Topic: Beware laser printers for paper wallets (Read 1022 times)

I don't think this is an issue of "paranoia".  In my analysis, it's an issue of risk, mitigation and cost.

For example, if you're a poor (oh, god, I said the P word ) person who only has, say, BTC50 in your computer, a paper wallet is a non-issue.  Sure, it might be the case that someone phishing or stealing your computer will get away with money you might even need to make dinner next week, but it's not that you're losing a life-changing amount of money. 

Conversely, if you're the owner of, say, BTC50.000 and looking to stash 95% of that in non-current, cold storage, printing a paper wallet and taking measures to prevent other people from getting their paws on it, makes perfect sense.  In that scenario, it pays to be aware of how technology can be used to betray the user.

And, in that scenario, it would be a real shame if you were to, say, in the future, dump your laser printer to the trash, only to discover years after the fact that people "in-the-know" cracked open the printer, retrieved the spooled printouts in it, and wiped your nest egg.  And you're ultra fucked.  Or someone breaks into your house, and can't find your paper wallet because you have it on a safe deposit box, and you feel a false sense of security... but you discover  that the thief has smashed your home office printer open.  And one week after the fact, ta-daaaa, your paper wallet is worth $0.  And you're ultra fucked.

Now, I concede this might be a hard scenario for you to imagine.  If that's the case, I suggest you start working hard towards BTC50.000 so that this scenario begins to make more sense.  And you'll be filthy rich.

Thus: If you're going to do the paper wallet thing, don't be a cheapskate, buy a goddamn BTC3 inkjet printer, it's worth your while.  Also, if you're engaging in illegal activities, don't print anything, especially not on a laser printer.  And let's not discredit, minimize or dismiss certain use cases, just because you feel it couldn't apply to you.  The forum is for other people too, you know?

If you're really worried about it, just wipe the drive before selling it. The people are using paper wallets tend to be pretty paranoid anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if they go that far.

Unless you're super paranoid, in which case you should make sure you replace the drive and run a whole bunch of black pages to wipe any latent signal off the drum.

maybe he has a reasonable explanation for why it isn't lazy?

So you care enough to make a post on the forums about it, But not enough to Correct the public wiki...
Holy crap your lazy.

That's definitely a concern if it does save the print output to a hard drive.

HP says they don't:

Standard print and copy jobs print directly without storing information on the HDD.

Advanced output options can use the HDD for temporary files.

 - http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c02164443&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=3673580&prodTypeId=18972


I've added a mention to the Wki article.

I don't have a username and I don't plan to register there.

Oh, well, I guess there will be people whose wallets get pilfered by used printer buyers.

I appreciate your feedback -- I obviously see things otherwise.  In my view, lulling potentially many people -- those printing into office printers, multifunction devices, et cetera -- into a false sense of security, is a valid concern.  A notice stating this fact about certain printers on the page wouldn't harm anyone, so there isn't a good reason not to add it.

I can't.  No Edit tab.

It's a wiki. Edit it yourself instead of asking.

Yah - that's not a real concern when you're printing on a consumer product (aka end user).

I just posted this note here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/12uiln/paper_wallets_page_in_the_wiki_needs_a_correction/

Can I get anyone to fix the wiki page?

Thanks.