I have not realized this is not already case. You are right, having the full address (and key!) is a must (at least in my use case).
QR-codes = machine-readable, latin letters = human-readable.  I would never print anything as just a QR code, most humans can read and type letters, but nobody can read QR codes.
And at least here in Europe, not a single person who bought the wallets had a QR code scanner on their phone.

On that note, I still like the 'firstbits' idea since they are just a few letters. You could shout it across the street if necessary. And blockchain.info supports them, so even less typing.

Very nice. *joining*


I have the same plans, in smaller series (if only to bring prices down for my vending machine). However, I am not sure yet If things like embossing wouldn't make the product to expensive (on the other hand, we do adress 2 slightly different 'markets'. For a secure offline storage even 10€ per wallet would be cheaper than a bank account, but at this price I would not use it to convert 3€ into BTC for newcomers…)

I am interested in the opinion of the general public/userbase: what would be a good 'target price' for a sheet of 3 or 4 wallets, printed in very good quality). Because the world of printing is so diverse, I like to approach these project from this side, because otherwise they are just too many options to choose from. Also I am just curious what kind of quality you can get for roughly the same price in the US vs. printing in Europe…


I can certainly start that, would have to do it for myself anyhow. Synergy!
But, what do you mean by multi-platform? Just that it 'runs' on different hosting providers? If yes: no problem, static HTML will do that we could use github for dev and hosting as long as there is no reason to change that.

After reviewing the layout by acorn, I realized that it's vastly different in concept. It's more of a btc bank note, while I was more thinking in the direction if , well, a wallet. So it is just folded together, which makes it cheaper to print in any technique (just 1 side to print).
Also it does not need expensive stickers to cover the private key on the inside, since it just folded.

Not the critize the work done in this thread, there is space for multiple implementations for people with different needs and goals.

As I wrote, my personal main goal is to make the concept of Bitcoin as 'tangeable' as possible for newcomers (so even my testing process is different, I sit around with these in our hackspace explaining bitcoin. It also doubles as a work of art… )


I think with a little bit more there could be a 'sheet template' based on acorns, which would work for 'bank note'-style as well as 'folded paper'-style wallets. I feel we should use this moment in time to agree on some kind of sensible format which would work for the most possible use cases (mine and yours as well as the '3.0' version) and designs. What do you think?

(Just to be clear, I am writing here because I have the same goals as the OP, not as part of the bounty)

Have not seen this thread earlier, but i also recently started designing paper wallets, for another project (I sell them preloaded through a vending machine). while doing that, I had exactly the same idea (minus the bounty   ), so thanks for starting it.

I already like the 'winning' the design very much, but the more important achievement in my eyes is the proposal of a new standard format. Since I have experience with offset and printing in general, I will look at it in more detail later.

The nice thing about a standard sheet format is obviously:
- even more designs to choose from, because now people can make designs for this new format
- easier to fork bitadress.org and other tools to support it
- once a standard format is established and supported by common tools, it really could make sense to print 1000+ sheets in offset and really good quality.

For my project, the design has to be vastly different, because my paper wallets are supposed to work as a "propaganda tool". They have very clear instructions which make it much easier for newcomers to understand bitcoin, or at least make it less abstract when explaining. When I'll have some free time I will try to 'port' my wallet design to the proposed format, for now you can look at it in form of a preview PDF or a proof-of-concept fork of bitadress.org.
Both are uploaded here: http://bitcoin.ars.is

By that logic, your conclusion does not make sense. In the case of email, most end-users don't interact directly with the system (i.e. having their own mail server). If Mail/E-Mail = Money/Bitcoins, then Gmail = Instawallet, isn't it?

UPDATE:

The vending machine is coming back right now!
Plus, it will now sell paper wallets instead of coupons for online wallets.
I posted some sketches elsewhere in the forum in case you want to have a look.

I monkey-patched it into my "fork" of the bitadress html page, so you can look how it would look. I broke some other stuff (qr code sizing), but the paper wallets work and it is quick hack anyhow.

http://bitcoin.ars.is/paperwallet-art2.html

My plan would be to further develop the paperwallet design and also offer "blank" sheets to download as PDF so you have them printed professionally and then at home you use the generator with the "hide art" option to just print the codes and hashes.

Then the design of the paper and the functionality of bitaddress.org could be a bit more separated, it would be just a matter of supporting different layouts (as in: where to position the stuff). I.e. I could offer a few color variations on the design (I am thinking Euro-Note colours), but they don't need to clog the bitaddress.org repository.

If there is market for it, I would even offset print a batch of blanks on nice paper, possibly with some extra funky features (UV ink?) or even pre-perforation.

(If anyone is interested, the commits are on github, but as I said it is just a quick hack.)

Hi guys,

for the second installment of my "Bitcoin Vending Machine" art project I have started on a new paper wallet design. It is based on the current one (matches the size exactly) and I will try to integrate it into my bitadress fork to use it with the vending machine.

In the spirit of open sauce etc. I thought I'll also put it here, to get some feedback. I diverged from the original layout and text to make it more accessable. If you like it and want to put it into bitadrerss.org, I would certainly make the necessary modifications (like different URLs).

No, the problem is not the typing, although QR codes would shurely be the best way to solve it (they are in use now for the web wallet URL).
I am searching for a way to avoid the preloading of a special wallet altogether. for example, you send coins to the machine using a special address, but then we would need some kind of authentication.

Yes, but as a newbie board member I can't to that (and wouldn't have know where). Can a mod maybe move the thread there?

For the summer exhibition of my fine art studies at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and in cooperation with our local hackspace I build a mechanical Bitcoin vending machine. It repurposes an used vending machine, takes your 1€-Coin and spits a little box containing a link to an easywallet.org webwallet containing 1€ (minus the material costs).

I think this project is of interest to the bitcoin community as I also try to explore the possibilities of Bitcoin POS systems and also the design of physical representations of Bitcoins and usability aspects.

The project is still developing as we are getting to know the machine and how to mod it. Next step include support for TORwallet.net (second slot needs to be fixed). I am also developing a more flat box design which folds out to a sheet containing the link. I worked on it before I had the machine, testing then showed my boxes were to unstable, so I decided to use the normal boxes so it works flawlessly through the exhibition. Also, if we find a place to keep the machine for an extended time the amount per box will be raised to the 3€ maximum to get down the percentage of material costs (a box is 0.18€ in bulk and 0.09€ if manufactured by me which is not a viable long term option).

You'll find pictures at our backspace's blog (http://blog.maschinenraum.tk/bitcoin-vending-machine) and I am open to questions and feedback here.

PS. My dream project would be a electronic version 2.0 with the ability to also withdrawal cash for BTC. My initial research shows this would be possible using a mixture of open source software and hardware and some proprietary modules to deal with the physical money.
The real puzzle is how to handle authentication when depositing BTC. The other way around, you are authenticated because you just inserted a coin (no difference here between a mechanical or electronic machine).
If you could transfer BTC to an address of machine
a) we have to wait for the verification
b) we have no way to know you were the sender.
Best working (and usable) idea so far is to also use webwallet. You transfer yourself to a temporary wallet and give the URL.
I am shure there are better ways to this I haven't thought of.