Topic: How to buy Bitcoin for Grandparents? (Read 823 times)

OP, in the first place why get granny excited about this. Bitcoin or cryptocurrency is a hi-tech innovation that should be left to the jet age. Discussions around bitcoin is even confusing to many in thus generation let alone anyone from the 19th century.

Anyway, if you must get your grandpa involved in bitcoin, why not get him a simple thing as an offline wallet like electrum? That way granny gets to control his coins by keeping the secret seeds secret and secured.

But why?
You can create a paper wallet that holds the funds directly. Why would you go through the hassle of giving them 3 pieces of paper with a seed that is much more complicated to use, and poses a greater risk of getting compromised?

I get that you're more familiar with Electrum than you are with paper wallets, but that doesn't mean a paper wallet can't be the best option. The first reply to this thread explains all you need to know to learn how it works.

I have a formatted laptop that has never touched the internet since OS installed.

Could I just download electrum, and than send bitcoins to it than copy seed 3 times and give it to him?

Than i'll just delete electrum and use laptop for work.

This seems like the easiest way and i'll also save several addresses from the wallet.

The simplest option would be for you to purchase the coins for them, and store them in a paper wallet. Do not expect them to understand all the technical jargon you will likely be wasting tour time.

Bitcoin Scratch cards loaded with $100 worth of Bitcoin would be good idea.
All your grandparents need do when they receive their cards from you is to gently scratch off silver coated panel to reveal their Private keys. Then load the private keys on a Bitcoin App & start spending the Bitcoin. Better still they can keep their card unscratched below their pillow or in Cupboard & wait until  price goes up.

https://www.google.com.ng/search?q=Bitcoin+Gift+card&btnG=&client=ms-opera-mini-android&channel=new&dcr=0&biw=300&bih=392&tbm=isch


Unfortunately such product does not exist. But you could hand them Christmas Envelopes with their Private Keys printed in papers with detailed instructions on how to spend the Bitcoins.

Maybe if buy him new computer with specifications enough and teach him like where about bitcoin can also

It will be hard for him to understand bitcoin if you didn't tell him what it is. Let him gain a knowledge first about bitcoin and how does it work.
Buy a hardware wallet for your grandpa and buy him some bitcoin for investment. Tell him how he can keep safe his bitcoin wallet out from hacker.

I take it this would be long term investment as in... Buy... HODL till the end of time
there's already many good suggestions: paper wallet, hardware wallet, usb stick, etc
I would like to suggest that everyone been missing to tell you
Buy him Funded BTC Gold/Silver coins! one of those pure gold casascius, kialara or other prominent named coins
if the golds are too much of premium price, then go for silver ones
so, your grandpa can holds (literally) his investment and liquidate/sell the coin/btc later

these coins are just like paperwallet but you get two in one investment: BTC and precious metal
you just need to educate your grandpa about its safekeeping precautions and how to get the BTC out of it, if needed in the future
in the meantime you can teach him how to keep track, check the balance thru his old computer or smart phone
it's a lot easier too for your grandpa to make it as inheritance for his childs and grandchilds

a smartphone can also get compromised, and is rather easily lost/stolen. Also, the private keys are kept on an online device, which is also not so good for long term storage

i will buy trezor for him and give bitcoin to him and tell him to take care the trezor wallet because all of his bitcoin in that wallet. but if your grandpa can use cellular phone then you can send bitcoin into his phone and you don't have to buy trezor. but before you send the amount, you need to explain to your grandpa that bitcoin is different than the fiat and you need to make sure that he is understand.

If he's interested in investment only then creating a offline wallet with Ubuntu is a very good idea but if hes interested in actually using it in the short term then I think a hardware wallet suits him more. It requires an investment but its safer to use if the person who uses it doesn't know a lot about computers then its safer than just using a computer.

I know, that's why I suggested that he uninstalls the network drivers.
A laptop is more user-friendly than a hardware wallet. Also old people tend to be "forgetful".

For 40$, why not just spend a few more dollars and get a hardware wallet? A cheap second hand laptop could come infected, or his grandparent could mess up and connect it to the internet. A hardware wallet is even safer as long as he doesn't try to install non official firmware and will keep his coins safe even on an infected computer.

The Ledger Nano S is currently available for 45.82 Euro: https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-nano-s

To be on the safe side, tell him to buy a cheap ass second-hand laptop for 40 bucks that never connects to the internet(uninstall or disable the networks drivers for him). Copy Electrum over to that laptop and create a wallet there. Safe,easy and user-friendly to manage for even novice users, minimal chance for fuck ups.

Not Recommended to do this, if his Grandparents were let to control their own wallet without any knowledge beforehand, chances are they might ended up screwing themselves.

Hey, it's great that your Grandparents wanted to get into Bitcoin!
I think what you should do is educate them on Bitcoin, I'm not sure how quickly your Grandparents will be able to grasp the concept of Bitcoin,  but you should teach them about what is Bitcoin and how do they work.
After that you can show them Bitcoin Wallet and how to use them along with basic PC Security and tell them to run weekly Malware scan, that should be enough
or you can show them how bitcoin can be used as currency by buying them a new PC with Bitcoin

Download for him a wallet, let he owns his wallet and controls it. Just do like normal way, send Bitcoin to his wallet address.

First: it's a bad idea to invest in anything you don't know about. Did you get him interested by telling him how much it went up in value, or did you also tell him it can easily drop 90%?

You're talking about your grandparents. They have a slow computer, and they're "old people". Something tangible will be much easier to comprehend than "there's this website were you can log in to see your Bitcoins".
When in doubt, take the simplest solution.

Do they use smartphones? A paper wallet can easily be redeemed from a smartphone, so they don't depend on you to do so.

I completely agree with everything NeuroticFish said, but only wanted to add one more thing: your idear of creating on online wallet is not good at all... The basic idear of bitcoin is being your own bank. By using an online wallet, you hand over your private keys to an online entity. It's up to this entity to manage your unspent outputs. The person (or company) can pull an exit scam, get hacked, go bancrupt,... You can also lose your credentials, and they might not be able (or willing) to help you out.
I've said it before, and i'll say it once again: "if you're not the (only) one in controll of your private keys, you're not the (only) one in controll of your funds!"

Do yourself a favour, and stay away from any kind of online wallet, especially for bigger amounts, and for long term storage... The fact they have a smaller learning curve does not compensate for the loss of security and privacy... Better pick a secure paper, hardware or airgapped wallet with a bigger learning curve but better security and privacy.

Also, you'll have to realise that an usb drive also has a certain lifespan... Albeit, the lifespan is usually linked to the number of read/write cycles, and not so much to the age of the stick... That being said: if you do chose  this path, make several copies and store them in different places.

You realize that a paper wallet is just a public+private key after all? It's one of the simplest and cheapest ways to "store" Bitcoin.

Of course, you can do something similar by saving Electrum's seed words.
If you use a wallet software and save the wallet file onto a stick you already risk to have the private key(s) leaked due to malware or there's a chance that the wallet program you've been using to be discontinued after some years you or your grandparents want to access the money (example of discontinued software is Multibit classic). Also this means storing on USB stick which can get broken, either because of age, either because of misuse.


If you fancy the USB sticks (as I said, I don't), this could be useful for you; I've read about it not too long ago: some USB stick wallet you can load up with Bitcoin https://opendime.com/

^ Thanks, but is there a way to not use paper wallet. Like creating online wallet, sending bitcoin to it, than take bitcoin wallet off the computer and deleting it?