Post
Topic
Board Goods
Re: Bip 38 Paper wallets
by
Buskcoin
on 16/01/2014, 06:51:34 UTC
those are very nice!  The one in my signature is a no frills paper wallet and is free to use, donate if you want. Smiley   Very easy to adapt it for another coin, if anyone has requests.... so far not many takers because it's not very fancy, (I don't have a color laser printer)  but it should be secure and weather resistant after laminating.

In any case paper wallets are a nice thing... after doing more research they are not really wallets but one time  use bitcoin addresses and corresponding private keys meant as a form of cold storage, and with there being 6 atoms in the universe for every bitcoin address, they are virtually impossible to duplicate and are fairly secure. Smiley  Any public and private bitcoin address combo can be turned into 'cold storage' by merely copying the QR code pasting it into these 'paper wallets' .... I prefer not to list the actual text lettering on my wallets and just list the QR codes only.  The private key should be ideally hidden, but it's not necessary. Mine could be folded in such a way to keep it exposed if for some reason someone wanted it that way.

Public service message for noobs... if you buy a paper wallet off ebay it's important to transfer the balance to a different bitcoin address and not just assume you can store that paper wallet away... if after 90 days that address still had  a balance in it, ebay sellers could easily steal the balance back for themselves if they were dishonest. This includes any person who makes a paper wallet for anyone else.  I'll bet a number of them do just this, and figure the person won't ever notice if they still have something in there after 90 days, they probably don't understand how bitcoin works.

Better to use a blank template and paste your own keys in there... I would never trust someone else's keys to any large sum... that person could take the money and vanish without a trace.. I admit that would be tempting.

Thanks! Personally, I like to have both the QR codes and the characters just for reassurance. I like the simplicity of your wallets though. I could maybe see myself using them in a short term situation.
Are you familiar with bip0038? With Bip0038 you can generate a passphrase protected key pair so even if someone had your keys they would be unable to access your funds without your passphrase.