Tips for Securing Your Desktop Wallet

Hey everyone, as a newbie here, I just came across some info about desktop wallets. They seem to have way more features than mobile wallets and give better control over managing your bitcoins. I’ve also read about keeping private keys secure, and now I'm curious about the safest desktop wallet for Bitcoin. Can someone explain how 2FA works and what’s the best way to store it safely? Also, are there any specific practices I should follow while using a desktop wallet? Thanks for helping me learn more!

There is no one "best" desktop wallet. Different wallets have different uses, and drawbacks. Start by reading bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet. Forget about 2FA when it comes to wallets. Keep your own keys, don't let a third party have a say in it. I wouldn't recommend multisig for beginners. Read up on cold storage and offline wallets. There's always a trade-off between safety and convenience. Try different wallets, see what works for you. You can also use different wallets for different purposes.

To store your Bitcoin securely on your desktop, keep your private keys safe and never share them online, and ensure your desktop is free from malware and viruses.You have many desktop wallet options to choose from. I recommend setting up a cold storage using Electrum Wallet.2 factor Authentication will help you add an extra layer of security against unauthorized access. But then remember to keep your desktop clean and virus free. You can read here on how to set up a cold storage using electrum on your desktop.... Creating a Cold Storage wallet in Electrum

The only advantage of desktop wallet over mobile wallet is that people prefer to use mobile phones for online activities these days. Unlike in those days when people heavily depend on desktops. Mobile phones are getting closer these days. Because people are with their mobile phone too often and also using it to browser the internet, it is more prone to attack but which is not non-existent in desktop but can be reduced. There are mobile wallets that have almost all the necessary features like coin control, RBF, CPFP, 2FA, multisig , send to many and so on. Although, desktop wallet like Electrum has more features which may not be that necessary for a common bitcoin user. But in overall, desktop wallets are the best. The best desktop wallet that I have used are Electrum and Sparrow bit they are online wallets. Which means they may be vulnerable to online attack. You need to avoid malware. The best way you can use them is on an airgapped device which will make them a cold wallet. 2FA wallet means a server will have a key out of your keys which will be used for signing any transaction that you have partially signed. It may likely involve fee in addiction to the transaction fee but which you can bypass if you have the seed phrase or the private key. I do not know how 2-of-2 multisig 2FA wallet is. I am referring to 2-of-3.

Aside from common security suggestion, make sure to download the desktop wallet from the real or official website. If you're not sure whether a website is real or not, you could always ask about it with Bitcoin community either here or elsewhere. Aside from private key, you also need to keep 12 or 24 recovery words securely. Usually write it down on paper and hide it somewhere on your home is safer than writing it digitally. I generally agree, although few wallet with 2FA feature actually create multi-sig wallet let's you have all keys for spending Bitcoin without 3rd party.

There is no universal "best wallet" for everyone. Depends on each person need and resources, a best wallet will be different. Because you want to store your wallet on computer by saying Desktop, you will need to secure your device first. No "best wallet" can save your Bitcoin fund if your devices are infected with viruses, malwares, etc. Secure your device, keep in clean is most important. Next, secure a protection layer to access your wallet, it's wallet password to encrypt your wallet. Password need to be unique and strong to avoid easily wallet brute-force, and make sure you back up that wallet. It is stupid if you create a wallet, fund it with your bitcoin, set up a strong password, and forget the password. This will make you losing all bitcoin in that wallet. [GUIDE] How to Create a Strong/Secure Password How to back up a seed phrase? If possible in financial resource, buy a hardware wallet. [LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets [GUIDE] How to buy a Hardware Wallet the right way

How about 2-of-3 multisig where the user has 2 keys. The 3rd key can be bypass and not used with 2FA. The seed phrase can be extended with passphrase. The one I do not like is 2-of-2 where the user will have just 1 key. I think I will be good with multisig instead of 2FA. But I prefer cold wallet which is the safest to me if the seed phrase is extended with passphrase.

First you should use only open source wallets with good reputation, Electrum and Sparrow are good examples. But before that I would suggest using good LinuxOS with password protection, instead of wind0ws spyware OS. For sending transactions I would recommend connection desktop wallet with hardware wallet as signing devices. Watch-only wallet could be used only for checking balance of your wallet.

Well you are right OP, desktop wallets do have extra and more exciting features than their regular mobile versions and a very good example is ELECTRUM. For some reason Electrum for mobile is limited to a slider option only for adjusting fees to your preference however the case is different on Electrum desktop version since you can adjust you fees by Even typing what you want manually. Anyways the problem of wallet security is mainly because of the threats faced on the internet. Firstly make sure you make use of an Open source wallet, I will always suggest ELECTRUM. Also , make sure you get the software from their official site so you don't get a counterfeit version. Now if you are going to be making use of it as a hot wallet you have to make sure that you connect to safe WiFi networks I even suggest you avoid public WiFi and also funny links. Most importantly don't forget to keep your keys safe

Are you sure you double-checked all the options and settings in your mobile wallet?  If I remember correctly, Electrum mobile used to have more granular control over transaction fees, even entering the fee rate manually.  Im not sure if this is still the case in newer versions, as its been a while since I last used it.

Not a fan of a 2FA too since if the main seed phrase gets comprised the wallet can be recovered by simply deactivating the 2FA and giving the comprise seed phrase full access to the wallet. Rather a 2-of-3 multi sig such that if one seed phrase gets stolen or compromised you can locate the third seed phrase and move out your funds their. The 2-of-2 is also one I don’t advice anyone to go for just because of lose of seed phrase should one seed phrase gets lost then the wallet is gone for good. Rather than have a 2-of-2 wallet it is better to go for a single sig wallet and then add a passphrase to that wallet I think it was the fee slider that was actually added later because the electrum mobile wallet was known not to have a fee adjuster at first

Seed phrase would be better for it not to confuse the OP. Also the seed phrase can generate the keys. Seed phrase is what newbies can easily know. There can not be anything better than customizing the fee. Some wallets even use fee slider to customize the fee in a way that you can slide the fee slider to any sat/vbyte but mobile Electrum does not have this.

I don't know what version of Electrum mobile you're talking about, but mine have option to slide the custom fee and be able to choose ETA, Mempool, and Static. The current version of my Electrum on my phone is 4.5.7 but this slider custom fee is available. Look at the image below This feature is the same as what you can do on the desktop version. The only thing that you can't do on mobile is that it does not have the option to enter the mining fee manually, unlike on desktop but I don't think the mobile version needs it since there's an option to choose static where you can slide it to a lower than estimated fee from ETA and Mempool.

This is what I meant but using fee slider for it. You did not understand me. I know that mobile Electrum has fee slider, but not in the way that you can customize the fee in the way that will suit you which is what customization means. The fee slider in static on Electrum have these fee rates: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 70, 100, 150, 200, 300 sat/vbyte. If you compare it with another wallet that can make you to use the fee slider to customize the fee, it will look like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and so on. Few wallets even give you decimal like 1, 1.5...and so on while using the fee slider to set the fee rate. The two wallets I saw fee slider used for accurate fee customization are Sparrow and the no-more-existing Samourai.