Bitcoin Forum

how to make a paper wallet?

There are several ways. That's what I would do:

1. Visit bitaddress.org (http://bitaddress.org) (or download the source code (https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org) and run locally - recommended);
2. Keep moving your mouse until it gets to 100% and generates a Bitcoin address;
3. Print the page with the Bitcoin Address and the Private Key/Secret (DON'T SHARE IT WITH ANYONE);

Load your wallet with the Address and use the Private Key to spend.

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There are also a few trusted websites that offer a paper wallet with a more slick design, like bitcoinpaperwallet.com (http://bitcoinpaperwallet.com) (I recommend downloading the source code (https://github.com/cantonbecker/bitcoinpaperwallet) and running locally aswell)

Though it is one of the easiest methods, there are arguably better ways to make a paper wallet that don't involve actually being connected to the internet. This article lays out in detail how to make a secure offline paper wallet: https://99bitcoins.com/create-99-9-secure-bitcoin-paper-wallet/

This will take a bit longer than making one on bitaddress, but if you want an extra level of security it's a good option.

Cheers

remember to keep the piece of paper safely. perhaps in a safety box or similar.

What TryNinja said, but preferrably ran on a freshly installed linux operating system without ethernet and wifi drivers; just to be extra sure. Always take as much extra safety precautions when you're planning on safely storing good amounts of money.

Fold the paper in half width wise sharpen the crease in the left side of button narrow edge together

^^ @Catwoman13: I have no idear what you are saying... It just looks like a random bunch of words to me...^^

@OP: one important thing that hasn't already been mentioned: do not forget to use bip38 encryption!
Also i don't think it has been stressed enough that you should really download bitaddress's sourcecode and run it on a clean, offline machine (it has been mentioned by other posters, but i really feel they didn't put the necessary emphasis on this fact)...
Print it on a printer that isn't connected to your network and reboot both your pc and your printer once you're done... Also, make sure to securely wipe any transfer medium used to transfer the paper wallet to your printer (just deleting the pdf or png is not sufficient, neither is fast formatting)

You now have me worried! I have 3 paper wallets for different coins. I did not go through all those steps with a clean, offline pc  ???

Well, the clean, offline clean PC and rebooting it afterwards is to make sure that:

• nobody is able to see your screen... For example, if you're using a corporate PC, things like VNC can be installed and somebody can be looking at your screen without your knowledge
• no trojan/virus/spyware/... potentially running in the background is able to send data to an attacker (data including screencaps, content of the clipboard, wallet files,...
• rebooting is because you want to make sure your private key, seed or passphrase are defenatly no longer stored in your PC's/printer's memory

So, yeah, i'd defenatly recommand running a paper wallet generator on an offline PC. The odds of exposing your private keys are very small, even if you're running on an online machine, but the purpose of a paper wallet is to store a lot of value for a long time in a very secure manner.
So, if you generate a paper wallet without all the necessary precautions, imho you could have just used a desktop wallet... Much easyer to spend funds, new addresses for every transaction, change addresses, added functionality like the ability to sign messages without having to mess with the private key,...

Basically, as soon as your private key touches an online machine, it's no longer to be considered "as safe as humanly possible". The odds of it being compromised are small, but they still exist.
If you don't store a lot of value on those paper keys of yours, i wouldn't worry to much. If you store a significant amount of value, you can always generate a new paper wallet following the proper procedure, then sweep your old wallet and use the funds to fund the properly generated wallet... no biggie...

Thank you for the nice explanation, will be more careful in the future. I'm using the paper wallets because it's for the long term.