Thank you all for answering this guy's questions but I'm still a little confused.

So if I ever SEND any coins, ie use them as a currency as intended, then my 'wallet' and thus my keys, become 'compromised'?

That doesn't sound good at all?

I really love the concept of bitcoin but the security thing seems a headache or confusing. Is this some kind of bug or problem that we'll ever solve or is it always the case that the coins are 'secure' but we, the users, have no real security and our coins are easy to steal?

I work as a sales copywriter and when I get time I'm going to write a sales pitch for bitcoins - but I really need to understand it inside out first, and this security thing is a killer. I can't sell what I don't understand.

I get the idea, the concept, of an offline wallet for savings and a daily wallet for small transactions. But how can you do that, if by definition you need to top up that smaller wallet and/or address or whatever, and instantly that compromises the safety of the larger wallet?

The very fact you've used your private key to send money to the small wallet means that private key is no longer safe?

Well what's the point of it all then?

How are we supposed to use a system which isn't safe?

Either this is utterly ridiculous or I'm missing the point somewhere, so could someone explain what I'm missing please?


Thanks


Alan