Bitcoin Forum

Hi guys, I am having some questions.

For paper wallets it keep your keys offline, which protects against online hacking, but their physical nature makes them vulnerable to damage, loss, or theft? If the paper is lost or destroyed, your Bitcoin is also gone forever right.

What happens if my paper wallet gets wet, burned, or the ink fades?

How do I securely create and print a paper wallet without risking my private keys being stolen?

Paper wallets are a thing of the past. Sure, some hardcore people still use them, but with the abundance of hardware wallets and choices these days, they're almost never an option people consider.
Having said that, if you're thinking of those fancy envelope like wallets that fold and have a QR code, that's just a visual design thing.

Paper wallet can be any wallet you create, you just save your 12/24 words on a paper, print it out (or write it out by hand), and save it in a dark dry place, like a safe.

Some people engrave these words on a metal sheet, that way it's harder to burn or be damaged in a flood

Are you aware of this thread by fillippone  Securing Your Seed Phrase with Washers  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5389446.0) and  Stainless steel Bitcoin Recovery Seed Plate. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5323755.0) by willi9974 .

Another possible way to protect your seed phrase/private key from being destroyed is if you have a private laminating machine in your house, you can use the laminating firm and make it water resistant so that it doesn’t get wet.

As for fire, you have steel to use, which can’t be destroyed by both fire and water. Among all means, keeping it from the reach of others and never misplacing it should also be your top priority.

One solution to the problems you mentioned is to make multiple copies and store them in different safe places.

To solve the problem of getting wet and fading, you can laminate the papers, which is a guarantee of solving most of these problems.

To solve the problem of getting burned in a fire, you can store your papers in a fireproof box. I think if you take these steps, you can get rid of the problem of getting burned, getting wet or fading.

For extra security, you can store a copy of your wallet's private key in a bank's safety deposit box. This way, you can reduce the chances of theft or robbery.

You do not need to print it but you can use a pencil or the common pen that students use on a papar that students commonly buy. But first go and check the paper you have used like 10 years ago or more to know if what are written on it is not erased. If you want to use pencil, use the common graphite pencil.

For water resistant material, you can laminate the paper. Also make sure you keep the paper in different locations and you can have 2 or 3 of the backups.

You can use passphrase also. Make sure you backup the passphrase in different locations. If the passphrase is lost, you will not be able to have access to your coins just as if seed phrase is lost.

Or you can get a steel or titanium backup instead.

You would not find a risk-free activity. Many people may think the way you think, but the solution lies with you. Where and how you store your wallet seed phrase is up to you. You should make several backup copies and store them in separate locations.

Paper wallet must be created offline and you must remember this vital step. If you create your paper wallet online, it contains risk.

Paper wallet is one of many ways of storing your bitcoin, and you can import it to other wallet softwares for storage and backup like on your USB sticks, computers but they should be airgap devices.

You can use stainless, washers for backups.

How to back up a seed phrase. (https://blog.lopp.net/how-to-back-up-a-seed-phrase/)
n0nce's Steel Washer Backup jig (customisable). (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5363596.0)
[LIST] Bitcoin Seed Backup Tools. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5263482.0)
Metal Bitcoin storge reviews. (https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/)

If your paper wallet gets damaged it will affect your fund,
if it gets wet you can carefully dry it to get private key or QR code
If it gets burned am sorry i don't think redeemable

That's why it's good to always protect your paper wallet by laminating it or make different copies

Simple, I stored my recovery seed using paper too and I made an extra backup using a stainless steel in the shape of a ATM card, used a nail to carve the words on the stainless steel and keep in two different location, if water can destroy the paper like you said it will be near impossible to destroy the stainless steel.

I still prefer writing the words in the paper, don't use any online means to store your recovery seed, don't download some paper like app online and type the words on the app, someone somewhere is watching while you are using the Internet.

Turn off your Internet connection and write the words out then later consider carving them on a steel. Find a safe location and keep them safe, remember that crypto is now popular than they used to, eye will be everywhere now, make sure you store where no-one knows.

Let's make it clear.

Regardless it's a paper wallet, online wallet or hardware wallet, you can back up your seed phrase via offline. Means, you don't have to create paper wallet in order to save your seed phrase physically.

If you save your seed phrase using paper, there's a risk like you mentioned, the worst is the ink faded, it's not good for long term. Better to use steel.

Here's the tutorial how to safely create a paper wallet [Howto] Give Bitcoin as a gift (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5190702)

Paper wallets are good for keeping your Bitcoin keys offline and safe from hackers but their physical nature means they can be easily damaged by water or fire or lost or stolen. If your paper wallet which holds your private key is destroyed or goes missing without backup your Bitcoin is gone forever as there is no recovery service. To safely create one use computer that completely offline to generate your wallet and print it with non networked printer. Never save digital copies of your private key and always make multiple physical copies laminating them and storing them in different secure waterproof and fireproof locations possibly even with passphrase for extra protection.

In addition to these, try to make use of a laminated sheet to store your paper wallet, then when it comes to handling, try to ensure you have a proper maintenance when it comes to this, because fire or heat could be a serios thread, but water couldn't if you store in a laminated sheet, then the other side is that of the natural disaster, which anyone could fall a victim, but you can overcome it by having an alternative storage.

This is where the option of having multiple copies of your keys stored in secured location comes in handy. With multiple copies printed in an offline printer or carefully written down if one gets destroyed the other copies replaces the lost one.

It will be preferable if it gets laminated as well to keep them safe from water or moisture attack. As already known never use online printer or any online backup option.  You can as well hide them in fire/waterproof safe. Lastly your duplicates should be kept at different secure locations.

Why use paper if there are other materials that are safer and will last a long time.
Now, if you only rely on the paper that you print with a printer or that you write, it will be easily damaged and very vulnerable even if you have a lot of backup.

The best way to store it is to use a Seed Backup which is made of materials that are not easily damaged under any conditions.
There are many Backup seed options that you can choose from, and on average use strong stainless steel material that is resistant to all kinds of damage.

You can choose them on this website and compare them.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/05/28/UXZwkP.png
https://thebitcoinhole.com/seed-backup


But if you insist on sticking with paper then the paper needs additional protection such as a hard plastic laminate that can make the paper more resistant and use storage that has strong durability,
such as a time capsule made of strong and sturdy stainless steel material and can be stored in the ground or wherever you want.

No completely durable method, there will always be a flaw on which ever method you choose but some are more effective than the other ..  trying the modern way methods as shown by taufik along with your paper method could help to some extent ..
Yeah this is much better , I will take it as a secondary and still take the paper method as a primary, multiple different choices is allowed.. what matters is keeping them safe and since multiple backups is necessary it could be a good combo ...

In that case you are obviously lost your keys/coins, but that is why people are making multiple backups in different locations.
You can always put paper inside waterproof plastic bag, and than in fireproof bag, that is not expensive at all.
Much more durable alternative is to use stainless steel (washers) or titanium instead of paper.

You don't need to print anything, just use regular paper and pen.
New solutions are now offering to store keys encrypted in cards that look like regular payment cards (Satochip and Keycard).

Regarding this stainless steel capsule, I think the capsules sailors use to store medicine, for example, could work, as some are made of stainless steel and, above all, waterproof. They don't cost much. However, in the event of a fire, I suspect the paper inside will burn, unless the capsule is buried deep in a garden. Unless, perhaps, you place several capsules inside each other like Russian dolls (matryoshka).

But what would be interesting to check first and foremost is how you created your wallet in the first place. Imagine if your wallet was emptied after several years because you created it online on a dubious website?

https://talkimg.com/images/2025/05/28/UXnG5H.jpeg

https://talkimg.com/images/2025/05/28/UXnG5H.jpeg

Although it's a good experience to generate and print a paper wallet securely, you need to have technical knowledge to do so, as well as at least one offline device to generate the private key. Optionally, you can protect the private key by encrypting it with BIP-38.

However, due to the ease of BIP-39, I honestly don't see any more reasons for a paper wallet with a single private key. If I were to generate an offline wallet today, I'd have a few options such as:

1 - Use an offline computer to generate a BIP-39 wallet or electrum seed, I'd use this initial BIP-39 seed as a master seed and derive a new child seed through BIP-85 using a passphrase (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5505458.0). I'd write down both backups on paper and also keep encrypted backups of the derived wallet saved:

Security tips for making encrypted backups of your seedphrase. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5490701)

Cipher method to encrypt recovery seed words using a unique key: seed-otp (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5495690.0)

2 - Using the master seed, I could create as many wallets as I want, using passphrases for different purposes, the same goes if I want to divide amounts in a paper wallet (which can also be generated via BIP-85).

3 - Hardware wallets: HWs (mainly open source and air-gapped) combine the best of both worlds: the security of a paper wallet and the convenience and ease of a software wallet.

I intend to open a topic soon to address these questions in more detail.

All methods have different risks, when, but it should be realized that all have different durability. If you really want to secure your paper wallet, then my suggestion is to store it in a steel safe, if possible try to cover it with clear plastic on the paper wallet, and if you want to be even safer, but there must be additional effort, namely by placing your steel safe containing the paper wallet in a bunker or underground, then if something unwanted happens such as a flood, fire, earthquake, theft, then I think it will be much safer than the usual way, so this method can minimize the risk.

Before I proceed with that question, please let me know how experienced you are in creating a paper wallet.
It's generally not recommended for beginners to make a paper wallet, as it can be quite risky.
If you do create one, consider depositing a small amount for testing purposes.

Important details on how to secure your private keys have been mentioned and linked above.
As long as you make multiple copies and store them securely in different locations to prevent total loss, you should be safe.

IMO, due to their fragility, many now prefer hardware wallets or metal backups that are more resistant to fire, water, and corrosion than paper.

First of all paper should be protected in all possible way withA good way for protecting paper from bacteria and other external infection requires just some gas for zippo.
Liquid when absorbe by paper would create a tiny player that protect the paper.
However made some prints and try since rarely some liquid ink could leave stains on paper.

water-based ink penetrates paper and is difficult to remove once dried. using a gas from a Zippo lighter or other?

1. To avoid burning paper wallet, make several backups.
2. If you use paper as a storage medium, it is better to use a pencil instead of a pen to write the text, in order to preserve the readability of the text.
3. Laminate the paper to partially protect this storage medium from damage.
4. It is better to use a metal plate (stainless steel is recommended) instead of paper.
5. Use text encryption in case of theft and "paper wallet" falling into the hands of strangers.

The time capsule storage modem as I gave an example is indeed used to store in the ground or places where there may not be a strong enough fire,
because the fire will burn everything but with solid and strong material protection it may still survive.
this is only optional and there are some other products that can be used and are stronger and maybe as you mentioned in the image.

And of course creating an initial wallet that uses the Website online will have more risks because some are not trusted.
But creating your own from a trusted wallet like Electrum and then recording it elsewhere might be safer.

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I use safepal and it is still comfortable until now, Without any connection and only using Air-gapped which operates completely offline.
These wallets isolate devices that store private keys from any external network, including the internet.

I consider having a duplicate copies is a must and not limited into three copies at least and by that you can distribute into different places that you are the only one who knows there it is but again make sure that you still remember that places sometimes through out the weeks or months people forget where and what they did and where we put those seed phrase. Currently I'm trying to consider the use of the metal plates because of the possibility of normal occurrence of course which is paper is one of the vulnerable.

You might want to consider using the coin-flipping method ^{which is pretty simple yet effective way to ensure true randomness} to generate BIP 39 SEED phrase for your wallet. Stamping SEED onto steel washers would be a great idea as they're far more durable than paper and resistant to fire, water, and general wear. There’s the great thread on the forum (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5389446.0) filled with brilliant ideas and DIY tips on how to choose or make the right tools for stamping washers. If you're curious about how to generate SEED phrase using the coin-flip method, this paper (https://coldbit.com/blogs/blog/bip-39-basics-from-randomness-to-mnemonic-words)does the great job explaining the whole process ^{or google to find other relevant materials}.

You're correct,  the use of paper is an old offline storage medium though my instincts tells me that people still make use of this storage medium. I have also previously recommended that people make use of a water and fire proof safe or vault to store the written seed phrase, but now it's best to make use of stainless materials by cresting the words on them and save for a long time. Stainless barely corrode so it would be a good storage medium.  However that's for analog storage medium, for digital it's best you make use of a hardware wallet and an airgapped device.

First of all you don't. Please don't rely on papers if you can't take enough precaution measures to protect it from external damage. As already been suggested by others use those steel tools. It's far more better with cold hot pressure any kind of situations. My personal fav is this one: Crypto Steel (https://cryptosteel.com/). But if you must use a paper to store your wallet then make sure to make as much copies as possible. It would slim out your chances of loosing the wallet.

print and laminate your paper as they do on documents :)

If I follow all these steps, is my paper wallet completely safe, or is there still some risk I should know about?

There are always a lot of risk factors so you can not avoid them or control them completely. By having proper and careful practice, you are only reducing risk but remember that you won't be able to eliminate them entirely.

So my answer is you can not be sure about risk-free with any wallet backup methods. You can see that your backup must be safe (no damages so that it won't become unusable) but when you make multiple backups, you have to save it in different places. It raises risk of one of your backup is accessed by someone else and your Bitcoin wallet will be recovered from that backup, then that person can steal your bitcoin.

To sum up, make multiple backups with some different backup methods, and store all your backups safely.

Or we can simple prefer the method of fillippone - mentioned just a post above of yours. I really think laminating the paper and storing it for long term is a best practice because we can still lose it and it is still vulnerable to water and fire both, although storing multiple papers with different phrase's words printed on more than one pages is a good idea.

But we should not use them at all, paper wallet are old now but if we still want to use, then we definitely want to follow a easy and simple method of securing them, I would have encrypted it first so no one could use it, I would have a dedicated, water and fire proof safe from this, then I might not even use any other material than paper and won't even laminate it.

I can see that the above members gave you some great suggestions on how to preserve your paper wallet and keep it safe, which was the second part of your question. So there isn’t really much to add to what has already been suggested.

Regarding the first part of your question which is how to create the wallet, then you need to use a reputable wallet app or script to generate the wallet seed and you must run it on a completely air-gapped device (that has never been and will never be online). Also, make sure to write the seed/private key manually instead of using a printer.

In my small mind, if you want to keep your seed faces safely on paper, then you should definitely laminate it after writing it on paper. Because it is more likely to get wet in water than to catch fire. And in my opinion, it is important to keep a backup of your seed face in several places. Because accidents  come unexpectedly. So in my opinion, if you save it on an offline laptop or mobile at home and also save it on paper, then it is better.

Lamination is indeed a good first step to secure the paper so that it does not get damaged easily and fade,
but of course this is only the initial protection that will not even always be reliable when some other damage can occur such as burning or some other more extreme thing.

Having a lot of backup in one place should also think about how well the paper holds.
As mentioned above and I also said, moving the storage to a steel plate will be better because it is more resistant to all kinds of damage,
but you will certainly need to spend more to buy a steel plate, or you can make your own with a steel plate ring and print a phrase on each part of the steel plate ring.

Spending a little money is better than keeping all the backups in the same condition, but in the end they are damaged and unreadable.