What Is The Best Bitcoin Wallet For 2015?

What is the best bitcoin wallet for 2015? The Open Bitcoin Privacy Project has released the Spring 2015 Bitcoin Wallet Privacy Rating Report. We recommend everyone download and give serious consideration to the report. The lead contributor is Kristov Atlas whose seminal book Anonymous Bitcoin has already been reviewed by your editor.

This graphic taken from the report ranks the best bitcoin wallet for privacy in 2015:

DarkWallet

We are puzzled by the inclusion of DarkWallet as this warning is displayed prominently at the website:

Clearly Darwallet though very promising is still a work in progress and should not be trusted with any significant amount of your bitcoin.

Armory

Bitcoin Armory is one of two desktop wallets on the list which provides convenient cold storage of your bitcoin private keys (Electrum is the other.)

Bitcoin Armory is still a work in progress and there are problems with newer versions not being backwards compatible with the earliest and most stable version. Armory runs on top of Bitcoin-Qt so users must maintain a full node on the machine Armory is installed on. Armory is an excellent wallet but probably best reserved for expert users.

Mycelium

Mycelium is probably the leading and most popular Android bitcoin wallet.

Bitcoin Wallet

Bitcoin Wallet for Android by Andreas Schildbach has been around since 2011 but has since been surpassed in features and popularity by Mycelium.

Electrum

Electrum is a lightweight bitcoin wallet available for use on Android, OSX, Windows and Linux. It supports cold storage using two computers or you can pair your Electrum 2.0 wallet with a Trezor device.

Electrum is easy to use for a beginner and is arguably the most versatile bitcoin wallet available at this time. It is also the only bitcoin wallet to be included by default with TAILS.

AirBitz

AirBitz is a lightweight mobile bitcoin wallet available for Android and iOS.

AirBitz is an excellent wallet but does not support connection via Tor.

Blockchain for Web

Blockchain.info was one of the first web wallets available but has been surpassed in features and privacy by the newer wallets.

Multibit

Multibit Classic is an outdated wallet that is no longer recommended. The new Multibit HD client is in beta testing and may become a viable wallet in the future.

It is a deterministic wallet like Electrum so you an always recover your wallet from a seed phrase. However we feel further testing would be prudent before you adapt Multibit HD as Electrum is solid and has a good track record.

Blockchain for Android

Blockchain.info also provides Blockchain for Android wallet.

Blockchain for Android can not be used over Tor nor can the Shared Coin service be accessed. Unlike Electrum this is not a deterministic wallet which means backups can become invalid unless special care is taken. We consider this wallet outdated with better mobile wallets readily available.

Coinbase

Coinbase bitcoin wallet is available for the web, Android and iOS.

The company is very well known and respected providing not only wallet services but payment processing and bitcoin to fiat exhange. Coinbase ranked last in the privacy rating because private keys are held on their servers and the company retains detailed records of all transactions which some feel goes beyond KNC requirements. There have been reports of customers losing their Coinbase accounts for transferring funds to or from online gambling sites, violating Coinbase Terms of Service.

Hive

Not covered in the report we feel the Hive bitcoin wallet is worth noting.

Available for the web, iOS, Mac and Android Hive is a deterministic wallet like Electrum that can always be recovered from a seed phrase and PIN number. It is the only wallet on our list that supports both bitcoin and litecoin.

Recommendations

Be aware that web and mobile bitcoin wallets are being supplanted by more secure bitcoin hardware wallets. You can already very securely store your bitcoin using a Trezor device paired with Electrum or Trezor’s own MyWallet web wallet. The Case hardware wallet will be shipping this summer and the LedgerBlue by end of 2015.

The problem with all existing web or mobile wallets is security of your private keys which is solved by Trezor and other bitcoin hardware wallets. Our opinion is that Electrum is the most versatile and best bitcoin wallet for 2015 and most worthy of your consideration.