Bitcoin Forum

What is the safest way to print a private key in a paper and give to another person?

For example I generate an address and I want give to a friend as gift, but is there a way that is 100% secure in regards to the mask/unreveal of the priv key during the paper wallet creation process?

Check out https://www.bitaddress.org. You can use the site to create paper wallets. You can and should download the code for the site from github: https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org and then use it on an offline machine when you actually want to make a paper wallet.

You can encrypt a paper wallet with a password according to BIP38.
Read more about it in the bitcoin wiki: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Paper_wallet (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Paper_wallet)

A liveCD with tails on it, with an offline version of bitaddress.org on it. Make sure it never touches the internet, and print it out.

Or you can do what I do, get a trustable friend to code a paper wallet generator app that you can host on your CD that only generates wallets and just connects to your printer.

how to create a banknote with a private key that could be trustable? there is a way?
or another solution?

Even without encryption, the private key is pretty safe. All you have to do is to first make sure that your computer is secure, free from any sort of viruses or hacks, then print the paper wallet using a website like BitAddress.org. The wallet should remain just fine. BTW, don't just gift the empty paper wallet, it'd be worthless. :P

I understand this ... but if I print a priv key in a banknote, how I can make trustable also for another user, a "third person"?

for example there is a lot of coins sell with some btc inside. how yo can trust the seller if he don't have back up of your priv key in the coins you buy?

You can't.

Exactly. You have to "swipe" the paper wallet, transfer the amount of Bitcoin to an address you and only you have access to, and never use that same paper wallet again.

and how people trust lealana or casascius that they don't use the priv key inside the physical coins?!
or there is another way to load and mantain the secureness of a coin?!

They are just trusting the company to not steal the private key or record it beforehand.

Maybe someone comes up one day with a clever multi-sig scheme to allow this in a trustless way. I have sold lealana coins myself and most of the people asked how they can trust me that the private key is really on the coin.  :)

Paper wallets are universally regarded as the most secure way to store bitcoin

Piper makes creating paper wallets as easy as pressing a button

If you invest in bitcoin ... it could be a lifesaver.

It could be a great help for everyonne who use to bitcoin :)

I need to do this just to practice at least.  I know it is something that I should do, just always put it off due to it being a bit complicated.  Good references here in this thread.

OP can do one thing, ask his friend to generate a key for himself from https://www.bitaddress.org and secure it with a password according to BIP38 protocol.
Then he can send you the encrypted private key starting with 6... and you can generate a paper wallet with it, without knowing the actual password used to encrypt it.

This way you can basically gift him any coins you want without him to trust you.
Because redeeming can only be done by someone who knows the password.

Then the friend would be generating the key instead of yourself, opposite of what the OP wants. A simpler method would be to ask him for the address and send him the coins.

Piper printer would solve the problem as it works offline and prints a fully well-generated solution :)

printing the paper wallet do not need a specific program or site anyone can make it by just converting his xpub or private key into a qr code and printing it out will give you a paper wallet

yes but how people selling paper wallet already funded? how they can be trustable service? they use an "hologram" to hide the priv key?

Personally, I would never trust them. But indeed, people sell coins with holograms and private keys in there. If you want to use that for long term storage, of course it looks nice. But you can never be sure the seller didn't store the private key. No matter how trusted the seller, you just can't know.

Paper wallets are easy to create but precautions must be taken. Computer must be protected from viruses and network printer should be avoided.

I agree with many that BIP38 can be a good choice, but instructions on how it can be sweep must be given together with the paper wallet- or else it will just be a piece of garbage.

and how people buying coin loads also with 1000 btc?


the problem remain for the new user "who" can receive a paper wallet, how can trust even with a BIP38 encryption? so far impossible.