Can someone school me on wallets?

[J_Dubbs]

Over the weekend I ordered some paper wallet disc and kit. The disc runs Ubuntu offline and I guess will allow me to print secure offline paper wallets. Tried messing around with Armory but it seems broken, in fact I think it trapped my fucking test deposit balance, no clue how to get it out- either broken or way too much of a learning curve, not sure yet. And I also tried using Bitcoin Core and True Crypt to encrypt my backup, but again the workflow seems more complicated than I want to mess with. Hoping this offline paper wallet kit gives me what I need.

[deepceleron]

I can recommend a good secure alternative to the above: an OS that has never been touched by another Bitcoiner.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=361092.0 has paper wallet generator software that will run on almost any Linux live CD, and some instructions about using one of the smaller and more secure distros.

A paper wallet or offline/cold storage address is only needed if you have too many bitcoins to lose though.


If you are just getting started and have patience, I would recommend you get familiar with Bitcoin "core"; very few people have ever lost bitcoins with a strongly encrypted and backed up Bitcoin-Qt wallet:

1. get the blockchain torrent started now, to download the 10gb bitcoin bootstrap https://bitcoin.org/bin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent,

2. use the bootstrap torrent and get the wallet software caught up to the current block,

3. encrypt your wallet with an uncrackable password (you can write it down locally; you are protecting your wallet against hackers stealing the wallet file over the Internet),

4. back up your wallet through the menu, save it to two different media; mail a CD to a relative; protect against your house being burglarized or burning down.

5. Do not get infected with trojan horse wallet stealing key logging software. If you must use your Bitcoin wallet computer to browse the web, do not download any unknown software from places that may be aware of your Bitcoin use. Remove Flash, Java, and Acrobat reader; these are unfixable holes into an OS. Use Firefox with the requestpolicy addon, so all third-party content on web sites must be manually allowed by you (or at least use noscript). Keep the OS fully updated. Use a Linux OS.

5. Then you can start using Bitcoin to store your own money.

6. If you need convenience, such as using a web wallet to pay your restaurant bill with your phone, or using an exchange or localbitcoins.com account, only send the minimum amount immediately required to use such a service, and not more than you can afford to lose.