Bitcoin Forum

I've got a bunch of coins kept in wallets at an exchange and I want to move them all to offline paper wallets.

Looking at my records I seem to have BTC, BAT, BTG, PASC, MUSIC, ELLA and XMR.

I've been to bitaddress.org, created a wallet and printed it. Before I transfer my BTC I wanted to double check that this is a legit wallet generator... most of my $$$$ is BTC.

How about the other coins? Most are low balances. I think MUSIC is now worthless, but nonetheless, I might ask well keep them!

Thanks

Check each altcoin to see if they have a paper wallet generator on their own site. You could also look for some vanity wallet generators that are compatible with your coins.

In the worst case scenario, you could download the original wallet, probably a Core-QT wallet for those altcoins and use that to generate addresses and dump the private keys to make your own paper wallet.

For BTC, I'd recommend you try Electrum, download it from the official website, make a new wallet and write down the seed phrase on paper. Get the extended public key or something, and start over, you'll end up with a watch-only wallet.

When you first launch it, you'll get maybe 20 addresses, send a little bit to the first one as a test. Once that confirms, you can start sending to the other addresses.


For the other coins, depending on how long you think those coins will survive, you could save them or trade them (they are on an exchange right) then withdraw the BTC. Of those you mention, I probably would keep only BTC, BAT and maybe XMR. The rest I would trade and withdraw as BTC.

Please make sure that you download locally the scrips from bitaddress.org and run them in a safe environment; you don't want others also get those private keys. Or get a mnemonic phrase for Electrum (safely).

For XMR the command line wallet creates a mnemonic phrase which you can easily backup and you can say you have a paper wallet.

I second this, Electrum is an open-source software verified by many people, and you can verify that the installation files that you downloaded are indeed the original files created by the developer. It's much much more secure than going to some website that generated a private key for you, and since OP wants to put all his BTC savings there, using something like bitaddress is just an unnecessary risk.

Electrum is even better than paper wallet, because you can create multiple backups on different mediums - you'll write down a seed on paper, save the wallet on a flash drive, and can optionally memorize the whole seed.

Paper wallet is a great low-tech way of securing your funds and there is some good advice above - make sure you're doing this offline (getting an address from a website is not safe), make sure you print it on a secure printer (not in a office where other users could access your print queue or printer document history) etc. Also make a solid plan on how you'll store those paper wallets. Unfortunately they can be vulnerable to pretty much everything - fire, water, theft, even UV light or just regular environmental conditions depending on how you printed them.

It's pretty hard to trust all of these generators. Even if you run it offline, there is no guarantee that a vulnerability is added to the random number generator.
Everything rests on the credibility of the developer and the hope that someone reviewed code. Therefore, only electrum or core.
Something like this: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/15/google-android-bitcoin-securerandom-vulnerability
This situation looks like an accident, but also someone can bring vulnerability intentionally.

Download the QT wallets from the github page of the coin itself.
There are many clones of wallets in the wild and downloading even one incorrect can make your system susceptible.

Make a text file with all the private keys of the remaining small coins and then encrypt the text file with notepad++ and nppcrypt.
This will provide an extra layer of protection.

Bitaddress is relatively trusted, but it doesn't currently support segwit. There is an offline segwit address generator. You can test these individually. But again, with one Extended Private Key using Electrum, or just the usual 12 word seed phrase, you have plenty of addresses that you can generate. By default, the app shows you 20, but you can make it show the next one hundred or next one thousand addresses in the sequence.

It's deterministic, so the addresses will always be the same if you use the same exact 12 word seed.

You doning it quite correct way. To simplify things, convert shitcoins to one coin BTC, then one paper wallet or split it to couple BTC paper wallets for extra security (bad luck mostly from someone else using same address, almost impossible but still why risk ;)).

Are you sure to store paper wallet safely. I think the paper wallet only makes it more difficult for you to keep your balance compared to online. We have to think about that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency digital assets whose systems are always being upgraded.

Thank you for your replies.

I've forgotten everything I knew about blockchain, coins and wallets! My head is spinning now!

After going through all the bumph in my password manager it turns out I've exchanged everything into BTC, except 649 MUSIC.

I'm not going to use bitaddress.org and go for the suggested Electrum. The BAT can carry on dropping into the Uphold wallet that the Brave Browser setup until something exciting happens.

Setting up a paper wallet with Electrum...
I use Linux so I've downloaded the Python sources, transferred the package to an offline computer and run it without installing.
Then, created a standard wallet, created a new seed (segwit), written the seed down and I didn't encrypt my wallet keys with a password.

I am assuming that for as long as Electrum is around then the seed is all I need. Id' like to jot down the other keys too.

This is where I get confused! I thought you have a private key, a public key and a hash of the public that creates the bitcoin address and that it's the bitcoin address you give out if you want someone to send you BTC.

I have found the "Master Public Key" but don't see a private key or bitcoin address. I've clicked on View-Addresses and I get a list of "receiving" and "change" addresses. I guess you get a bunch of private keys in a wallet and I am now looking at them.

I just want one private key along with the related public key and Bitcoin address.

How can I get these keys/addresses from Electrum?

Thanks for the help guys! I can't believe how much I've forgotten! Like, for instance, the fact that I exchanged all my coins!!

Good to hear this message OP its look like you make knowledge and find an answer to your question in some altcoin their a paper generator waller that you can find regarding to your question I know in the first place you generate wallet private key will there and you need to save.

you can get the public key on the electrum wallet by pressing the receive button as you can see on the picture.

https://i.ibb.co/J7nP3gY/Screenshot-1.png

Thank you!

So does this public key apply to all the private addresses? I seem to have 26 and a bunch that begin with p2wpkh:

Still, The Offline wallet is the best for Safe your both balance.
I recommended you to use https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39/releases
Those are a lot of Coins you can get save only 12/24 seed. You only need 1 paper for your all coin.
I checked, Of course, Bitcoin. another coin like BTG, MUSIC, And ELLA is available.

How to generate much address offline (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5190202.msg52655646#msg52655646)

That's correct. But in the same way you added Electrum along with core, I will add bitaddress because it has a long history of being pretty well done and if was clearly reviewed (probably by many more than I'd think).
Of course, the fact I trust one software doesn't mean you have to trust it too.

Why do you want to store all your coins on a paper wallet? I would rather spread my funds among various exchanges and token wallets to reduce the risks of hacking. If you lose this wallet, your funds are gone, so be careful :)

Honestly wouldn't say that paper wallets are the best idea to store your coins with, mate. They can be easily water damaged and fire damaged (at least laminate it to somewhat prevent these issues, if you do choose to go with it), and it's extremely annoying to have to keep printing new paper wallets every time you want to spend some coins.

If you still want to do it, there are client side private key generators for other coins, just make sure that what you're using is legitimate and open source. Do your due diligence. Otherwise, just run the official wallet software of that coin offline and generate a new address, and record down the privkeys yourself.

But honestly, hardware wallets are so much easier to use and potentially less prone to physical damage as well. Look into investing in one of those if you are storing large amounts of coin.

Ok, not a bad idea at all if you want to use paper wallet, infact they are more secured than even hardware wallets, all you have to do is find the paper wallet for each of the coins one by one because they use separate paper wallets, using bitaddress.org is safe and for other coins like bch use https://paperwallet.bitcoin.com/cashwallet.html

I use paper wallet as well but make sure you use them offline just in case, i am into cryptonight coins like monero so here is the link to its official paper wallet generator, https://moneroaddress.org/

Paper wallets are very useful but why not safe yourself the hassle and get a hardware wallet instead? they are now very affordable as well, the choice is yours to make though but paper wallets aren't bad, just make sure you keep them in safe locations and encrypt them too

a paper wallet is safe but it also has a lot of minuses - such as the ability to simply lose this piece of paper or wet it, etc. it would be better to buy a hardware wallet for $ 60

when creating ELLA paper wallet you will be asked to insert a password and this password encrypts your private key. This does not act as a seed to generate your keys but you will need the password and your private key to unlock your wallet. You can create ELLA through github link
https://ellaism.github.io/ellawallet/

To keep your coins safe, you should divide bitcoin and alts into 2 places to store. such as bitcoin you will send at Bitaddress.org and other alts will be deposited at Ledger Nano S.
Or you can just keep bitcoin and alts at Coinbase wallet. It is a place with the highest and best security. You don't need to go to any websites to keep your coins safe. Try to keep your computer virus free, it will be a lot better. ;)

Are you sure you want to move your coins on exchange to the paper wallets ?
What makes you to think like that ? It will be riskier if you move the coins to the scam paper wallet.
Just make sure you generate the paper wallet on the official site of the coin.

dear friend if you want to store your coins safely buy a hardware wallet like Trezor or similar. on exchange to store of course dangerously, exchanges the crack, then they quite are closed. or download wallets for these coins and throw them on a flash drive, also a reliable option.

Getting an authentic and legit source of paper wallet might be a little sketchy. There are several of them, but not all can be trusted. If that you stil prefer to use it, you might ask someone you trust so well and not just asking people at random, because by that, you might not be able to get the right one. Also, if you are in haste to get it, you might opt for a hardware wallet, but this comes with charge. That is, you will need to purchase it.

The seed is all you need.

Want to test it out? Download Electrum on an android phone or tablet (or another virtual machine). Turn off data and wifi. Run it. Do a "I have a seed" and let it create the wallet. Notice that the first 20 addresses are the same as the first 20 in your original Electrum wallet.

You can then wipe all program data and storage (or factory reset the device) and it'll all be gone. If it's a VM, just nuke it.


There are other things, like the Extended Master Public Key, this allows you to make a watch-only wallet. You can see everything, but can't spend anything.

If you can somehow get the Extended Master Private Key, that functions just like the 12 seed words. The seed words may be easier to remember or write down. If you're not concerned about using legacy compatible segwit addresses, you won't need this private key; just stick to the seed words.

Your point is pointless, that hardwallet you are saying its better don't you know that you will still need to keep your private key safe as well because if the hardware wallet get damaged you can still have access to your funds? hardware wallets can spoil as well

Bitaddress is a fine service provider, I've used them previously right before I got my trezor and I had no issues with them for the month I used them for.

No, it's a bit different. With hardware wallet you'll need to press buttons on the wallet for a transaction to go through, and this is secured via a password you set. With a paper wallet it's just a private key or set of words you type in to access the wallet.

What do you mean about paper wallets.
Is it the seed that cointains words then you write it on a top of paper or what
I'll add ETH into one of your investment because it's a sure coins that will have a brigt future

tools such as "bitaddress" could be viewed as a "private key generator" rather than "address generators". which that distinction they already support any type of script you want to create from your public key. all you have to do is to generate the private key, get the public key of it then convert that into a SegWit address. you can do the last step using any other tool because it is not security-important. it is a simple matter of hashing the compressed public key and putting a 0 before the hash and encoding it with bech32.