Topic: Paper Wallet vs Desktop Wallet and security? (Read 3150 times)

In my humble opinion, I don't see any upside to having a paper wallet versus using a hardware wallet. I emphatically agree that one should never keep more than spending money in a hot wallet, or coins that you plan on trading on an exchange, but paper can very easily deteriorate or get lost or destroyed. That's why I'm a firm believer in hardware cold storage wallets.

A single drop of water in the right place on that paper and the data is unusable.  I woulnd't be afraid to use cloud storage or whatever, but if it makes you more secure, then get a cheap couple of USB drives and operate your wallets from them.

I not know Paper Wallet can good than Desktop Wallet or not?
I hold my BTC with a method, I use a desktop wallet for create an address and send some BTC I want hold long-term. When done, I will backup private key this address, backup it to paper, Trezor or a hard device can use long time and security, look like as could storage

A paper wallet is always more secure than a desktop wallet and the reason you should be offline when you do it is because the same security threats that can steal bitcoins off ur desktop wallet could do so with ur paper wallet if you are connected to the internet.

However assuming your computer was risk free when you first connected to the internet your paper wallet would be just as safe as when you are offline.

People take more precautions with a paper wallet precisely because they want the most secure wallet possible and that is the only reason for creating them because they aren't very useful in that form.

I think a lot of the security needs depend on your internet browsing habits and the overall way you go about using your computer/laptop.

If you are the type to download and use cracked apps, browse sketchy websites, click on "meet hot chicks now,"  etc.   Then you definitely need some sort of cold storage/paperwallet.

For the average joe, that solely uses their computer for work and shopping at amazon.com or going to espn.com and things like that...paper wallet is definitely an added layer of security, but not an absolute necessity IMO, unless you are holding what you feel is a substantial amount of money.  It also make more effort that it's worth to you.

For instance, if you had $100 bill in your wallet, and that was all the money you had to your name, you are far more likely to keep your wallet in front pocket and within arms reach.   If it isn't worth your time to even look for your wallet if you lost it with $100, then paper wallets may be more steps than you are willing to take.   So it's really case by case.

Yes the seed will bring your wallet back. I personally like the BIP encrypted wallet. Even if a person finds it they will not be able to crack the code.

Seems like too many things could go wrong with a paper wallet. What do people think about making a wallet with a passphrase seed offline then moving coins to it and then deleting the wallet. So you just have passphrase. I dont see how you can be hacked this way? I kind of cold storage for dummies.

Something people dont talk about enough in security is splitting your money into as many places as practically possible. Some one some wallets on phone with different providers. Some on desktop. Even some on a few exchanges. I mean they cant all be compromised. I personally would never want my coins in one wallet even if i had the best security or paper offline system in place.

I am not so sure about it. Ok we get it to the point that paper wallets can be promised wothout the Internet very independent of the Internet use. However paper wallet should always have a medium for communication so it does means that your key  can still be visible to other devices

Both wallet are good, Actually Im using three wallets like paper wallet , desktop wallet and online wallet. I split my balance into three and fill my wallet with bitcoins. Paper wallet is for the long hold of bitcoin. I used my desktop wallet when Im transacting in my home and Im using online wallet when Im in other places that I cant access my both wallet. But every that Im using is good its just depending on how you will use it.

i think beside of desktop wallet, i will use android phone wallet because if i am out from home and i need to buy something like to refill my phone card, i only use my android phone to buy in local store and i can pay with the wallet on my android phone. using desktop wallet is just for saving my most of bitcoin so in my android phone, i only send some amount that i think its enough for my to buy something later.

Hi,
     I believe paper wallets are the way to go for long term storage for large quantities of BTC..for me that would be 2BTC and up especially at the price BTC is valued at now. Cold storage is the key!

    I  understand what is required and the risks involved with Malware..hackers and keyloggers...so this is what I did.

    Bought a new laptop, new printer, usb chip and new camera.

    These devices will never be connected to the internet. I downloaded the wallet program and also bought it too via https://www.bitaddress.org/

    Installed both on my new PC and created a paper wallet with the BIP38 encrypt..Printed multiple copies and took pictures which I stored onto the USB chip.
    I also tested the wallet to make sure the private and public key match by using the two separate wallet programs. I would not want to place into a paper wallet that somehow send your coins into oblivion or that you cannot retrieve.

    So now I have paper and software images of my wallets private and public keys. Since water is one thing to be concerned about I laminated the wallets and also placed it in this plastic mold.
    What you see is the Q square of the private key which is encrypted but is water proof. I can literally place in my acquarium! I tested and it can be scanned with no proble,
        
        https://ibb.co/jbbVkv
        https://ibb.co/hi2syF

   That being done...I safely store the paperwallets and USB chips in a safe deposit box in water proof zip lock bags.

    As far as monitoring your bitcoin public address balance..there are apps out there that do this. And as for hiding your IP address, I use a VPN software where I can show I am coming rom INDIA and thus hide my true ID and not leave any kind of IP original footprint. For instance whenever I goto any forum I make sure I do not use my real IP address. If there are any hackers out there they can see who owns Bitcoins and thus see your real IP. This can give them a possible target. So when it comes to digital cryptocurrency take all precautions. Goodluck!

If the clone is based on the bitcoin codebase (like most altcoins are), you can probably download their reference client and it'll probably have a way to import a private key... Only in the highly unlikely event that a dev cloned bitcoin (or cloned a bitcoin clone) AND removed the functionality to import private keys, you can potentially have a problem... Unless there are other wallet clients that have been generated that also allow you to sweep or import a private key.

It's hard to give a one-size-fits-all answer to this question tough... There might be coins out there that were written from scratch and only have wallets without the option to import private keys... I can't imagine a coin like that at this moment, but theoretically it could be possible... I highly doubt there would be a trusted paper wallet generator for such a coin tough

Ok thank you. Monero is one of the bigger coins though. How about smaller coins that you have on your paper wallet? It would suck big time to put y our savings on a paper wallet, and then find out there is no way to get them out :/ Or will there always be a way as long as the coin is actually worth something?

Paper wallet is definitely safer as it is completely offline.

Desktop wallets are only as safe as your desktop. If you run antivirous checks every now and then, and keep your system clean then you shouldn't worry about storying your bitcoins on a desktop wallet. There is always the risk of losing money from a hard disk failure even though it's very rare.

I suggesting using cryptosteel, you can store your private key with waterproof. Paper wallets aren't fireproof, waterproof or anything proof really for that matter.

I haven't experimented with monero, but looking at their paper wallet generator i found here: https://moneroaddress.org/ it seems they generate a seed witch can be used to restore to a new wallet using simplewallet...

But how do I know there is actually a way to sweep the coins I am creating the wallet for in the future? For example a big coin like Monero I can't find anywhere to sweep the coin

Yes but you have to be able to trust yourself with the little piece of paper...potentially in a security deposit box or something like that.   That's good if you plan on not using the coins and just holding them for the long haul.

I've never actually used paper wallets before

The only reason why people create paper wallets offline is because nobody can log your session while you doing it or even retrieve a cache copy of your session if you do it offline. If you are going to store say, 4000 bitcoins on a wallet, would you not spend $100 to $200 on a old second hand computer and printer to create paper wallets and then sleep easy knowing that nobody will ever be able to access your private key with those coins.

You can destroy the old equipment after you created several 1000's of addresses/private keys and it would have been money well spend. < Most secure method to create paper wallets >

Desktop wallets are online and have to avoid Malware and Spyware and keyloggers and all those nasty things out there.

sweep simply means spend. when you sweep a private key the wallet software goes to your wallet file and chooses a new address and then sends (spends) the funds from the swept private key to that address.

if there aren't anything weird about altcoins' private keys and how they make transactions, then it is not a hard or strange thing to import/sweep paper wallet into regular wallets. most of them have the function already and if not you can always ask a programmer to make you some small code to do it based on their source code.

The paper wallet is safer and also the gambang is used directly, and does not have to open any site site to transact. If I want to get Bitcoin, I will only be able to load paper wallets and earn money in cash, that's all there with Paper Wallet . The desktop wallet needs electricity to open it