![]() | Mycelium Entropy is a small USB device with a single purpose: Making it easy to create Bitcoin paper wallets in a secure controlled environment. Paper wallets are created in 2 simple steps: 1. Insert Mycelium Entropy into a printer that allows you to print .jpg from a USB flash drive. 2. Select the print option on the printer. This way the paper wallet has never touched a computer or a network, and as soon as you eject the device the private key is wiped from memory. Mycelium Entropy is the easiest and most secure way of creating a paper wallet for offline cold storage. How does it work? When Mycelium Entropy is inserted into a USB socket, it powers up and generates a large random number based on hardware entropy. That number is turned into a Bitcoin private key and a Bitcoin address. The private key and the address are turned into QR codes and and stored in a JPG file, and the USB device presents itself as a USB flash drive. This allows a printer that can print photos off a USB flash drive to print the paper wallet directly off the device. The hardware based entropy is collected by using a chip with static RAM as the source of entropy, as described in the scientific paper: Power-up SRAM State as an Identifying Fingerprint and Source of True Random Numbers (Holcomb, D.E.; Burleson, W.P.; Fu, K.). Quote from the article: "We demonstrate that a 512-bite SRAM fingerprint contains sufficient entropy to generate 128-bit true random numbers, and that the generated numbers pass the NIST tests for runs, approximate entropy, and block-frequency." Because Mycelium Entropy collects entropy from tens of thousands of SRAM cells, the result is impossible to guess. Every time you plug the device into a USB port, the power-up process makes the SRAM cells contain a completely random state, allowing the chip to create a different high entropy random number. This allows you to make as many safe and secure paper wallets as you wish. When paired with the Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet, with its ability to spend directly from cold storage paper wallets, storing and using Bitcoin securely becomes very easy for anyone. |
![]() | Mycelium Entropy is a small USB device with a single purpose: Making it easy to create Bitcoin paper wallets in a secure controlled environment. Paper wallets are created in 2 simple steps: 1. Insert Mycelium Entropy into a printer that allows you to print .jpg from a USB flash drive. 2. Select the print option on the printer. This way the paper wallet has never touched a computer or a network, and as soon as you eject the device the private key is wiped from memory. Mycelium Entropy is the easiest and most secure way of creating a paper wallet for offline cold storage. How does it work? When Mycelium Entropy is inserted into a USB socket, it powers up and generates a large random number based on hardware entropy. That number is turned into a Bitcoin private key and a Bitcoin address. The private key and the address are turned into QR codes and and stored in a JPG file, and the USB device presents itself as a USB flash drive. This allows a printer that can print photos off a USB flash drive to print the paper wallet directly off the device. The hardware based entropy is collected by using a chip with static RAM as the source of entropy, as described in the scientific paper: Power-up SRAM State as an Identifying Fingerprint and Source of True Random Numbers (Holcomb, D.E.; Burleson, W.P.; Fu, K.). Quote from the article: "We demonstrate that a 512-bite SRAM fingerprint contains sufficient entropy to generate 128-bit true random numbers, and that the generated numbers pass the NIST tests for runs, approximate entropy, and block-frequency." Because Mycelium Entropy collects entropy from tens of thousands of SRAM cells, the result is impossible to guess. Every time you plug the device into a USB port, the power-up process makes the SRAM cells contain a completely random state, allowing the chip to create a different high entropy random number. This allows you to make as many safe and secure paper wallets as you wish. When paired with the Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet, with its ability to spend directly from cold storage paper wallets, storing and using Bitcoin securely becomes very easy for anyone. |