Procedure when creating Paper Wallets

elektra

full member

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Quote from: KyrosKrane on June 10, 2017, 03:19:37 PM

Make two paper wallets (or more). Send a small amount of BTC to the first one, then sweep it back into your regular wallet (desktop/mobile/whatever). Once you're confident you know how to get your bitcoins back out, you can send them to the second paper wallet for storage. DO NOT REUSE THE FIRST WALLET! Shred it after you get your bitcoins out.

But why do I need to also test sweep the first address? Is it not enough to send coins to it and see that they arrive there?
"Once you're confident you know how to get your bitcoins back out" - That is never more complicated than just importing the private key to a wallet? So why go through it in a test run first?

You can't just sweep it back into your normal wallet without replacing that wallet? Or can you?

It is a big pain to have to find a second wallet to be able to sweep to.

KyrosKrane

sr. member

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Merit: 250

Make two paper wallets (or more). Send a small amount of BTC to the first one, then sweep it back into your regular wallet (desktop/mobile/whatever). Once you're confident you know how to get your bitcoins back out, you can send them to the second paper wallet for storage. DO NOT REUSE THE FIRST WALLET! Shred it after you get your bitcoins out.

elektra

full member

Activity: 140

Merit: 100

Thank you, I thought it did sound a bit to much to also testsweep everything. I like to test by sending a small amount first though to the adress and see it gets there just to be safe. But to have to go through procedure to actually also test sweep a test adress sounded like a bit of overkill.

I could not use bitaddress.org because that is just BTC

TryNinja

legendary

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I don't even think you need to test it first. All you have to do is make sure you printed and stored your paper wallet before sending any big amount of cash to it. You can even save the public address, and only send your coins to the address when you have the private key in a safe place.

The main purpose of a Paper Wallet is to only be used one time. That's why there is no reason to test spending the coins from the paper wallet before storing it for the long term, since when you sweep the coins to a normal wallet, the safety of the paper wallet isn't guaranteed anymore.

Edit: adaseb said he never heard of this website but I can guarantee it's legit, just like the one suggested by him. Just make sure to disconnect your internet before generating any wallet.

adaseb

legendary

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Dont use that website, never heard of it.

Use bitaddress.org instead

Save it on a USB stick, unplug your internet, boot into Ubuntu, create a wallet there and save the private key on another USB stick.

And don't plug those 2 USB sticks to the internet unless its time to sweep the funds.

And yes send small amount first to make sure address is correct.

elektra

full member

Activity: 140

Merit: 100

I have looked in the thread for recommended paper wallets and decided to use the https://walletgenerator.net/ to make paper wallets since it seems to have got top scores in security. I am just wondering about the procedure after I have created the wallets and is going to send funds to them. Is it enough to send funds to the wallet and check that they arrive at the right address, (a small test amount first and then the rest) or do I also need to actually sweep a test address to make sure that is working also (I am doing this for multiple coins).

It would be a big pain in the butt to have to find wallets to sweep into, and it is even worse that the wallets I have I can not create a new wallet to sweep without reseting the first one. So say for example I wanted to send DigiByte to a paper wallet from my desktop wallet. I can't just do it first with a test address and then try to sweep that adress in the DigiByte desktop wallet because then it will replace that wallet.

Is it really necessary to also do the sweeping? Is it not enough to make sure the address you send to exists and the funds actually get there?

Topic: Procedure when creating Paper Wallets (Read 410 times)