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Alright, so it seems like I understand what I need to understand about electrum. Now when you mention armory I am thinking, here we go again lol.
I've heard about armory but when I looked into the armory sectioni here I see a lot of threads about armory not working etc, so it makes me think now that electrum is the way to go.
I just like to play around with plenty wallets. I like Electrum as well as Armory and I had no problems with Armory itself. The machine I used for testing was just very slow (single core 1Ghz/1GB ram) so it took a few days to sync and a few days to build the database.
Can I use electrum for long term if I save the seed and keep my password safe, and having my wallet on an external harddrive?
Sure. Thats what I like about Electrum the most: a single backup, but other wallets start the implement "HD" as well, so this is no longer Electrum exclusiv.
I don't even plan to use my bitcoins to buy anything yet, just to make sure they are there, from time to time. And could I shut of internet when I do this, just for extra security, or will it not work when internet is not on?
It will not get any data when you are offline, but in order to check your balance you dont even need your wallet file. Just write (or copy paste) your bitcoin address and create a link for a blockchain explorer. E.g.:
https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/18WgDVuiGY4A4mB8YEmVggEfSmFUUKxDcJthere are plenty explorers like this and since the blockchain is publicly available you can check your balance at any time from any machine as long as you know the address. Make a bookmark, memorize it if you want.
You only need your wallet file with the private keys, protected by your password when you want to spend bitcoin.
I assume I then would need to do "offline transactions" but I would just want to see if my coins are there or not.
Not necessary the way you described it would be semi-cold. You have a wallet that has the private keys and when you want to spend bitcoin it is online (hot), but most of the time you keep your wallet offline (cold) and check in from time to time, but you do so without using your wallet. Its not proper cold storrage as that usually implys that the machine storring your private keys is never online. It could be a old machine sitting in a corner, turned off. When you want to spend coins you create a transaction with your regular wallet (hot) on your main machine thats online and daily used. This machine however can only create an unsigned transaction as it has no access to the private keys. It only knows which addresses you have private keys for somewhere else and monitors them for you. You would then copy that unsigned transaction to the offline machine, get it signed and copy it back to the online machine to broadcast it to the network.
Your semi cold version offers a little less security, but you also only need a single machine, with an external storrage for the wallet file. The external storrage could e.g. be an USB stick that you use for your wallet file only and keep it in a safe place.
A trezor would be nice but they cost a bit and if electrum can do the job as good as trazor, then there is not a big difference. But thats what u meant with hardware wallets, right?
Similar to the old machine above a hardware wallet like trezor can do the same job, but its not a fully fledged computer. Its just a little devices build for the specific purpose. It makes the whole "create unsigned tx, copy it, get it signed, copy it back"-process very easy.
And for paper wallets, I kind of like the idea but I think it's hard to make them, not sure why but it seems complicated.
Its not actually that complicated. There are plenty of resources where you can make one online. My problem usually is that I have a hard time trusting the homepage and thats where the complicated part starts. Download the source, verifiy the source, generate the keys (best offline with an OS thats also verified and on a DVD/CD), print it and make sure the printer does not safe a copy, etc. I like BIP38 though as it protects the paper wallet with a password, so even if the printer keeps a copy it can not be used.
Since my 60 days for silverwallet are now over I soon expect my coin to arrive in the next weeks and Ill have to think about paperwallets again. I am not entirely sure If I want to use it as wallet or just keep it as a shiny token to play around with.
And yeah as u notice, I think it's a bit annoying to use the quote function here lol.
I know. I just copy the frist line, e.g.:
[quote author=goldsun link=topic=870688.msg9709917#msg9709917 date=1417459367]
remove the parts I think are no longer needed and fill in the "end of quote" marks by hand.