Anyone who have several bitcoins, must care of safety.
Easy way - buy a hardware wallet Trezor
https://bitcointrezor.com/ - 99 USD or PiWallet
http://www.pi-wallet.com/ - 124.95 EUR.
But what if you want to protect your Bitcoins by cheapest way?
Solution - do PiWallet by yourself. Raspberry Pi and the SD card will cost about $ 40.
Step by step instruction.
Attention! The author of this guide disclaims all responsibility for everything that happens with your Bitcoins.
To follow or not to follow these instruction - your conscious choice, and your conscious responsibility. So, what we need for DIY PiWallet:
Hardware: Raspberry Pi model B
SD card on 8 Gb
The power supply for the Raspberry Pi (phone charger with micro USB) or a micro USB cable
USB flash stick.
SD card reader
USB keyboard and mouse
HDMI cable and HDMI TV / monitor or DVI monitor + adapter DVI-HDMI
Optionally: Case for Raspberry Pi
Software: Armory wallet v0.94.1 for online computer -
https://github.com/goatpig/BitcoinArmory/releases/tag/v0.94.1 Raspbian image
https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian Ubuntu 14.04
http://www.ubuntu.com/download - I used tis version, but i think you can use 16.04 or any other version.
If you do not want to install Ubuntu on your PC you can use VirtualBox.
Armory wallet v0.94.1 for Raspberry Pi. Latest compiled version of Armory wallet for Raspberry Pi - 0.93.3, so let's compile v0.94.1.
Additional Ubuntu packages to compile Armory wallet:
git-core
build-essential
pyqt4-dev-tools
swig
libqtcore4
libqt4-dev
python-qt4
python-dev
python-twisted
python-psutil
1. Install Raspbian image to SD card:
Start Ubuntu.
Run terminal:
Ctrl+Alt+T
Download Raspbian image:
mkdir raspbianimage
cd raspbianimage
wget https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_latest
Insert SD card into a card reader and run the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T)
lsblk
depending on size of your card (for example 8Gb card have size about 7,8G) find the "letter" of our card.
My own was - sdf
sudo dd bs=16k if=2016-05-27_raspbian_jessie.img of=/dev/sdx
(x - a letter of SD card from lsblk command)
Attention!!! dd command - very dangerous. Do not confuse the drive letter where you write the image!!! For this step you also can use Windows and program Win32DiskImager.
2. Compile Armory for Raspberry Pi: Start Ubuntu.
Update the list of packages:
sudo apt-get update
Install necessary packages to compile Armory:
sudo apt-get install git-core build-essential pyqt4-dev-tools swig libqtcore4 libqt4-dev python-qt4 python-dev python-twisted python-psutil
Download Armory source code:
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/goatpig/BitcoinArmory.git
Compile the Armory for the Raspberry Pi:
Let's edit script due to chnaged package versions in Raspbian:
cd BitcoinArmory/r-pi
nano crosscompile.py
change the lines
PY_ARMHF1 = '
https://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/p/python2.7/libpython2.7-dev_2.7.
11-4_armhf.deb'
PY_ARMHF2 = '
https://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/p/python2.7/libpython2.7-minimal_2.7.
11-4_armhf.deb'
to
PY_ARMHF1 = '
https://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/p/python2.7/libpython2.7-dev_2.7.
9-2_armhf.deb'
PY_ARMHF2 = '
https://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/p/python2.7/libpython2.7-minimal_2.7.
9-2_armhf.deb'
Ctrl + X, Y, Enter
cd ..
The current version of these packages can be found at:
https://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/p/python2.7/ Compile:
Setup cross-compiler:
python r-pi/crosscompile.py setupcrosscompiler
Size of downloaded packages ~ 590Mb.
and compile:
python r-pi/crosscompile.py
3. Install Armory at Raspberry Pi: Ubuntu part.Start Ubuntu.
To install wallet we will use the Raspberry Pi Offline Bundle from official Armory site that include all necessary packages.
Download Armory Offline Bundle from official Armory site:
cd ~
wget https://www.bitcoinarmory.com/downloads/bitcoinarmory-releases/armory_0.93.3_rpi_bundle.tar.gz
And unpack:
tar -xvzf armory_0.93.3_rpi_bundle.tar.gz
Remove the old compiled version of the Armory (0.93.3)
rm -r ./OfflineBundle/armory_0.93.3_raspbian-armhf.tar.gz
and replace with new version:
cp ~/BitcoinArmory/armory_0.94.1_raspbian-armhf.tar.gz ~/OfflineBundle/
Correct the installation script:
nano OfflineBundle/Install_DblClick_RunInTerminal.py
and replace command gksudo with sudo
# Installs all the dependencies
execAndWait('
gksudo dpkg -i *.deb')
# Puts everything in to /usr/share/armory and /usr/lib/armory
execAndWait('
gksudo "tar -zxf %s -C /
"' % installer)
and in the second line delete double quotes. Here is what you should have:
# Installs all the dependencies
execAndWait('
sudo dpkg -i *.deb')
# Puts everything in to /usr/share/armory and /usr/lib/armory
execAndWait('
sudo tar -zxf %s -C /' % installer)
Ctrl+X, Y, Enter
Copy to SD card:
sudo mkdir /media//home/pi/OfflineBundle
sudo cp ~/OfflineBundle/* /media//home/pi/OfflineBundle
Replace
with your path, which you can get from command
lsblk
Alternative way: copy this one to USB stick.
Then in next part copy OfflineBundle from stick to Raspbery Pi.
Raspberry Pi part.
Install Armory at Raspberry Pi:
Insert SD card and connect keyboard, mouse, monitor / TV and power supply to Raspberry Pi.
Wait until Raspberry Pi start.
Run terminal:
Ctrl+Alt+T
cd OfflineBundle
python Install_DblClick_RunInTerminal.py
4. Create offline wallet (cold storage):
Run the Armory by double clicking on the icon or from terminal:
Ctrl+Alt+T
armory
Create wallet. After confirming encryption password wallet will hang for several minutes - don't panic it's NORMAL.
Make a copy (copies) of the wallet.
I strongly recommend making the paper backup and store it in a safe place.
Attention! Anyone who get your paper backup - get access to all your Bitcoins!
Exception - paper backup with SecuPrint option - in this way you must store the SecuPrint code too!
In addition, for maximum security, I recommend
DO NOT CONNECT your Raspberry Pi to a network after the creation of offline wallet!
Now you can export watching only copy of your wallet to an online computer with a USB flash drive.
Watching only copy does not contain the private key. You can easy receive Bitcoins to watching only addresses,
but to spend you must sign the transaction by private key that stored in Raspberry Pi wallet.
For more information please refer to official Armory site: https://www.bitcoinarmory.com/
Any donations would be appreciated: 18k42wt1gyLxWMjctSisBKLph2EDpJfFtb
Donations for Armory developer: no published address yet.