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Is there a solid "Bitcoin Bank" yet?

Say that I wish to control my bitcoins from a (for me) single point and I don't have the technical resources to have a single access point with a wallet amongst my own personal computers / devices.

Is there a bitcoin bank or similar service that hosts my bitcoin wallet for me and is there a benefit to such a service beyond likely better backup and being a single point to which I can manage my bitcoins without having to set up my own remote access to a home PC? What are the reasons against using such a service?

Community
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Charles Goodwin
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2 Answers2

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There are such services. But there's a good reason not to use them -- if one day the service is gone, so are all your Bitcoins. This has already happened once and will almost certainly happen again. As of yet, there are no companies I would consider sufficiently reputable in this business.

You can, however, keep both Bitcoins and other currencies in a TradeHill or Mt. Gox account. You can fairly easily transfer Bitcoins into and out of those accounts and they're run by well-financed companies that can reasonably be trusted. And both TradeHill and Mt. Gox have made noises about making their accounts more like online wallets.

David Schwartz
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Flexcoin offers an online wallet and "banking service" which actually pays interest on positive balance.

They do this by charging a fee for external payments, flexcoin to flexcoin remains free. 70% of all interest is then distribuited between its users.

The concerns of this is that an unregulated third party is in control of your money. Bitcoin is aimed at a cash style system, its all about trust when you put your money in other peoples hands.

MaxSan
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