. However, there are some wallet solutions out there that take keeping funds safe to a whole new level.

On the software side of things, there are quite a few different bitcoin wallets to choose from. However, one of the primary wallets people use in this regard is Multibit, due to it being lightweight and easy to integrate with hardware solutions. Although Multibits interface looks rather traditional, the wallet receives regular updates to improve security. A convenient and secure software solution to store funds, that much is certain.

Any bitcoin wallet provider providing cold storage and multi-signature support deserves to be on the list of top secure bitcoin wallets. Armory checks the right boxes in this regard, as the software stores private keys in an offline computer. This makes it impossible to steal bitcoins, unless someone has access to the physical location of the computer. No one knows where this location may be, though. Moreover, giving users the chance to set up cold storage solutions themselves is a big bonus.

On the mobile front, there is a lot of competition for the crown of being the most secure wallet solutions available today. Mycelium has gotten a lot of support in this regard, as they are considered to be a must-have secure bitcoin storage application. Their HD wallet support, as well as an option to delete the private key from the device and integrate watch only accounts make Mycelium one of the top secure mobile bitcoin wallets.

Hardware bitcoin wallets have become quite popular over the past few years. That is only normal, as storing bitcoin in a secure manner becomes more important than ever. Hardware wallets are designed to facilitate secure funds storage, with quite a few companies launching their products in recent years. KeepKey is one of the top solutions in this regard, as the device requires users to manually approve every transaction. Moreover the device has PIN protection, adding an extra layer of security.

The Ledger line of hardware bitcoin wallets can not be ignored. The company prides itself on making affordable yet secure bitcoin wallet solutions. There is no reason to pay hundreds of dollars for a device when the same goal can be achieved with a device costing a fraction of the price. Dont let the cheap price fool you, though, as every one of Ledgers devices is more than capable of keeping your wealth safe.

All of Ledgers wallets come in the form of a USB-size, although there are minor differences between each type. The Ledger Nano S is by far the most popular hardware wallet, as it is capable of storing both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Moreover, users can complete wallet actions through the display on the device or by using the browser plugins. An affordable, robust, and secure line of products, that much is certain.

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Top 5 Safe Bitcoin Wallets - The Merkle

Matt Thalman, a blogger for ino.com, a market trader website, does not intend to invest in bitcoin if a bitcoin ETF is approved in the near future, according to a recent blog post. He views bitcoin as still too new to invest in.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is soon expected to decide of the Winklevoss ETF, the first bitcoin ETF to file for approval in 2013. Since then, SolidX and Grayscale Investments have applied for bitcoin ETFs.

Thalman acknowledges that experts believe the bitcoin ecosystem could draw as much as $300 million in its first week following approval of a bitcoin ETF, which would likely drive the bitcoin price higher. But he is concerned about the secrecy surrounding bitcoin.

Thalman also acknowledges many people are encouraged by the fact that only the market, not a government or individual, controls the value of bitcoins.

However, Thalman, like others, points out that the same feature applies to gold.

The key difference between bitcoin and gold is that bitcoin is digital while gold is tangible.

Another difference he points to is that bitcoin has been highly volatile, a feature that could change, but nonetheless remains a concern.

Also read: Hedge fund observers skeptical of SEC approving a bitcoin ETF anytime soon

Investors concerned about deflationary policies should choose gold, Thalman says. Gold has existed for thousands of years and its price is transparent, as are the vehicles in which it trades.

He sees secrecy in who started bitcoin, why it was started, and its traceability. The lack of traceability has made it popular for black market users. It has also made it a target for hackers.

Thalman claims these concerns make him wonder why he would take on so much risk with a somewhat unproven investment.

He believes bitcoin is a new technology and investment that could become great, but at the present time, there are too many unknowns about it.

He encourages investors to stay on the sidelines for at least a year should a bitcoin ETF be approved. Even with lower volatility, he expects bitcoin to continue to be very much a roller-coaster in the coming year, meaning investors will have an opportunity to buy coins at lower prices in the future; so no need to worry about missing another bitcoin boom.

In the interest of disclosure, the blog noted that Thalman has held positions in Facebook and did not receive compensation for the blog.

Image from Shutterstock.

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Investment Blogger Explains Why He Won't Buy Into A Bitcoin ETF Any Time Soon - CryptoCoinsNews

You may have heard of the gold standard, but it seems that a type of online currency is making a bid for supremacy in the financial world.

Reports yesterday indicate that the price of one bitcoin surpassed the price of one ounce of gold for the first time ever. While both are considered alternative assets by the financial community, it gives some credence to past claims that the online currency might one day reign supreme for investors.

For those who dont know, bitcoin is a type of digital currency that consumers hold electronically. However, unlike other forms of currency, it is sent from one entity to another and is not controlled by a central source, like a bank. The cryptocurrency has a number of advantages, which consumers can learn about in the video below. However, due to the anonymity associated with its trading, it has also been used for a number of scams and illicit activities.

While the value of bitcoin has gone up and down since it was introduced to the market, its recent increase in value may indicate that investors are taking it more seriously. Currently, traders of the currency are awaiting an SEC decision that would allow Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF to become the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. market.

The ruling, which is set to be announced on March 11, would open the digital currency to a wider range of investors. However, some analysts have said that the bitcoin ETF has less than a 25% chance of being approved, according to an earlier CoinDesk report.

As of Friday morning, gold had once again climbed back over bitcoin in value; one bitcoin was selling for $1,284.58, while one ounce of gold was selling for $1,319.60.

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Bitcoin passes gold in value for the first time ever - ConsumerAffairs

By Arnav Joshi

Virtual currencies like Bitcoin are all the rage in FinTech, and could potentially transform global commerce in the years ahead. Users are adopting them in the thousands each day and the value of trade in these currencies is witnessing unparalleled growth.

The world over, regulators are working out carefully-crafted regulations to foster Bitcoin growth. In India, however, even with the new cashless push by the government and existing Bitcoin trade spiking post-demonetisation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continues to shy away from recognising and regulating virtual currencies.

On February 1, the RBI issued a yet another cautionary press release, on the back of an earlier one issued in December 2013, warning users of a risk they are likely to already be aware of -- that it (the RBI) does not regulate and has not licensed any virtual currencies in India, and anyone using them does so at their own risk.

A month later, on March 1, RBI Deputy Governor R. Gandhi raised concerns over virtual currencies, saying they pose potential financial, legal, customer protection and security-related risks.

While the central bank seems to be insulating itself from the repercussions of these currencies remaining unregulated, their use continues to grow exponentially across the world, including in India.

As of an August 2016 (pre-demonetisation) estimate, the number of Bitcoin (the most prominent of several virtual currencies) users in India stood at 50,000 and growing. India now also has a large number of prominent Bitcoin exchanges such as BTCXIndia, Coinsecure, Unocoin and Zebpay. Globally, by some estimates, Bitcoin users alone could breach five million by 2019.

The latest red flag from the RBI may well have been prompted by the recent surge in the price of Bitcoin on Indian Bitcoin exchanges post-demonetisation. Bitcoin is freely tradable currency, and has its own exchanges (including in India) where users can sign up and speculate, buy and sell Bitcoins for other currencies (such as the rupee).

After the cash ban, Bitcoin was quoted to be inflated 20-25 per cent over cost. As of March 2, Bitcoin was trading at Rs 90,000 to a single Bitcoin. In October 2016, this value was Rs 40,000 to a Bitcoin.

The question that arises then is how long can the RBI afford to adopt a hands-off approach to virtual currencies, when regulators elsewhere are adopting proactive measures?

The RBI's research wing, the Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology, issued a white paper on the applications for blockchain technology in the banking and financial sectors in India in January 2017, which acknowledges the prominence of virtual currencies, but steers towards the underlying distributed ledger (blockchain) technology, rather than virtual currency regulation.

A large number of countries, not just in the West but in India's own neighbourhood, have either adopted or are close to adopting virtual currency regulation in some form. These include China, Russia, Singapore and the Philippines, which issued guidelines for virtual currency exchanges as recently as January.

Interestingly, the precursor to regulation in a number of these countries were warnings similar to those issued by the RBI. However, these warnings largely came around 2013, at a time when the understanding of the technology and the use of virtual currencies was much lesser than it is today.

In 2017, when users, trading and payments in these currencies are growing and maturing faster than ever, the warn-watch-wait approach simply will not work.

There are a number of downsides to not bringing in regulation when virtual currency use in India is still modest. Prominent among these is that regulation which kicks in when products and technologies have become systemic will invariably cause friction between regulators on the one hand, and businesses and users on the other, requiring stakeholders to make slow and possibly expensive changes to the way they transact.

Another issue is the key role regulation plays in consumer awareness and security. While the RBI may sleep soundly having issued its caveat emptor, given the attractive investment opportunity and ease of use and access virtual currencies offer, users are likely to throw caution to the wind and invest anyway.

The clear downside to this is that investors will likely fall prey to unregulated and unscrupulous Bitcoin exchanges and wallet operators (similar to a Paytm or Mobikwik, but exclusive to storing Bitcoin). Without any oversight, these operators rely on self-regulation. They could have severe gaps in data security, could charge exorbitant interest and transaction fees, and in a worst-case scenario, disappear with investor money altogether.

More importantly, the jury is still out on whether virtual currencies can be used to pseudonymously finance crime, including terrorism, and given the sensitive security scenario in India, it is important for the government to understand, and for the law to control, who can buy them and what they can do with them. As transactions grow, so will the chances and potential for virtual currency-related fraud.

Legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Timothy Wu have said "government regulation works by cost and bother, not by hermetic seal", which appears to be the line the RBI is taking on virtual currencies.

With emerging technologies, however, especially those as radical as virtual currencies, governments are increasingly learning that the cost and bother of reactive regulation can be substantially greater than proactive regulation.

If the Indian government is serious about its cashless drive, it will have to consider virtual currencies as an integral part of the panacea being touted for our archaic economy.

It is up to the government and the RBI to lead the way by bringing forward-looking regulation for virtual currencies sooner rather than later, because there is already much catching-up to do.

The writer is a Senior Associate at J. Sagar Associates and advises internet and emerging technology clients. Views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at arnav.jo@gmail.com

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Bitcoin: Can RBI ignore the elephant in the room? - Economic Times

Scaling bitcoin remains one of the more pressing matters in the cryptocurrency space right now. Although it may take a few more months until a viable solution is found that pleases the majority of the miners, it appears SegWit is in a prime position to get activated. After all, Segregated Witness is clearly ahead of Bitcoin unlimited, as this latter solution is seeing its support dwindle rather quickly.

A lot has been said about Segregated Witness and Bitcoin Unlimited in the past. While not everyone may see eye-to-eye on which concept is better, the entire debate has turned into a political mockery as of late. With community members of either solution trying to dissuade others from gathering all of the facts, it is evident something will have to change sooner rather than later.

Most mining pool support either SegWit or Unlimited, it is evident the majority of miners are in favor of Segregated Witness activating on the network. That being said, SegWit has 27% support right now, whereas it needs roughly 95% before it can effectively activate on the network moving forward. It will take some time until this threshold is reached, yet things have been evolving in the right direction these past few weeks.

Bitcoin Unlimited is losing support rather quickly, albeit no one is entirely sure why this is the case. A few weeks ago, Bitcoin Unlimited support was on par to surpass SegWit numbers, yet that trend did not materialize in the end. In fact, the support has dropped from nearly 23% to 16.7%, indicating miners are slowly backing off from pools supporting Unlimited.

Moreover, some Bitcoin experts have grown concerned over what the future may hold for bitcoin. Charlie Lee publicly stated how he feels Bitcoin Unlimited supporters are effectively trying to keep this issue ongoing. After all, users are forced to pay higher transaction fees as long as bitcoin does not scale to accommodate a bigger block size. It can be in some miners and pools best interest to keep blocking scalability in an effort to earn more money from the increasing transaction fees. Whether or not that is the objective for some people, remains unclear.

It is evident blocking SegWit adoption and activation is not in the best interest of bitcoin by any means. Miners clearly favor this solution over Bitcoin Unlimited, which makes it very likely to activate on the network in the near future. Although a lot of pools still have to integrate SegWit support, the list of companies supporting this solution has been growing steadily these past few months. An activation of Segregated Witness may be imminent, although the timeframe remains a bit unclear for the time being.

With support from some of the worlds largest bitcoin mining pools, it is evident SegWit is the only solution with a legitimate chance of activating on the network. Over 800 out of the latest 1,000 network blocks were mined through pools running the Bitcoin Core client. Moreover, 78.52% of the networks hashrate belongs to pools running Bitcoin Core. Unlimited is not a bad scaling solution by any means, but SegWit is superior in all regards, according to the statistics.

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Bitcoin's SegWit Activation is Only A Matter of Time - The Merkle