Topic: Question about paper wallets. (Read 1140 times)

: https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/

here's the problem...I don't know enough about reading code to say, "yeah this is legit". Im trying to learn what I can, but for goodness sake, there is so much to take in.  I just started studying bitcoins, have learned alot of hard lessons and want to make minimal mistakes moving forward.  Many thanks to all that have replied to this thread.

Yeah bitcoinaddress had pretty much got that one covered.

Which website?  I don't see where you said what website you were trying to use?

That's exactly what I thought.  I was doing it as practice really, but i couldn't get the transaction to go thru until I validated the private key threw that website.  I was still online too because I couldn't figure out how to get the page to show up of line in google chrome.  When i used bitaddress.org off line wasn't a problem at all.  I just like the design with the fold over the private key.  I'm going to make my own design tho.  I'm a slow learner with this stuff however.  Once I do get something going, I want to put it online so that anyone can use there own images to go with the important numbers and qr codes, so long as i'm not violating any copyrights.  I'm really trying to get a cheap computer that will never be online to print paper wallets with a piece of mind. 

Thanks, I'll definately check out armory today.  So much catching up to do and so little time.  I want to get a pack of paper wallets together with my favorite coins.  I'm going to put my face and my family members faces on them like we are dead presidents.  and seal them in an envelope with instructions to opening online wallets and of course some shameless self-promo references.  Im thinking like $12.50 worth of various cryptos and sell them for $15.  I doubt I'll make any money from it, but it will at least be funny as hell and will help spread the word about using these coins, or even just as an affordable investment for those new and curious like I was in december.  

I feel like you've got to have a sense of humor with this stuff, less crying.  I feel bad about people that got Goxed and thank God that I was lucky enough to go with coinbase, simply because it was cheaper at the time.  It would be nice to make back the 25% I lost buying high and selling low at cex.  I kind of jumped in head first because I really do want to invest in mining.  I feel like its an investment into infrastructure, but what a rip off cex turned out to be.  Granted I didn't really know what I was doing, so shame on me.  

No matter what currency is being used, it takes money to make money.  So for now, I'm just going to stick to having fun and trying to make a couple dollars, while spreading the word and hopefully give the community some references to good open source code in the process.  My dream is to collaberate on a digital coin that operates a media player which will directly auto pay royalties to recording artists, and even have tipping options.  Spotify and the like is awesome for listeners, but gosh darn, it is really taking advantage of the artists.

You should not have to enter a private key to send to a paper wallet.  You should just be able to send to the public address, otherwise you are exposing the private key and are losing the benefits of a paper wallet being completely offline.

So, I was able to fund the paper wallet, but only after I entered the private key to validate it.  I'm going to keep trying to get to a point where the private key is only seen by the end user when they are redeeming, or sweeping the paper wallet.  These things can serve as a great starter kit for BTC and other digital currency.  I wish i knew how to write code.  Does anyone have any suggestions and references on the best way to learn coding?  Until someone comes out with an all encompessing online wallet, these paper wallets are going to have to do for now.  

How funny would it be, if sealed paper wallets take the place of paper money.  They would have to be very tamperproof, but that would be so sweet.  Especially if BTC and other cryptos increase in value.  Instead of old folks complaining about how dollars had more buying power, it'd be the opposite.

"In my day, a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk was 15¢", says the grumpy elderly man.  But in our future, we'll be saying, "See this paper wallet, it was worth 10 dollars when i printed it, now 20 years later I used it to buy a house and this new self-flying, aeriel, magnetic segway.  Oh its solar powered by the way, and the sound system runs on farts."

Just use armory to create paper wallets (this way you know it's secure and not someone generating it for you). Then you can go online and buy those tamper proof scratch off stickers that the lottery uses and place it over any private key.

edit: guess this is just for your friends I suppose.  No real way to make a "trust-free" wallet without having to jump through a bunch of hoops as others have mentioned above.  Trust is just earned over time such as is with the casacuis coins.

This site looks great, but I'm having a hard time funding the wallets with small amounts from coinbase.  It says, "please enter valid email or bitcoin address".  If I can get it to work, I would use the designs for the lite and doge coins as well.  I'm trying to avoid even looking at the private key section, and it was my understanding that I wouldn't have to. Especially since I am just using these paper wallet to create some interest amongst friends and hopefully local merchants, without having to be trusted.  Not saying that I'm not trustworthy haha, because I am.  I just want to prove that anyone can do this and they don't have to feel responsible when gifting BTC, so long as they are careful with securing the private keys.   

As others have said, www.bitcoinpaperwallet.com is great for having an encrypted Private Key that needs to be unscrambled.

However, if you want a really trustless system, then I would suggest you go to www.bit2factor.org and use the Two-Party Escrow tool. Your friend would use a passphrase that only they know to create an Intermediate Code which they send you.  You would use that a intermediate Code to create an Address, an Encrypted Private Key, and a Confirmation Code, all of which you send back to your friend.  (You can print the Address and Encrypted Private Key on any paper wallet design that is out there.). Your friend can check that the Confirmation Code matches the Address and Encrypted Private Key with their passphrase. Finally, when they want to import their Private Key, they would use their passphrase to de-crypt the Encrypted Private Key.

The private key is generated with the bitcoin address is generated.

Therefore, there are only 2 options:

Your "customers" generate the addresses and private key.  They encrypt the private key before they supply you with the address and the encrypted private key.  It is up to them to remember the password to the private key so that they can decrypt it if/when they want to import the paper wallet.

You run software that generates the addresses and private key.  The private key is then obscured in some manner.  Your customers all have to trust you not to "peek" at the private keys before they are obscured.

BIP-38 is a process for encrypting a private key. If you are printing a paper wallet for someone, you could have them go to the "Paper Wallet" tab of bitaddress.org and generate an encrypted private key that they would send to you to print.

This is what I use as well.

This is what you're looking for: https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/

I just use Armory cold-storage wallets which work fantastically, in my experience...

This is a two part question...

1.) Are there any programs that can generate printable paper wallets with visable public keys, while keeping the private keys hidden somehow?  I'm trying to make paper wallets without having any knowledge of the private keys until they are ready to be imported.  Kind of like how blockchain creates online wallets without keeping records of any private keys, which are only seen on the user end.  Maybe something like a scratch off lottery ticket, where you can clearly see the public key, but have to scratch off the section that reveals the paper wallet's corresponding private key.  Or perhaps have the private key further encrypted, so that what is actually printed on the paper wallet is a key that then needs to be  unscrambled to reveal the actual private key.  The ultimate goal here is to print a paper wallet without being responsable or have any knowledge of the private key.  I could print and fund wallets for my friends no problem, but it would be cool to do this for strangers and not worry about gaining their trust.

2.) I don't have a ton of BTC, but I'd be willing to pay a programmer to write some code to create such a program.  I would even make it open source once complete, so anyone that wants to print 'secret' paper wallets can do so for friends and strangers alike.  My next question is how does one set a bounty for work to be completed by programmers?  I believe 'bounty' is what it is called.  Also, are there any reputable escrow services that can help with this process?  I don't want to make a down payment on some programming work and have someone run off with my BTC, which is almost sure to happen.  Ideally I'd like to meet some programmers in person, so if there are any affordable freelancers in the Pittsburgh area looking for some work, please let me know. 

Thanks so much for reading, hope to hear from some interested folks.  Take care.