One of the most popular options for keeping your bitcoins safe is something called a paper wallet.Here we explain how to transfer all those digital coins into a physical paper form using just a printer.Note that in this guide we’ll be talking about bitcoin.However, the basic concepts apply to any other cryptocurrency; for example, litecoin.A bitcoin wallet consists of two ‘keys’.The one you’ll already likely be familiar with is the public key, which is your wallet address and is how other people send bitcoins to you.The other part of your bitcoin wallet is the private key.It is this that enables you to send bitcoins to other people.The combination of the recipient’s public key and your private key is what makes a cryptocurrency transaction possible.It is important to understand that, if anyone else obtains the private key of your wallet, they can withdraw your funds – this is why it’s absolutely essential that nobody else discovers it.So, if you keep your coins in either an online wallet, or a hard-drive-based software wallet, you are vulnerable to attacks by hackers or malware that can log your keystrokes.

Furthermore, a stolen PC or a hard-drive crash could also see you waving bye-bye to your digital treasure.Used with care, a paper wallet can protect you from these possibilities.A paper wallet is a document that contains copies of the public and private keys that make up a wallet.Often it will have QR codes, so that you can quickly scan them and add the keys into a software wallet to make a transaction.ethereum november 2017The benefit of a paper wallet is that the keys are not stored digitally anywhere, and are therefore not subject to cyber-attacks or hardware failures.sell litecoin onlineThe disadvantage of a paper wallet is that paper and ink can degrade, and paper is relatively fragile – it’s definitely worth keeping well away from fire and water for obvious reasons.loading artist bitcoin

Furthermore, if you lose a paper wallet, you’ll never be able to access the bitcoins sent to its address.Here are 10 steps needed to create a paper wallet: For users of the Blockchain.info website, there is also a basic paper wallet option too.Click on the ‘Import/Export’ option, and look for the ‘Paper wallet’ link on the left-hand menu.This website offers a tamper-resistant design of paper wallet.biggest litecoin marketIt is also possible to order holographic labels to demonstrate that the wallet hasn’t been tampered with.jaguar bitcoinIt also supplies a live-boot Ubuntu CD with paper-wallet software pre-installed.ganar bitcoins rapidamenteGiven the implications and risks of storing large amounts of money, you may want to take serious precautions for how to go about creating your paper wallet and storing it afterwards.

Tips for keeping your paper wallet safe If you want to create a paper wallet for a lesser-used currency that doesn’t have an address generator website, there is still a way to achieve this.What every alt-currency does have is a variation of the Bitcoin-Qt wallet application.The console will then display the private key of that wallet.You then have the public and private keys of the wallet.You can print these ‘as is’, or you can opt to generate QR codes to print.However, the wallet details will still exist in your computer.The only way to remove them it is to open your file explorer in the ‘C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\[Wallet App Name]\’ folder and delete the ‘wallet.dat’ file.NOTE: this will remove all addresses held in the software wallet, and you should make sure that there are no funds remaining in the other addresses you will be deleting.Now you should be the proud owner of an unhackable paper wallet for your digital currency.If a paper wallet is not for you, however, you could use your own mind with a brain wallet.

For more options, please see our guide to storing bitcoin.Wallet, lock icons and printer images via ShutterstockJump to: , Casascius holding early paper wallets In the most specific sense, a paper wallet is a document containing all of the data necessary to generate any number of Bitcoin private keys, forming a wallet of keys.However, people often use the term to mean any way of storing bitcoins offline as a physical document.This second definition also includes paper keys and redeemable codes.A paper key is a single key written on paper that is used multiple times like a wallet (this is strongly discouraged).A redeemable code is a single key intended to be funded and "redeemed" only once: these are commonly used for gifts and as part of physical Bitcoin coins/notes.Storing bitcoins on paper wallets is not safe unless very strict security precautions are undertaken during their initial preparation.Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Generating paper wallets is not recommended from an online PC.

Malware malware on the PC may be able to steal your paper wallet keys.Even if you generate paper wallets securely, they are still vulnerable to loss and theft.Unencrypted paper wallets must be kept safe like jewels or cash.For additional security paper wallets can be split into shares, requiring X of Y shares (e.g., 3 out of 5) to reassemble the secret key.By creating a keypair, one can store bitcoins on a physical medium to be left as a tip or a gift.The recipient then sweeps the private key to their own wallet.A trusted provider can hide the private key inside a tamper-resistant token, and issue them as a form of bitcoins.This requires those who accept it as payment to trust that when the provider produced the tokens, they loaded them with the correct amount of bitcoins, and that they have not been tampered with since then.To redeem the bitcoin value, the token must be destroyed to access the private key.Often a bitcoin address is embedded on the outside visible, but there is no guarantee (without destroying the token) that this matches the private key inside, or, even if it does, that the private key is not replicated on multiple tokens or saved by the producer.

Proper paper wallets are often a very secure way of storing bitcoins, since they are not typically exposed to malware.They can also be easily stored securely in safes and safe deposit boxes.However, it may be more difficult to securely "backup" paper wallets, and due to the current sub-optimal software support, it may be easier to make a mistake that causes loss of bitcoins.Sometimes people try to use single keys as true bitcoin wallets.However address reuse is very bad for privacy and security.Because of this, one is forced to choose between hazardous options: Therefore, it is highly recommended that you use proper paper wallets which allow you to generate an infinite number of addresses from a single seed.Paper keypair with private key secured beneath folds Proper, multi-key paper wallets usually take the form of a multi-word HD wallet seed mnemonic.The list of several words corresponds to some binary data that is used to generate all of the addresses.Words are used to make it easier to avoid and correct errors.

Trying to memorize an entire seed mnemonic is very difficult and is generally not recommended.A single key (for use in insecure single-key paper wallets or redeemable codes) can be represented in several formats, but typically the Wallet Import Format (WIF) is used, since keys represented that way are very short (51 characters) and thus easy to re-enter when importing or "sweeping" it for withdrawal.The private seed is used to prove your right to spend the bitcoins transferred to the paper wallet, and as such should be kept hidden and secret.If the private seed on a paper wallet is exposed (for example in a photograph) then the wallet may be used by anyone who sees it.To guard against accidental revelation, the private key displayed on the paper wallet may be encrypted or split into several different parts (for example using Shamir's secret sharing scheme).At the very least, the private key should be well hidden e.g.by folding the wallet in half and sealing it shut.Currently, at least Armory and Electrum support generating mnemonic codes for their wallets, which can be written down or printed to make a multi-key paper wallet.

Several tools exist for producing single keys, including Bitcoin Address Utility, vanitygen, and Cwallet.Again, using single keys for anything except one-time transfers of bitcoins is strongly discouraged.Some websites feature free open-source client-side keypair/wallet generators written in JavaScript.Keypairs/wallets generated by JavaScript or using websites are inherently weak and insecure, and unless the code of the website is audited every time it is used, it may leak the generated keys back to the server—especially if un-audited Javascript is downloaded and run locally.Even with careful code auditing, browser plugins or other websites may compromise the environment.Some advanced printers have internal storage (even hard drives) that preserve copies of printouts.This is a risk if someone gets access to your printer, or if you dispose of your printer.There is also the possibility that a smart enough printer can be hacked.(Consider StuxNet which was able to rewrite the firmware of non-computer devices indirectly connected to the Internet) If this concerns you, use a "dumb" printer, and never let your printer have access to the Internet or to an Internet-connected computer.

An alternative using a printer for paper wallets is to write the private key and address with your own hand.Base58Check encoding used for Bitcoin addresses and private keys specifically excludes characters that look similar like 0OIl.The mnemonic recovery seeds used by wallets like Armory and Electrum are also suitable to be written by hand.This section applies only to single-key paper "wallets".Paper keys, when used as wallets, are very different from wallets such as Bitcoin Core in that there is only one address in a paper key rather than a hundred or more online keys that are managed with full software assistance from Bitcoin Core.There are various methods for copying the private key data to other wallets.Note that importing a private key that may be compromised can result in the entire wallet becoming insecure.For this reason, sweeping (or sending the entire amount to a fresh address) is generally recommended over plain importing.Because paper wallets only record the private key and address, wallet software which redeems the bitcoins must somehow learn about the balance of the wallet before being able to spend it.

The solution with the best privacy properties is to import the private key into bitcoin-qt and rescanning.Nobody watching the bitcoin-qt full node from outside will be able to tell which address it's interested in because all the scanning happens locally on disk.Unfortunately rescanning is quite slow, so most users are pushed towards using public blockchain explorers or Electrum servers.These centralized services can spy on the user and learn exactly how many bitcoins they have and when/where they spend them.An address database created from all bitcoin addresses is nearly 1 terrabyte in size at of April 2017 and takes a long time to build up, so very few people will have this kind of thing locally for the few occasions when they redeem paper wallets.Almost all wallet software today especially smartphone wallets relies on centralized lookups when redeeming paper wallets.This is another reason paper wallets are not recommended, the way that they function pushes people to ruin their own privacy.