Paper Wallet

[RustyStaples]

Hi to all, I'm a Bitcoin novice & would like to begin with the purchase of a couple of coins which are registered on the blockchain & stored outside in a paper wallet as per the advice of Bix Weir and Clif High. This may be made more difficult as I'm located in Australia. All help appreciated. Rusty

[bitkilo]

Hi to all, I'm a Bitcoin novice & would like to begin with the purchase of a couple of coins which are registered on the blockchain & stored outside in a paper wallet as per the advice of Bix Weir and Clif High. This may be made more difficult as I'm located in Australia. All help appreciated. Rusty

Hi Rusty,

I am Australian too and just because we are a little isolated from the rest of the world down here doesn't make bitcoin anymore difficult.
You can find some information and instruction tools to make a paper wallet here: https://tools.bitcoin.com/paper-wallet/
Just make sure you follow all instructions exactly as they are, one thing you have to be very careful about when making a paper wallet on your PC is to complete the whole process offline so your private key remains just that – private.

Feel free to contact me if you need further help

[bitkilo]

I couldn't see any instructions on the "paper wallet" homepage so have quoted them below from the FAQ of bitcoin.com. I will see if we can get this added to the page.

How To Make A Bitcoin Paper Wallet?
Paper wallets are a great way to keep Bitcoin offline and out of hackers’ reach. Creating paper wallets is easy but losing the paper also means the bitcoins are lost forever so be careful. Paper wallets contain both private and public keys which allow you to spend your bitcoins. The most common way that people creates paper wallets is a website, BitAddress.org, where users can generate a fresh new Bitcoin address and related private key. The website will ask the person to initiate some steps and are then given both public and private keys after the process. From there all one has to do is print the paper wallet using BitAddress.org’s website or another service. After printing a copy, you can load as much bitcoin as you want into your public QR-code. This service, however, does come with a caveat. There are any number of technical reasons why generating a private key on a machine that you don’t control is a bad idea; these range from man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks to untrustworthy site operators, and everything in between. However, downloading the Bitaddress code and running it on your own machine offline can mitigate these risks. This can be further secured by doing so on a machine that is not (and has never been) connected to the internet.

You can also make a paper wallet by throwing dice:

An important part of creating a Bitcoin wallet is ensuring the random numbers used to create the wallet are truly random. Physical randomness is better than computer generated pseudo-randomness. The easiest way to generate physical randomness is with dice. To create a Bitcoin private key you only need one six sided die which you roll 99 times. Stopping each time to record the value of the die. When recording the values follow these rules: 1=1, 2=2, 3=3, 4=4, 5=5, 6=0. By doing this you are recording the big random number, your private key, in B6 or base 6 format. You can then enter the 99 character base 6 private key into the text field above and click View Details. You will then see the Bitcoin address associated with your private key. You should also make note of your private key in WIF format since it is more widely used.

[RustyStaples]

Very helpful link thank you. However it raised questions & doubts.
Firstly is this the path to Bitcoin unlimited?
Your suggested link automatically via the Single Wallet tab generates a Bitcoin Address & a Secret Private key - this must happen online.
I printed a copy.
Next to the Single wallet tab is the Paper Wallet tab that presents 3 x Bitcoin Adress's + 3 x Private keys completely different to the single wallet address & key above? Not sure if I'm in the right path or not!?
The Paper Wallet Tab requests a passphrase (ok?) and I also ticked the box for BIP 38 encrypt.
I printed a copy.
Do I destroy the Single Wallet & focus on the Paper Wallet?
Steps so far require me to be ONLINE so I worry I've missed your important suggestion.

Moving on at this stage I think I've completed the paper wallet creation??
Is the next step going to BUY Bitcoin Unlimited.

[bitkilo]

Very helpful link thank you. However it raised questions & doubts.
Firstly is this the path to Bitcoin unlimited?
Your suggested link automatically via the Single Wallet tab generates a Bitcoin Address & a Secret Private key - this must happen online.
I printed a copy.
Next to the Single wallet tab is the Paper Wallet tab that presents 3 x Bitcoin Adress's + 3 x Private keys completely different to the single wallet address & key above? Not sure if I'm in the right path or not!?
The Paper Wallet Tab requests a passphrase (ok?) and I also ticked the box for BIP 38 encrypt.
I printed a copy.
Do I destroy the Single Wallet & focus on the Paper Wallet?
Steps so far require me to be ONLINE so I worry I've missed your important suggestion.

Moving on at this stage I think I've completed the paper wallet creation??
Is the next step going to BUY Bitcoin Unlimited.

Ok first of all forget about bitcoin and bitcoin unlimited, the difference is in the background and at present there is still only one bitcoin.
Unlimited will most likely be implemented in the near future but it doesn't matter at this stage for creating a paper wallet. When the change happens as long as you have both the public and private keys to your address then your coins will be safe.

I haven't got much time just now so will answer any further questions when i can tonight.

To safely create a paper wallet offline you will need to save the page needed to create the wallet to your desktop, once that is done disconect your PC from the Internet then turn off and shutdown any wireless connections you have.
You can also download the zip file and run this generator offline as a local html file.

When you are sure you computer is no longer online then you can reopen the page that you saved to your desktop or zip file and create the paper wallet, once you have the public and private keys (encrypted with a password) if you like then print.
After you have created the paper wallet clear your cache, cookies history so there is no trace of the private key left and reconnect.

Just stick to creating a "paper wallet" for now and when you know how to do that then you can play around with creating split wallets ect.

I would recommend that you don't move any coins to the paper wallet yet until you have made a couple and know what your doing.
I'm at work now so a bit rushed, will revisit this tonight when i get home and help further if no other members beat me to it.

[RustyStaples]

Hi again,
https://tools.bitcoin.com/paper-wallet/
suggested above does link to a page with PAPER Wallet highlighted & AUTOMATICALLY creates a SINGLE wallet (assuming single PAPER Wallet) complete with Bitcoin address & Private key.

I can drag/drop this page to my desktop where it’s described as ,“Paper Wallet Tools Bitcoin.com” then
disconnect my Wi-Fi, then
click to open “Paper Wallet Tools Bitcoin.com” and discover my desktop “Paper Wallet Tools Bitcoin.com” will not function without internet connection.
HELP : )
Rusty

[bitkilo]

Hi again,
https://tools.bitcoin.com/paper-wallet/
suggested above does link to a page with PAPER Wallet highlighted & AUTOMATICALLY creates a SINGLE wallet (assuming single PAPER Wallet) complete with Bitcoin address & Private key.

I can drag/drop this page to my desktop where it’s described as ,“Paper Wallet Tools Bitcoin.com” then
disconnect my Wi-Fi, then
click to open “Paper Wallet Tools Bitcoin.com” and discover my desktop “Paper Wallet Tools Bitcoin.com” will not function without internet connection.
HELP : )
Rusty

Ok download the GitHub zip file that would probably be easier for you, there is some good instructions here on how to run the wallet generator from the zip file: https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/#popupZip
Have a good look around the website and it should be able to help you complete the process: https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/#security

Once you have funds on the paper wallet just remember that you must send all the coins at once, you can't just spend a percentage of what you have because bitcoin doesn't work that way you must have a change address set up so you may want to read up on that too, dont worry it only sounds scarier than it actually is.
Easiest way would be to create your paper wallet offline and download the Mycelium wallet for your phone, when you want to send some bitcoin then just open the Mycelium wallet and go to the "cold storage spending" option in the app, pick "scan QR code" and enter the amount you have on the paper wallet address.

Edit: If you are planning to purchase some coins then i could recommend that you sign up a Coinjar account and link your bank account, they are an Australian company that i have been using for a couple of years now and never had a problem, great support too.
Coinjar is just like any online wallet so you will want to move the coins from the Coinjar address to an address that you control the private keys to like a paper wallet as soon as possible.