Topic: Paper wallet or Hardware wallet (Read 249 times)

A lot of people speculate that the Paperwallet script on some of the websites are unsafe, but I downloaded the script file from the signed Github repository for bitaddress.org and I copied it on a computer not connected to the Internet and I generated 100s of Paper wallets.

I then used a small inkjet printer (also not connected to the Internet) and I printed duplicate copies of these Paper wallets and then I physically destroyed the printer and the old computer. (I bought both at a Pawn shop for $30)

I have used those Paper wallets for years and never lost any coins and I gave some to my friends and they have been using them for cold storage without any problems. 

What I did, I bought a Hardware wallet, I don't own a lot of crypto but it's always better to have a HW instead of paper wallet.

On the other side I'm planning to make a backup of my staked address on a metal plate.
here some pictures of the test drive. Have to find a nice metal plate and I'm good to go

The scope of possible circumstances in which you can have your coin stolen when using a paper wallet includes all of the circumstances in which you can have your coin stolen (or lose access to your coin) when using a hardware wallet or encrypted wallet, and then some.

In other words, there are fewer situations in which you can lose access to your coin when using a HW wallet or encrypted wallet, versus using a paper wallet.

HW wallets do cost more money than a HW wallet costs, and this may sway your decision.

ask yourself this: what do you do with your bitcoins?
if they just sit there in your wallet and you just accumulate more (long term HODL) then paper wallet can be an option but if you are using them regularly (spend them to buy stuff, pay the bills, trade,...) then you can not use a paper wallet anymore. that's because each time you want to spend coins you'll have to go through the setup again (all offline) and create a new wallet to send the change there.
even if you use seed words (mnemonic) as paper wallet you still have to go offline create the wallet, sign a tx and come back online and broadcast. it could be easier but still harder compared to using a hardware wallet.

other than that the choice is only a matter of money and your willingness to learn how to correctly create a paper wallet.

In past when I didn't had hardware wallet, I made paper wallet in similar way like you did it. Though, probably it's not completely safe way and it would better to follow what @bob123 have posted. If you're not going to touch your BTC for long time, paper wallet is optimal choice, you don't really need hardware wallet. But it's very important to protect that sheet of paper properly. And when you will want to transfer your Bitcoins somewhere, you will have to import private key to compatible wallet, like Electrum. Offcourse you can use Blockchain.com for, but it shouldn't be your first choice, there is many better wallets.

I don't consider $50-$100 price of hardware wallet as expensive thing. Offcourse, for people like OP who aren't going to use their Bitcoins often, it's not needed. But if you're using Bitcoin more or less often, I think it's best choice. Paper wallets is safe, but completely inconvenient if you spend Bitcoins often. Desktop wallets is convenient, but isn't safe as hardware wallets.

Paper wallets are underrated as long as you're confident in using them. Hardware wallet seeds should always be fine. I do wonder whether the current hardware wallets themselves will slowly get picked apart by researchers until people give up on them.

I retained an old laptop and took out the wifi card for all my crypto related fiddling and that's the only thing I'd use for a paper wallet. I'd never use my regular computer to go offline, do my business, and then go back online as soon as the job was done. That has the possibility for pain.

As for redeeming a paper wallet I used Mycelium's cold storage spending functions which works very well. Do NOT use Mycelium on iOS though. That's been given up on. Not sure what the alternative is for Apple hardware.

The most obvious flaws in your method which occur to me are:

Downloading a non-genuine copy of bitaddress, or a recent bitaddress update including malicious code that has not been picked up by anyone
Malware on your computer storing your private key and transmitting it to an attacker when internet access is restore
The printer you are using storing your private key in its memory and later being accessed, either physically or remotely

The most straightforward method I would do would be to follow bob123's steps above. I would not store a single key, but rather your entire seed phrase, since doing so solves the issues discussed above about change being sent to an address you don't control. I also would not use a printer, but rather just write your seed phrase by hand, to remove the issue regarding printer memory. If you have an old computer or laptop which you can make permanently airgapped (i.e. no internet connection now or ever again), then that's a better option than simply disabling your internet connection and turning it back on again later.

If you want to generate a paper wallet i recommend doing the following:

• Download and install a bootable linux distribution using an USB drive
• Boot from your USB
• Download electrum and verify the signature
• Disable wifi / disconnect ethernet
• Generate a new wallet in electrum
• Decide whether you want the whole seed / mnemonic code as a paper wallet or just a single private key / address
• Write down (or print) the mnemonic code / seed / private key / address
• Shutdown your PC (all traces will be removed from RAM)

This approach is by far more secure than using a website (online or offline).




You can use your hardware wallet with electrum.
The electrum server will still see your IP, but won't know for sure which addresses belong to you, neither whether you have a hardware wallet.

Well, the only flaw in a paper wallet (even though it's not a flaw of the wallet, it's a flaw of a printer) is that you could compromise your private key if someone reads your printer internal memory. That can be easily fixed if you print 20 pages of some random text after you print your paper wallet. Besides, you don't have to print a paper wallet. You could write down public and private keys by hand.

I agree that a hardware wallet is a good thing to have (I too own one). But for a person who doesn't make a lot of transactions and who want to keep crypto for a long time, paper wallet is good.

Besides, a hacker can tamper with hardware wallet's chip and stole your crypto in a blink of an eye.

Back when I used paper wallets, I laminated them to prevent some mistakes like water droplets from damaging them. Before I had a laminator, I used scotch (applied transparent scotch all over the paper and left a frame of 5-6mm I carefully cut with a scissor).

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Not really. You could be writing down the seed into Electrum and have your funds sweeped out of the wallet in half a second by some malware. You could be pasting the wrong address into Electrum when sending due to some script and you'd get some financial damage. There are plenty of things that could happen when wrongly using a wallet and I think the price of a hardware wallet is worth it. There are some cheaper HWs out there, or you could be hunting for some Ledger or Trezor sales.

If you're printing the paper wallet, your printer may hold the PDF in its internal memory (if it has one) and once you connect it to some infected PC, poof! Your wallet would be gone in no time.

Moreover, you could do a little silly mistake with a very large cost like sweeping the paper wallet only partially and having the rest of the funds go to a change address you don't own.

Take the HW wallet with you anywhere and if you lose it, within 3 tries a thief would lose any chance to get into your funds. Once you got home, you'd have the funds back. If there's no thief around looking for Hardware Wallets, you could use yours from your phone (at least Ledger) to pay and receive.

It's just worth it.

You have the same problem with taking care of the paper that you have hardware wallet's seed phrase stored. If you lose it or if it's destroyed, you can't restore your hardware wallet (if you ever need to do that).

This will probably sound strange, but my opinion is that if a paper wallet is created with all precautions that you can, it is more secure than a hardware wallet. Those steps that you mentioned are secure enough. It's important to generate a paper wallet on an offline device. Also, one more thing is the most important thing about paper wallets. When you withdraw from a paper wallet, you "sweep" it. It means that you send all your BTC, even if you want to send a portion of it to an exchange. For example, if you have 0.1 BTC and want to send 10% of it to Binance, you will do like this:
1. Send 0.01 BTC to Binance
2. Send 0.09 BTC to another paper wallet that you generated in the same secure way as the first one

This is because when you send BTC from a paper wallet, you must type your wallet's private key online and with that action it can be stolen. That's why paper wallets always have to be "swept" when you are sending your crypto from it.

is that what you use currently how is it (=

Others may disagree, but hardware wallets are expensive, and I feel that paper wallets (and your steps for making them) are reasonably secure. The main risks to a password-protected paper wallet are loss or damage and forgetting the password. You must take extra care to protect your paper wallet against those risks.

As for withdrawal, since you have no intention to spend the bitcoins in the near future, there is no point in discussing which wallet to use now. Most wallets support sweeping a private key, so there will probably be no issue.

I was thinking maybe getting a trezor one. But I worry about my ip address getting recorded is there a way to secure my information with using trezor one if i do decide to pick one? Like using a desktop or web wallet not recording your data?

I never used paper wallet ever nor I had suggested anyone to use it. Concern about security is depend on how you have generated the address and how you keep it on safe place. But real concern is during spending your bitcoin. Partial use of bitcoin from your paper wallet lead you lost fund if incase you forget to spend full amount. Because when you will use partially the remaining amount where will go? I don't have idea either it will back to your address or it will go to miner because you don't have change address there. So I will prefer to use hardware wallet either you want to hold for longer or wanna spend from there.

Generate address offline is quite secure (if it's possible for you and you understand everything). But rather then paper wallet you may use some other open source wallet like Electrum and export all private keys & seed and write it on multiple paper to keep safe on multiple places. But again I will encourage for good practice and buy Ledger wallet. Its price isn't much higher for a general bitcoin user. At least your fund will be safe.

I have 4 digits in my bitcoin wallet lower then 4k I want to make my wallet more secure. So question is paper wallet still secure if yes is this method still good.

start bitcoinaddress.org save it to the desktop.
Go offline turn off wifi
open site from desktop click paper wallet
set it up with a password
then print

is this a secure way because I don't really want to get a hardware wallet Since I barley would use it. Since it would literally be just sitting since I barley sell BTC. I don't wanna buy a hardware wallet if I don't have to.

Also to withdraw from paper wallet what is the best way on doing that ? I'm guessing using blockchain app isn't the best option. I use a iphone so a iphone app would be great if you get give me a suggestion.


Let me know or do I have to go with buying a hardware wallet like ledger one.

Really need help guys