Topic: Paper Wallets - page 2. (Read 544 times)

to be honest i don't agree with that wiki article. i have argued about it on reddit too when it was posted there. basically i believe that it is saying "since people are using it wrong, then the method should be considered bad!"

simply encrypt everything you want to print and that solves multiple issues including the printer memory, and physical access to the paper containing the keys.

correct call.

it is about "privacy" and that is something most users don't care that much about. for example there are a lot of users already using Electrum so they are already relying on Electrum nodes, one more address is not a big concern to them. if you want privacy then you run your own full node and since paper wallets is something you use once when you are spending, the time rescan takes in your full node is not a big concern either compared to the privacy you gain.

the point that this is trying to make is when for instance you have a paper wallet containing 1BTC and want to sell 0.9BTC of it. you will be left with 0.1BTC which if you send back, it will be address reuse and if not you will have to create a new wallet from scratch which is time consuming and hard. (using mnemonic helps solve this)

use BIP38 encryption and create more than one backup of it and you will be fine.

JavaScript is known to have many bugs and issues. there has been a lot of exploits in it too. and if you look at one of these tools (like bitaddress) history you can see some of these bugs that were found and fixed. generally it is considered unsafe.

this again is repetition of "users use these tools the wrong way" argument. the "website" is meant for the preview not for usage. the correct way is to download the source code from GitHub and transfer it to a clean offline computer and use it there.

Most secure type of wallet by default...

If you know how to use them and don't use it to put your cup of tea on.

I've created plenty. I would do so again and will.

And 'paper wallet' is a term that should be retired really. None of my paper wallets have been on paper. They're keys generated offline.

I double check the private keys match the wallet address with another program.

I put them in encrypted folders on SD cards. I photograph them with a dumb camera and copy and paste the keys and store them as jpegs and txt files. I do that with several cards and distribute them hither and thither.

I would not reuse, or partially spend though things like Mycelium can allow that. They're for long term one time storage and they do a fine job.

If done properly, you should be fine:

1. Use Ubuntu (or some other Linux distribution - Run as LiveCD).
2. Download Bitaddress.org offline and run it locally.
3. Print.

You can send funds regularly to the wallet without any issues by either printing a second copy of the wallet (just the address) or by saving it in your computer.

As for spending, then yes, sweeping will do the trick whenever you want to spend. Bitcoin core and Trezor don't allow that though, so you would need Electrum for desktop or Mycelium for Android for that purpose.

The reason why it can be inconvenient is like said above, papers are fragile, it can get wet, torn apart, lost or even found by someone else (that's the part where you might consider encrypting the private keys with a password), etc. but If you're confident of your ability to keep it safe, you should be fine.

Since you are already reading the wiki , it does list almost everything.
The only reason they are bad are based on two things .

1. Personal errors
2. The website errors

Since they are generated by the browser they have all the disadvantages that is associated with that particular site. It is a 3rd party system thus we all know how much we can trust it.

Person problems may include errors we may or may not unknowingly make, it is just a piece of paper , you might loose it or actually just read it incorrectly and things like that .
A piece might get torn and stuff.

It's very fragile.
Thus it is for someone who can actually handle it.

I am happy with my TREZOR wallet but I like the idea of storing some of the bitcoin I am buying into small paper wallets.  Maybe a bitcent each or even a nickel or dime (0.05 BTC or 0.1 BTC) in one.  But when I google and read about paper wallets it seems most of the articles I read discourage me from creating one.  But I still don't understand why they are such a bad idea?  If I use the software offline (Such as https://walletgenerator.net/ or https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/bitcoinpaperwallet/generate-wallet.html) and create random public addresses and private keys why would there be a problem with my saving those and sending coin to the public addresses?  I'm talking about a ONE TIME SEND transaction that sends the amount of bitcoin I want to store on that paper wallet address.  I could see it on the blockchain that it arrived in the address.  I could then save the wallet away.  And later when I am ready just sweep the wallet into my Bitcoin Core wallet or TREZOR?

Can anyone give me a good reason why I can't do this?  Or why it would not be safe? Or why I shouldn't do this?

Per the bitcoin wiki it says:

1. Printing is problematic (O.K. I get it that paper is not forever.  But let's just agree that I have the archival issues on this front sorted out)
2. Promotes address re-use (I'm talking about sending ONE transaction to this address.  No more. Then sweeping it when ready to spend. So I'm calling this a non-issue)
3. Encouragement of centralized and outsourced validation (I'm not sure I totally get this one?  It might be true that I would use a blockchain explorer to verify the transaction went through.  But after that I would not look at that address again.  Perhaps I visit the block chain explorer while running a VPN?  So I am anonymous while verifying that my paper wallet transactions have indeed landed in their correct addresses.)
4. Raw Private Keys are Dangerous (I read this section and I do fully understand what they are talking about. So no worries for me on this front.)
5. Change addresses are not handled which leads to screwups (I understand this.  But as long as I sweep the paper wallet into a TREZOR wallet or Core Wallet and spend the coin from the desktop wallet I shouldn't have any problems. Right? I get that if I sweep the coin into the wallet and then uninstall the wallet it won't recover that coin when I use my mnemonic phrase to restore the wallet elsewhere.  I would need my paper wallet again.)
6. Low Error Correction (I get this concern.  But I am totally O.K. with it because I do not intend to have my paper wallets sitting around with the private key printed on them verbatim anyway.  I have an entire encryption scheme I intend to use which will eliminate any issues on this front. And don't get me started on why I shouldn't encrypt my private keys.  That should be obvious and I'm not buying into the "DON'T DO IT" crowd.)
7. Encouragement of obsolete brainwallet style (This is also a non-issue.  I get that brainwallets are not secure.  I have no intention of using them)
8. Javascript software (I do not fully understand this. I'm open to being educated here)
9. Browser wallets are bad (I also do not fully understand this.  Again... Educate me.  Surely there is software out there that can create safe bitcoin public addresses and their matching Private Keys?)

Thanks in advance for your time and energy in responding to me.  It is appreciated.  I just want to save some of my bitcoin in a safe and simple manner for my retirement.  And I don't want all my eggs in one basket such as the TREZOR.

TheDigitalMan