Simplest way to stash bitcoin?

[annette786]

Sorry... I know this has been answered, but I'm tired of searching all this technical stuff.  I simply want to buy $200 worth of bitcoin and sock it away on a disc for a few years.  I don't want it to be on my hard drive in case I get hacked or my comp crashes.

I am very non technical, what is the easiest way to do this? Thank you, Ann.

[sayonara]

Easiest way to buy the coins or to stash them?

As for the first, I'd suggest taking a look at this page[1]

Set up a wallet using Electrum[2] (hopefully if you're on a Mac, you're on Lion, otherwise it'd be a bit difficult), burn the (encrypted) wallet file, and voilà!

[1]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins
[2]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum

[Stephen Gornick]

Sorry... I know this has been answered, but I'm tired of searching all this technical stuff.  I simply want to buy $200 worth of bitcoin and sock it away on a disc for a few years.  I don't want it to be on my hard drive in case I get hacked or my comp crashes.

I am very non technical, what is the easiest way to do this? Thank you, Ann.

If you are pretty sure your computer is secure, with no screen-scraping spyware or malware, then here's probably the easiest:

Step 1.) http://BitAddress.org

Step 2.) Wiggle mouse

Step 3.) Hit Print

Step 4.) Using an exchange, like one that accepts cash deposit  ... buy bitcoins.  Then withdraw to the address from the QR code that you printed.

Step 5.) Verify funds made it, by watching the address on Blockchain.info:

Step 6.) After a couple confirmations, close your browser and put the piece of paper in a safe place.

Years later, redeem the private key (from a computer that is secure).  There are many methods to do this today, ... a year from now there should be many many additional options.


If you aren't sure your computer is secure (at least not willing to risk $200 worth on the chance that it isn't, use a bootable LiveOS.  You can get one from Ubuntu for instance.  Boot to that, then go to BitAddress.org.

[Superbest]

Put your wallet.dat inside a TrueCrypt file (or passworded rar if you are tech illiterate) and stick the rar on your flash drive. Include a portable version of WinRar and the bitcoin client just in case.

[LoweryCBS]

Sorry... I know this has been answered, but I'm tired of searching all this technical stuff.  I simply want to buy $200 worth of bitcoin and sock it away on a disc for a few years.  I don't want it to be on my hard drive in case I get hacked or my comp crashes.

Even better:

(short version) Come up with a good pass-phrase of 4 unrelated words. Create a brain-wallet address. Send bitcoin to that address. Nothing to get hacked, nothing to crash, nothing to sock away. Just don't forget your pass-phrase.

I have a painting in my house that I describe with 4 words, and generated my own brain wallet with those 4 words. I think of those 4 words every time I see the painting, thus grinding the pass-phrase into my memory.

http://brainwallet.org/

[saddambitcoin]

Sorry... I know this has been answered, but I'm tired of searching all this technical stuff.  I simply want to buy $200 worth of bitcoin and sock it away on a disc for a few years.  I don't want it to be on my hard drive in case I get hacked or my comp crashes.

Even better:

(short version) Come up with a good pass-phrase of 4 unrelated words. Create a brain-wallet address. Send bitcoin to that address. Nothing to get hacked, nothing to crash, nothing to sock away. Just don't forget your pass-phrase.

I have a painting in my house that I describe with 4 words, and generated my own brain wallet with those 4 words. I think of those 4 words every time I see the painting, thus grinding the pass-phrase into my memory.

http://brainwallet.org/

WARNING!  Your passphrase is way too short for use as a brainwallet.  Please reference this FAQ for Brainwallet - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Brainwallet

"It is very important when creating a brainwallet to use a passphrase that has a very high level of entropy. If this is not done, theft of the brainwallet is an eventual certainty.

This is not a simple suggestion. This is a requirement. Most people when asked to create a secure password, with everything they've heard about creating a password, will still create a password that if used for a brainwallet, will result in the eventual theft of their funds. The simple fact of the matter is that hacking a brainwallet password is a mathematical exercise that requires no internet access, no communication, and leaves no trace, so hackers can collectively try multiple trillions of passwords every second in the privacy of their own homes with the very same equipment they use for mining bitcoins (in the usual sense). Your bank might tell you that a 10 character password with uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols is a strong password, but it is not strong enough to secure a brainwallet. A password that might be strong enough for traditional banking or a social website is typically unacceptable for a brainwallet.

A brainwallet passphrase, at a minimum, needs to be an entire original sentence that does not appear in any song or literature. Security is enhanced simply by including some sort of memorable personal information, which doesn't necessarily even have to be secret (e.g. an e-mail address, or phone number). A good brainwallet passphrase will have dozens of characters. "

[benjamindees]

If you have a printer, or access to a relatively secure printer, the safest way is to print a paper wallet.  CDs don't necessarily last more than a few years, depending on the environment.

Go to https://www.bitaddress.org.  Click "Paper Wallet".  Disconnect your computer from the internet.  Click "Generate".  Click "Print".  Copy and paste the Bitcoin addresses to a text file.  Clear your browser cache.  Re-connect your internet.  Send your Bitcoins to the address(es).  Put your paper wallet in a safe place.

[Lethos]

In your position I would consider looking at some of the long-term offers to deposit into. It means a bit of risk of course, but one could say having someone else look after it for you, is avoiding the risk you were actually worried about. Just stick to the low interest stuff.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=88.0

But if you want to invest in bitcoin, it really pays to learn about it. So I wouldn't put any money into bitcoins, until you know what you are doing and definitely start with smaller numbers to learn.

[Stephen Gornick]

In your position I would consider looking at some of the long-term offers to deposit into. It means a bit of risk of course, but one could say having someone else look after it for you, is avoiding the risk you were actually worried about. Just stick to the low interest stuff.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=88.0

That is THE worst advice I've ever seen given in response to "how to stash my coins".  Giving your coins to someone else to hold has way more risk than printing out paper wallets or running from a LiveOS, etc.

[Lethos]

In your position I would consider looking at some of the long-term offers to deposit into. It means a bit of risk of course, but one could say having someone else look after it for you, is avoiding the risk you were actually worried about. Just stick to the low interest stuff.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=88.0

That is THE worst advice I've ever seen given in response to "how to stash my coins".  Giving your coins to someone else to hold has way more risk than printing out paper wallets or running from a LiveOS, etc.

There is a reason why I said, the above I bolded in case you missed it. If she is not very tech savy, it's at least an option to trust someone else to look after it. It takes a lot more experience to do things like running a wallet from a LiveOS.
Just learning how to move bitcoins around to buy/sell them is probably all she wants to do.

If she full admits to not being tech savy, which one is more likely?
- She loses everything by something he did to his wallet or pc or means of storage.
- Well known person like Patrick walks of with his deposit.

In my experience of tech support, I can almost guarantee how frequently my non-techy friends end up need my help to fix a major issue over the course of a year. One of my worst is 4-5 times a year, some are more like 1 a year. Oh how I wish teaching them what or not to do helped, some learn, some don't.

By all means call my advice the worst. She can ignore it if he wants, I'm sure she will if it's so bad.

[DannyHamilton]

. . . sock it away on a disc for a few years . . .

How many years?  Disc might not be the best idea.  Technology changes too fast.  Imagine if you had something important stored on 5.25 inch or 3.5 inch floppy disc.  How would you get to it now?  Paper printout of your private keys is probably your best option.  There have already been some response on here suggesting how to do that.

[saddambitcoin]

Sorry... I know this has been answered, but I'm tired of searching all this technical stuff.  I simply want to buy $200 worth of bitcoin and sock it away on a disc for a few years.  I don't want it to be on my hard drive in case I get hacked or my comp crashes.

I am very non technical, what is the easiest way to do this? Thank you, Ann.

If you are pretty sure your computer is secure, with no screen-scraping spyware or malware, then here's probably the easiest:

Step 1.) http://BitAddress.org

Step 2.) Wiggle mouse

Step 3.) Hit Print

Step 4.) Using an exchange, like one that accepts cash deposit  ... buy bitcoins.  Then withdraw to the address from the QR code that you printed.

Step 5.) Verify funds made it, by watching the address on Blockchain.info:

Step 6.) After a couple confirmations, close your browser and put the piece of paper in a safe place.

Years later, redeem the private key (from a computer that is secure).  There are many methods to do this today, ... a year from now there should be many many additional options.


If you aren't sure your computer is secure (at least not willing to risk $200 worth on the chance that it isn't, use a bootable LiveOS.  You can get one from Ubuntu for instance.  Boot to that, then go to BitAddress.org.

Thanks, I just did this from a liveOS of ubuntu.  This should replace the epic "how to create a 100% secure wallet", for new users that don't have the patience for reading the entire thread.   

I didn't know it was so easy to run ubuntu on a mac.  Just download the image here and burn it to a CD. 

Instead of accessing the internet from the Ubuntu live OS I saved the websites bitaddress.org and brainwallet.org to my HD in advance.  I created a paper wallet and a brainwallet.  Now, even if my paper wallet is somehow physically compromised in the future I will not be totally wiped out as long as my brainwallet password is secure enough! 

[chriswilmer]

I would just like to throw in my setup.

No clients, no wallet.

My bitcoins are stashed at a wallet address of course, but there is no wallet file. I just send BTC to the public address, and when I want to withdraw them I generate a transaction on an offline computer, booted from a liveUSB Ubuntu key, using a saved brainwallet.org page.

I then save the transaction (generated on the offline computer) onto a USB key, copy it onto an online computer and use blockchain.info/pushtx to send it out. It's really simple to do... (although it did take me a while to really understand how it worked). I can't see why I would ever use a wallet client. Please tell me if I'm missing something.

[casascius]

Sorry... I know this has been answered, but I'm tired of searching all this technical stuff.  I simply want to buy $200 worth of bitcoin and sock it away on a disc for a few years.  I don't want it to be on my hard drive in case I get hacked or my comp crashes.

I am very non technical, what is the easiest way to do this? Thank you, Ann.

The first answer you were given by Stephen Gornick is the best and the simplest.  Go to http://www.bitaddress.org, print a sheet, and send bitcoins to the address on your printed sheet.  Keep the sheet in a safe place.

[Brian Puccio]

Easiest way to buy the coins or to stash them?

As for the first, I'd suggest taking a look at this page[1]

Set up a wallet using Electrum[2] (hopefully if you're on a Mac, you're on Lion, otherwise it'd be a bit difficult), burn the (encrypted) wallet file, and voilà!

[1]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins
[2]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum

Be careful, the lots of optical media aren't really too archival. I'd got with dead tree like the others recommend.

[1Pakis]

Buy Bitcoins from an exchange and then buy casascius coins

[Lumpy]

In your position I would consider looking at some of the long-term offers to deposit into. It means a bit of risk of course, but one could say having someone else look after it for you, is avoiding the risk you were actually worried about. Just stick to the low interest stuff.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=88.0

That is THE worst advice I've ever seen given in response to "how to stash my coins".  Giving your coins to someone else to hold has way more risk than printing out paper wallets or running from a LiveOS, etc.

Agree. What happens when the long-term offers, even "legitimate" ones, shut down? The Bitcoins have to go somewhere, hence you still have to have a receiving address. That's assuming the best--that is, that you actually get something back instead of nothing at all. With the high number of scams we're seeing, you'd be better off simply storing your coins. A paper wallet in a secure location is MUCH better than hoping a CD or flash drive will last as long as you need. A brainwallet with a secure passphrase is the best, but not everyone will be able to pick a secure passphrase and remember it for years.

[szuetam]

Sorry... I know this has been answered, but I'm tired of searching all this technical stuff.  I simply want to buy $200 worth of bitcoin and sock it away on a disc for a few years.  I don't want it to be on my hard drive in case I get hacked or my comp crashes.

I am very non technical, what is the easiest way to do this? Thank you, Ann.

Very wise of you doing that.


I think it is common idea to do that for newbies that believe in bitcoin but do not want to wast time for it now.

There is some need for some good tutorial on it or as much as it is possible automated way.

One of my ideas if you asking the simplest way - if someone more keen on bitcoin get you into it (and you trust that person), ask him/her to do it for you with just letting you type passphrase.

[NoobBitcoinUzr]

Paper wallets don't sound that great long term either. I stored some papers in a safe we have in our house (receipts for some silver coins I had purchased awhile back). At some point I went to the receipts and found that two of them had started developing mold - apparently a tiny bit of moisture got into the ziploc bag that was storing the pile of receipts. I saved them, but if I had left the papers for a few months / year or so longer they could have gotten eaten away.

Nothing is foolproof - I'm starting to think multiple backups is the way to go. Paper backup, physical backup (e.g., USB drive, disc, etc.), and online backup in combination maybe is the best way.

[mufa23]

Like Stephen and Casascius already said, paper wallets are the way to go. If you are worried about losing that paper, make some copies. Put a copy in a safety deposit box. Carve the address and key on a plank of wood, etc.

And make a few wallets. Don't put your all your eggs in one basket.

They will never be stolen, and will exist as long as Bitcoin exists. I have a couple of paper wallets that I will open in 20 years from now when they are worth thousands.