Bitcoin Forum

Serious question.  My baby niece will be 1 year old in a few weeks and she's going to get lots of lovely and expensive presents from all the family, but I'm her geeky aunt and I want to encourage her geeky side.  I'm considering making her a vanity address , printing it on a paper wallet and funding it with some bitcoin, in the hope that by the time she's old enough to appreciate it, the value might have appreciated also.  But I have some concerns...

Is a vanity address sufficiently secure if I generate it and the paper wallet offline and assume my computer has no malware?  (I have enough antivirus/anti-malware software in action and really, if I do have that level of malware, I'm screwed anyway)

And the impossible question... is bitcoin a reasonable risk for such a long term investment?  If she's 1 now, it could be 15 years before she accesses the funds in that wallet.  I won't be able to sell out if I see a crash coming like I can with my own.  I know nobody can really judge what Bitcoin is going to do over that period and I don't want this to turn into yet another one of those speculation threads where people post crap.  So I guess my real question here is has anybody else done this or put bitcoin in cold storage for a similarly long period?

And are there any other considerations I haven't thought of?

I haven't done it in the past neither I plan to do it in the near future, but is a good idea though. To generate a brand new vanity address or use the free/cheap services here or generate yourself from a clean pc. If you give them an address with the private key you can always hold the private key and sell if price crashes but anyway this is a present. I would give as present a physical bitcoin and the vanity address.

Thank you :)

What vanity gen are you using? and yes i have done it for my kids tho i didnt bother with a vanity address i just got an address off of bitaddress.

In the coming age when she will be in the position when she will have good knowledge about bitcoin and will know that how to use bitcoin, she will be much more happy that you gifted her some bitcoins, and that will be her luck that the price will be much higher at her adulthood age when she will be able to use them.

As far as I know there is only one vanitygenerator and you should have a good cpu/gpu to get faster the vanityaddress (with 4-5 characters as prefix mostly) but also people are offering a part private key for your vanity address which sometimes can be free sometimes cost a little bit.


My pleasure.

Sounds like a really good idea for a gift. I would have appreciated if my aunt bought me some precious virual gem that could rise in price when I was one year old. it might actually catch a lot of value in 15 years and might even buy her a nice car or something if it goes well with bitcoin in the future.

Make sure to safely generate the private key in an offline computer, I'd recommend bitaddress.org, you can also download the source from Github and run it offline. By the way, why not give her out a USB drive? it's a good idea as well and you can also buy two 4GB cheap drives and back it up on the two of them, give her one and keep one as backup.

Ooh, a USB copy - I hadn't thought of that!  I guess USB drives can deteriorate over time though, and who knows how storage tech will progress.  Everything I considered important in my youth is trapped on floppy disks that I'll never access again  :D  It's worth considering though.


I've used Vanitygen a couple of times now and my CPU can generate an address from a 4-digit prefix in a few seconds, still well under a minute for 5-digits.  I've also practised generating a paper wallet offline.

Obviously I'd love it to be worth a lot more by the time she opens it, but my main concern is that I don't want it to turn out to be a worthless piece of paper :P  Ideally it will be a nice little egg for her and spark an interest in cryptography at the same time.

It's definitely a creative and thoughtful idea.  I haven't heard much on this forum about paper wallets being a security risk.  To the contrary, I think they're the hardest ones to steal--but they can get lost, damaged, burned up in a fire, etc. 

Anyhow it's a great gift idea, so hopefully it goes over well.  :)

Honestly this is so unique.  I love the idea and think it would work out perfectly.   It's basically the same thing as setting her up a saving account with the bank, instead you are doing it with Bitcoin. 

i doubt it is a good idea to be honest, i think such small kids should just receive children toys and stuff like that though thats just my ideas

Well, i think it's unnecessary for the baby. Because the baby don't know about bitcoin and the parents can use that bitcoin. But it's really unique gift for a baby and extraordinary.

Bitcoin as a gift for baby is nice gift because while they growing your gift price will rise too, so it is nice to gift bitcoin for baby, Hehe nice idea i have niece too, and i want to gift her some bitcoin but not 1 bitcoin is so large money, i cant afford that bitcoin i think .1 only.

Baby can not appreciate that at the moment i think it is good to give a milk or diaper because that is very useful for the baby while bitcoin that was good to gift for the teenager and up they can use it anywhere they want.

Give her a bitcoin piggybank!

Take a look at this post on imgur. Saw it somewhere a few months ago.  :) :)

http://imgur.com/gallery/hbB1w

About long-term is too bad, because you don't need what happened in the future, it's not a predicted or speculating but better for giving him goods it's useful for him like a doll and another thing is can be useful for him because he are a baby and it's too fast for think about long term.

Every thing is fine. the problem is just with bitcoin price and rate which is completely unknown and unpredictable.
you can save a bitcoin for as long as you want no matter if it is 1 year or 15 years. but we don't know what will be the bitcoin price after 15 years..

this is just a gift not for his present but for his future.

As a baby, she will not appreciate that as a gift. But she will when she reaches the right age.
How lucky for a woman, she grows up with tons of money.  :D

True, she would not appreciate the  gift since she was only a baby and dont know everything  but possible she would amused or appreciate that gift when  she reaches the right age and able to know what bitcoin is and its value and also its uses. Maybe if  he found out that she has a bitcoin maybe the price is already high which means an easy money. haha

If it is properly generated?  Yes.


It's much better than a lottery ticket.  If bitcoin reaches mainstream use in her lifetime, she'll be absolutely amazed at your foresight and extremely thankful for your generosity.  If bitcoin fails and disappears into a footnote in financial textbooks, then she'll be mildly entertained at your naivete and gullibility.  Either way its a fun gift that will come up in conversations years later.


I've helped both my sister and my father put some bitcoins into cold storage back in 2013.  Both of them plan to just ignore the daily fluctuations.  If there is suddenly enough value to retire early, they'll cash out (or simply start spending bitcoin if it has REALLY gone mainstream.  If it never reaches that value (or collapses completely), the money is already out of mind and considered "spent", so nobody will be devastated at the loss.


Your biggest concern will probably be that the piece of paper could either get lost, damaged, or the ink could fade and become unusable.
The next concern would be someone getting a hold of the paper wallet that decides to take the bitcoins without permission (family member, future boyfriend, etc).

Assuming that the paper wallet is created in a secure manner, and that it lasts 15+ years, and that the bitcoins haven't been stolen before your niece can access them...

You might want to think about whether you (or anyone else in the family) will want to contribute additional bitcoins in the future.  My suggestion would be to generate new paper wallets for each gift in the future and not to re-use the existing address.  That will make it easier to cash in just some of the gifts without risking the others, and if any of the paper wallets are ever created on a compromised computer, it will only effect that one gift and not all the others.

One other thing to keep aware of is how technology advances over the next decade or two.  Occasionally technology can make sudden leaps and if a mathematical weakness is discovered in ECDSA or any of the hashing algorithms that bitcoin uses, then bitcoin could transition to a new address format.  If that happens, old addresses would almost certainly still be valid, but they might not be as secure.  You'd want to generate a new address using the new address system and send the bitcoins from the paper wallets to the new address system to keep them safe.

That's probably all you need to think of to be honest, as long as everyone who you're going to be giving the gift to knows what they'll have to be doing and how to keep the wallet and everything safe, you should be good and everything should be fine from what I know.

Reasonable risk for an investment? Probably, I'd say, it's kind of a gamble, to be honest. It depends on the market and how the future rolls.

I haven't tried it yet. In my opinion, since we don't know what will happen in bitcoin in the near future, I guess it would be better if you yourself will keep that Bitcoin for your niece. Give her a present now and then keep the Bitcoin for her future. Well, 15 years is quite a long time, many things can happen, at least you will be able to make the right decision with the bitcoin for those years. Anyway, it's still your decision, it's okay as long as you know the risk and you are ready for the things that might happen.

this is a great idea and i might do it in the future too.

you only have to make sure to generate the wallet properly. so i guess your best option is on a live linux without any kind of internet connection. and also i think it is better to make a regular address rather than a vanity although that is still secure too.

In my point of view, It is not good idea that give a baby bitcoin even the baby don't know what is bitcoin. I think if you say it for investment to the baby , there is not perfect titime to give an investment for the baby.

You just migt end up, being the most generious aunt in history, if Bitcoin goes mainstream. If it goes bad, you will spoil her in any way. Why do you want to create a Vanity address? Just create a simple Bitcoin address with some Bip pass phrase and print it. Then you laminate it and you put it in a nice card, with a explanation on what it is and how valueble it might become. < personal message >

Enjoy!

And following your logic - the only valid gift for a baby is food, clothes or diapers. Because baby obviously have no idea about nothing more than basic functions of a body.

Of course it is not gift meant to be used right now it is more like insurance policy in case Bitcoin in the future gained massive popularity - thus, will reach spectacular price, something like 1 BTC=100k USD.

that is right. USB disks are good for using as a regular thing not a cold storage for 15+ years. although i am using a USB disk as my cold storage but i connect it to my computer and boot up the Live Linux on it and also i have a paper back up from the same wallet because if the USB disk is not connected to electricity (USB port) then it will lose the data stored on it over time.

Well, it is a good thing that you are thinking about the future of your niece on her financial aspects.  But what if you have the baby of your own, would you still give it to her if the price of bitcoin price goes high considering that it would benefit not your kid but your niece?  Well, I am not being selfish but sometimes we come to a point that we change our mind.  

But if you are a generous aunt then you could just do it.  Do not be afraid on what tomorrow will bring, courage brings surprises.  It must be the best gift that your niece would ever had.  And let just hope that the price of bitcoin would appreciate at that time.

My son is about to turn one in a couple of months. Maybe bitcoin is not such a bad idea as an additional gift. I remember when I was young, the in thing then was to buy educational plans for kids. Now, bitcoin seems to be a good option, more like opening a bank account made specially for kids.

If you generate that vanity address from your own computer and paper wallet in offline mode than it may be considered safe from my prospective. If you really care about price crashing than you can also have one copy of that paper wallet with you to sell. And also laminating that paper and putting it in safe box before giving her may protect paper from damaging on long year of storage.

It's an interesting idea for a gift and would have a bit more thought put into it than maybe bonds or something similar but at the cost of being a bit less safe. These days are any options really "safe" though? I don't think it's a bad idea but hey it's up to you.

apart from all the security measures that others have mentioned for "generating the private keys" you also have to think about keeping the private key safe.

- keeping the paper safe: this can be done by using a good quality paper with a nice print because it can be damaged over time if not done properly.

- also printing the private keys on a piece of paper means anybody who sees the paper can steal the bitcoin in it so you can split it into two papers or you can even look into multi signature wallets so you or anybody else can hold the second pair of keys for extra security measures.

some of interesting gift, still the baby dont really know the value of bitcoin.
he dont need that thing, because he dont know the value of money or bitcoin. but you can use the bitcoin for developing his future.
except he grow much enough for him to learn the value of money nowadays

sure, why not. if bitcoin is dead in 15 years she will have forgotten about it anyway and i am sure she will not be mad at you.
i would be more concerned that she losses or throws away the paper wallet. i would suggest you make also a nice card to go along or frame it. something that she wants to keep it.
maybe keep a back up of the keys.
and i guess then you have to see how the things develop over the years and adjust. i mean you can talk to her and her parents.   

I do not think its a good idea to be honest, because the most people do not even know the bitcoin these days so they will think its a bad thing.
You can better give the baby something more normally its too much for the baby right now, you can better do this on an older age.

I do not even think where to start when it comes to buying gifts for a baby and are there even web shops were you can purchase stuff for babies with Bitcoin?
I think that a nice baby hat would be a nice gift if you ask me.

Well it's going to be a gamble no matter how you look at it, nothing you can do about that. 15 years is a long time but I think it's unlikely that they'll bring changes to the code radical enough to mean that old private keys no longer work. But there are no guarantees there either, you just gonna have to play it as a gamble. Just put the paper wallet in a nice frame and have her parents hang it on the wall in her bedroom or something. If Bitcoin disappears, at least she'll have something nice to remember you by  ;)

I think it's a good idea, it's only like some parents/relatives start a fiat savings/trust account for a baby. Just print off a paper wallet, laminate it & send whatever you're willing to send to the address.

Keep it yourself in a safe place & give it to her for her 16th or 18th birthday or something. Hopefully the price has soared by then & you can help her financially with an unexpected monetary gift :)

though still longing for my own baby...to have my baby someday..and think when he or grows up or lil older...will introduce and him or her into the the world of bitcoin, and also serve bitcoin as a gift to him or her...i think it will be a nice and a happy mood of btc to by baby...

Wow.Bitcoin might disappear after 15 years.

I don`t think that a baby will understand or enjoy such a gift.

A toy is a better gift for a baby.

It would be useless when the child is very small but when he / she will be out 10 to 15 years old obviously that gift will worth the most expensive gift ever because he could start a new life with that amount. If you gift that baby 1btc then after 10 15 years obviously the price of 1btc will increase many folds

Excellent and most expensive gift ever. Why? Because if you buy btc with $600 now then after 10 20 years when the baby will realize the gift at that time it's rate will be many fold larger and he/she will realize that the gift is one of the most expensive gift ever.

Not a bad idea because this type of gift is unique and hardly any one else will gift him such a unique gift. Not only unique it will be the most expensive gift ever and with that grwat gift he could start a new life. And he will develop interest in bitcoin and finally he could establish himself in bitcoin community and could start earning his pocket by his own .

Correct, he would definitely benefit  that bitcoin in the long run especially when  he grows up for sure the value of bitcoin would be high also for sure.
It may not benefited  him when he was only a baby but when he grow up for sure time would really pay. :)

I love this idea of gifting a baby bitcoins.
If you are strong believer of bitcoin's future, then definitely you must suggest bitcoins for the next generations, instead of stopping with just suggesting, why not we go and gift them some satoshis. After, some 15 or 20 years those satoshis might value even millions also.

For now it is useless because he/she just a baby but soon after he/she knows the bitcoins! he/she will be so happy if he knows the exact price of it! we could say after 10-15 years he is into bitcoin then he would be glad that someone give him that big amount and im sure on that years! The price is really big! :D

i have been hearing this thing a couple of other times like the other topic about leaving bitcoin for your grandchildren and i have to say i love this idea. and i am planing on doing a similar thing like creating a paper wallet and laminate it then deposit some amount (even small) in it and leave it for them so in like 20 years they can see this and if the price is already high they will appreciate it even more.
i got some good ideas from this topic.

You know within few months ago, some thread about the bitcoin publicity was come, than same idea i gave them, because if we introduce some toys of bitcoin in the market than it really helpful to publicity of crypto currency of  the bitcoin.
But if you want to give some gift of bitcoin to your baby girl thats really good idea.

you should be careful using vanitygen there are some cases of hacking occurred after changing addresses wallet.

Without any doubt the prise will change in the far future, is it going to be as sweet as you say, I dont really know, probably nobody knows but the idea of giving some bitcoins to a child seems pretty great. In case the price will fall to the bottom this gift may become a cool memorabilia of times lost, some knowledge will be required to understand what this gift actually was. Always good when gifts cause some brainstorm, educate etc.   

Very interesting idea fo a gift. She is too little now to use it and you can't know how the price will be in the future. Maybe it will be huge, maybe it will fall down much. But I don't think that actually matters, your intention is important and at least that coud be a great souvenir on her uncle.

you are right, i doubt that i would gift a child some bitcoins, though that is just my opinion you should do whatever you like

Wouldn't recommend a usb copy since I've already owned multiple usb's from multiple brands and I can't say which among which have lasted me the most. I've only gone with as far as 4 years although that's under continuous use (about 1-3 times a week) from all clean pc's, office and mine (pretty sure mine is clean indeed).

I couldn't agree more with you, will be better if you give your bitcoin when your child was 13 (or more) years old. In that old they can start to manage money that they have, i think.

bitcoin actually give gifts at a baby is a pretty good idea, it is tantamount to give them money and investment at the same time. however, it is you need to do when they have to know the meaning of bitcoin, or those closest to them already understand what it bitcoin, so as not to cause confusion when you give a gift like that to a baby

vanity gen is totally secure as long as you used it on a clean computer without any viruses and without internet connection. the paper wallet should be safe as long as no one else know what it is :D

This is one good idea. we can only give a very nice gift. baby will feel happy in the future. they get savings in the form of financial guarantees. This will make them happier future.

You are going to do a great favor to your niece by gifting her bitcoin.Do not worry about the value of bitcoin at the time she gets your gift for if bitcoin would still be around $500-$600 she could further hold it or the best part is she would get to learn about bitcoin at such an early age.
Be careful to keep the paper wallet though as you are going to give it to her and obviously her mother would be custodian of your gift until she grows 15,tell her mother also about it in case she doesn't know about bitcoin

That is a nice idea, I wil  also like to give some new comers of this world or kids a gift like that but before that I will have to know that their family know about bitcoin or not as they will not care for that gift until he grow up.

thats true, especially if you do that on the internet because you can easily get hacked and all the money would be stolen from the wallet as the website would have your private key

I did this so obviously I think it is a great idea.

However, instead of a paper wallet I purchased a physical bitcoin from here.
https://www.titanbtc.com/

Giving a paper wallet is a lot like giving someone cash its likely to be squandered on the first tempting thing.
A physical bitcoin has to be destroyed before spending the money (back pealed off) and thus I figure the recipient
is less likely to waste it.

I wouldn't risk it, because by the time she may use it, it might be a little risky as its' value could go up or down.

I believe that the price of bitcoin will rise in the future

Keep bitcoins and make this like long term investment by bitcoins this are best idea i think. Yes, i Trust bitcoins will rising for the future.

i doubt a baby would even enjoy getting bitcoin as a gift. you could give itto the parents to get started with a college fund or something, or show them how to set it up.

while it is probably something that will benefit the child in the long run, very likely that it will, it is also not something that is much fun at all for the parents or baby. if it is something that you want to do, then give the baby a normal gift and later in the day or whenever give the parents that information and tell them how it works.  there is the technology to do all kinds of fun things that probably only sound fun to us because we are into this.  script the TX to be released only on the childs 18th birthday or make it a secure trust that needs both the child and the parents private keys.  there are countless things that would be cool, but in the end and in front of everyone that is watching, give the baby a fun toy

its a good idea and she will be really luck when she grow up and see that she have much money in her pocket. i think maybe USB is good option to buy and her parents should keep for a while until she grow up.

We cant really predict the price of bitcoin on the future it might  rise or it might also fall  in upcoming years since no one really knows the future because we are just humans but as we can see all the speculation of most people here in this forum they said the same thing which bitcoin would really rise up  on the future and they believe on it.

Well its nice if you want to give something for your niece, however put bitcoin for 15 years as a gift is not a good idea, we dont know what will happen in the next 15 years, maybe bitcoin not exist anymore or maybe become really valuable, but it is nicer if you could just give ordinary gift

hey,Mike,remember uncle George?
Yes,that weirdo who gave you 0.125$ worth of some bs digital currency for your birthday 10 years ago.
Yep the college funds.
what was it ....buttcoin... no wait bidcoin can' remember now.

Your concern regarding about the bitcoin gift for the baby was a very bright  idea actually. But the big question is, do you think that some of the member here in this forum done this things before? I think none of the participants in this forum haven't done this yet. Maybe because it will take a long period of time in waiting and we don't know what the exact happen after several years.
 

No I haven't done it yet, Because I don't have a baby also. perhaps savings for my future baby I think, And I think nothing to loose if we try to do what you said, it will just compare like you are savings money in time deposit only the difference is you save Bitcoin.

why not ?  we might see after 10 years bitcoin worth will be x5 -10 . its a great use for the bay for His/her future

nice idea but i think baby stuff is still the best thing to give

I totally agree with your idea, giving paper wallet is too risky as it can be torn or misplaced but if you give a physical bitcoin with framed or packed very nicely, then they can store it in showcase and when she turns to the maturing age , if bitcoin is their then surely it will be more then what you are offering todays value.

I will try this idea with my cousin, Thanks for the idea.

You are right in way but on the other hand who knows what a one year old baby will enjoy as a gift? I've spent lots of time with babies of that age and I can tell you that what they value the most is attention, not things of any kind. They like when you smile to them but somehow they feel whether it's genuine or false and they react accordingly.

So I think Bitcoin is a great gift for a one year old baby. Bitcoin and a genuine smile. )

Why not? Baby can't use it, yet, but when it will be old enough she could understand the realq value of it. Maybe this will be her entrance into crypto world. And that would be the most unique present, that is for sure.

Wow that look like a crary idea because baby are can't use bitcoin ( if what you mean baby is litle child ). But if i think possitive way, bitcoin can good gift for a baby because if you buy bitcoin in this time when the price is standard , the baby can get more value when the baby grow up. Bitcoin price must be rise in the future.

What you are telling is not true, even their is no idea that whether you will be living or not in next 1 hrs, so for that you cannot stop living, like this only , hope is main thing which is giving life.

I like the idea of gifting bitcoin to baby on birthday gift, because all of them will give gift which are worth for some time, but you are giving for the future help for the baby. Tomorrow what will happen for that we cannot stop living, that is why bitcoin tomorrow what will happen dont worry about it. You can go with it.

Their are two ideas i like from the above reply , one is giving bitcoin as physical gift which is very worthy and another you were trying to give paper wallet but instead of that you can print the wallet on any thing which is fancy item so that they can store it for long time.

I think bitcoin is a good idea for a gift because it would be a long term investment. Given the situation now, bitcoin is becoming popular and our technology is innovating now and then and the idea of using digital currency would appeal to more people therefore an increase in its demand. As years would go by, I believe its value will keep increasing and by the time the baby is old enough to access his wallet then maybe it would have multiple times value over than what it is now so I think its really a good investment. There is a risk that it might not be as valuable as what we are thinking now but its good to get in the game while they are still young.

Its a good thing to give bitcoin for a Baby, even though the baby don't know about your gift which is bitcoin, in the meantime when the right time comes for the age of the baby I think the price value of bitcoin is for sure is very stable and has a fix amount of price.

Yeah but it could potentially be a great gift imagine how much it can go up in the future and then the baby will thank you forever. Anyways i dont think it will lose its whole value and maybe you could manage it for the baby until he or she grows up!

So you're basically placing some sort of bet for your children? :p
I wouldn't put all their savings on Bitcoin, but I would story like 1 or 2 btc for them to use in the future.

Yeah, it's a good birthday present when your niece just one year old and idea put it into paper wallet, she may bought a car or something that she need (education, etc) in time, about 15-20 years later when bitcoin has more higher price. Good luck with the present, she should love it.

I think it will great, What a nice Idea! . Considering the potencial of bitcoin, When the time has come and the baby grows up. Imagine if the price of bitcoin is much higher compared today  ;D