What happens if MyEtherWallet will go offline?

Question

I created a wallet on myEtherWallet. Let's assume that in the future this website doesn't exist anymore.

Is there any way to access my ether? Or will they be gone in the blockchain?

Answer 1

Great answer by Nikhil already. I'll add that you can download the repo from github and save/run it locally on your computer in the future. The MyEtherWallet team has no intentions of ever taking it down as it costs us almost nothing to maintain and keep online.

Here are the 3 URLs you can find it at

https://www.myetherwallet.com (served via Github w/ custom SSL domain)

https://kvhnuke.github.io/etherwallet/ (served via Github - default)

https://github.com/kvhnuke/etherwallet (the repo itself where you can download)

What happens if your site goes down?

There seems to be a lot of confusion about what MyEtherWallet does. It's not a web wallet where you put your Ether and we store them for you. You don't have a login and nothing ever gets saved to our servers. It is simply an interface that allows you to do things you normally would do via command line.

So, if MyEtherWallet goes down, you would have to find another way (like geth) to do what we are doing. But you wouldn't have to "get" your ether out of MyEtherWallet because it's not in MyEtherWallet. It's in whatever wallet your generated via our site.

In addition, the likelihood of us taking MyEtherWallet down is slim to none. It costs us almost nothing to maintain as we aren't storing any information. If we do take the domain down, it still is, and always will be, publicly available at https://github.com/kvhnuke/etherwallet. You can download the ZIP there and run it locally. Simply go to that URL, click the DOWNLOAD ZIP button, unzip the file, and double click index.html. It will open in your default browser.

---

This post discusses how to import your private key into geth

Answer 2

myEtherWallet.com does not save your address and keys, it says

MyEtherWallet.com does not receive or store any information so we cannot recover your wallet if you lose you password or private key.

Once you create an address they will provide a .json file or a .pdf file with the public and private keys of your wallet.

Technically there is no problem even if the site goes offline after you create a wallet. Still you have to be careful about the storing the keys if its meant to be serious transactions.

How do I save/backup my wallet externally?

You should always back up your wallet externally - like on a flash drive, in cloud storage (Dropbox, etc), and/or a piece of paper.

1. Save the password in a text document.
2. Save the address in that text document.
3. Save the private key in that text document.
4. Place all this information in a folder, along with your JSON file, PDF version of your paper wallet, and whatever other information you would like to keep.
5. Take this folder and place it on a USB drive. Store this USB drive in a place securely, in a separate location from your computer. Maybe that place is at your office (don't forget it when you're rich off Ether & ragequit!), at your parent's or another family member's house, in a storage locker, etc. For added security, you can encrypt that USB drive using the following guides: Windows or Mac.
6. Print the wallet if you have a printer. Otherwise, write down on a piece of paper your: password, address, and private key (unencrypted). Again, store this as a secure location, separate from your computer and the USB drive.
7. Now, if your house burns down you still have a USB drive and a piece of paper. If your HDD crashes, you still have a USB drive and a piece of paper.