I just want to buy as low as possible. A $100 or so difference on the price will make a big difference when I'm buying 10 coins.

The armory offline bundle is only for ubuntu 12.04 exact. My live boot is 14.04 LTS which means I have to use the normal download. However I cannot install this without connecting to the internet so that ubuntu software centre can install the packages. This means having to connect to the internet just once which defeats the point. Same thing for any program on ubuntu. It's pissing me off to no end.


How do you change the .wallet ending without fucking up the file?

A few days ago I was waiting for the price to drop even more below 320 usd so I could buy around 10 coins. It's currently 371.12 usd and increasing. Do you think I should buy now and get in before it climbs towards 1k or wait and see if it drops again?

I need to connect to the internet to download the package and installation files from ubuntu software centre. I've spent hours looking at alternative methods like using synaptic and stuff to get an online computer to download the packages for you and transfer them via usb but they all require to be installed on the offline computer first, thus defeating the point!

Once I've installed the new ubuntu OS how in the world do I manage to install Armory without connecting to the internet. I've just spent the last 3 hours trying to figure this out again. It's driving me crazy. I don't understand why this isnt a widespread issue. Surely a lot of people use ubuntu for cold storage? Connecting to the net to install the package defeats the whole point of having never touched the net.

Thanks John. Do you think uploading a backup of the .wallet file to google drive is okay? I know about multi-sig but how exactly would I use it. Would I make two wallets myself and sign off both transactions when needed?


Thanks for the reply. Actually the usb live boot is persistent to 500mb (I hope I'm saying this right). I had to because in order to keep the armory client on the usb and not deleting everytime I had to make it persistent.

I have norton on my windows OS. But I thought the whole point of doing a live ubuntu boot was that you have a fresh OS free from all the nasty stuff?

Whats the best DBAN method to use? PRNG stream?

About 2000 usd worth of bitcoin and more in future.

Thanks for the DBAN tip and idea to just use a linux CD after verifying the sha256. That sounds like a much better idea. Yeah it's never going to connect to the net.

What a fantastic post. The sound option is fascinating to read about. Thanks a lot!

At the moment I don't have a separate laptop for cold storage but in the meantime this is my setup.

-I disabled my wifi and adapters on my windows OS. I ran my laptop from a ubuntu 14.04 persistent live usb boot with disabled network connectivity via editing the startup applications. I already prepared a usb with a verified armory download file and inserted it into the laptop. I went down a dark rabbit hole trying to install armory on ubuntu while being disconnected from the internet. So I eventually admitted defeat and connected to the internet just once so that ubuntu could install Armory.

-I installed armory and generated a wallet. I printed out the passphrase with SecurePrint and copied the .wallet file and the watchonly.wallet file onto a usb.

-I ran my computer from windows and using Diskcryptor I encrypted the USB with AES-twofish-serpent. I installed armory and imported the watch only wallet.

So now I have an encrypted USB with my backup .wallet file. I have a 'cold storage' wallet that I run off the ubuntu persistent live boot.

I feel uneasy at just having my paper passphrase and backup usb's in my home in case there is a fire or something. Storing them elsewhere in a safety deposit box or elsewhere is not an option at the moment. Do you guys think that encrypting my .wallet file using aes encrypt/gpg4win (on top of the encryption that Armory does via the password) and storing this in google drive is safe?

Thank you for reading this.

So if your private keys are air gapped and if even using a usb to sign transactions isn't 100% safe, what is the alternative to signing transactions from an offline computer?

Thanks for the advice everyone, greatly appreciated.

Cheers for the reply. I know about generating wallets/addresses safely and clean booting from ubuntu/tails etc but I want a watch only wallet on my new laptop and have armory installed on my cold laptop. I was under the impression that apart from paper wallets, this is the best option? So I wasn't sure if factory restoring my laptop was be sufficient enough in terms of security to do this?

I need to buy a new laptop anyway so I was wondering if I completely wipe my current laptop (It's a sony vaio) could I then use it as my cold storage laptop? I plan to make a large investment in bitcoins very soon and was wondering if factory resetting my current laptop would be sufficient in terms of security? Cheers.

Once I logged in using my password and wrote down the long mnemonic and tried that it worked and allowed me to log back in. The print option of the mnemonic however when you first sign up is wrong. I have no idea why this is.

When you create a blockchain wallet it says:

Wallet Recovery Mnemonic
Your wallet has been created successfully. If you forget the details the phrase below can be used to recover everything.

Please Write Down the Following:

(22 words)


There is also an option that says print. The print page however shows:

Paper wallet

Login Link:
Mnemonic: (14 words)

Public Key
Private Key



I'm just getting used to bitcoin and decided to play around with blockchain. I decided to see what happens if I ever forgot my password and entered what I thought was my printed out wallet recovery mnemonic and it didn't work. After logging in with my password I went to the security settings and saw that my password mnemonic was not what was printed out. I didn't realise that my print out and what appeared on screen were two different things.

I retested this by creating another wallet and the same thing happens. The on screen wallet recovery phrase is different to what happens if you press print. Why are there two different mnemonics? The print out never works?