What do you use your paper wallets for?

[d4n13]

I actually like to keep my paper wallets in USD denominations... seems silly perhaps, but easy on the math.

If the exchange is say $200 = 1BTC, then I make a few wallets with $10 USD graphic where each one has 0.025BTC.  Now when I need to spend say $80 in btc, I just grab 8 $10 (paper-wallet) bills.

Our minds are trained to treat dollars with reverence, so I leverage that with my BTC and feels about the same.

Main reason I like them, is SW is too transiant.  Imagine someone gave you a swiss bank account number with a million dollars in it, but the account number was in a 1980 wordstar file using some forgotten password protection scheme stored on a cassette tape.  You would be wishing for a simple printed piece of paper with the number at that point.

[d4n13]

I actually like to keep my paper wallets in USD denominations... seems silly perhaps, but easy on the math.

http://www.secretservice.gov/money_illustrations.shtml
OK... nevermind....

I do NOT print them in USD denominations.
I do NOT print them on both sides
After printing, I take the the printer, the toner, all memory chips and all disk drives out to my back yard, soak them in gasoline and light them on fire.

There... happy?

[Herbert2020]

you can do whatever you want with your paper wallet. it is the same as any other bitcoin wallet with an address and a private key. but whenever you use your private key you risk your address.

[Xialla]

for storing BTC, which I will not melt to dollars for next 10 years. also it is cool to hold bitcoin.) ahh, and for tipping others..

[BTCevo]

you can do whatever you want with your paper wallet. it is the same as any other bitcoin wallet with an address and a private key. but whenever you use your private key you risk your address.

It can't do much, just can store bitcoin just as simple as that. The difference with bitcoin wallet is that bitcoin wallet is online and it has a higher risk to get hacked but paper wallet you store it without having a risk at all. So if you got more bitcoin to store this paper wallet is the best. And it will hold your bitcoin so you wont spend it randomly for gambling 

[exoro]

I just found out that you can't withdraw a designated amount of Bitcoin from paper wallets, you can only sweep or import them.

This seems kind of weird to me. What is the point of a paper wallet if its sole purpose is to later on be swept clean of its coins? If security is an issue, wouldn't it make more sense to have a software bitcoin wallet that runs off an encrypted usb drive?

You've had some really great responses in this thread. In my view, paper wallets are inferior to the double-flashdrive approach.

Just keep your wallet.dat files on 2 drives stored in separate locations. Then, keep a bitcoin client "containing dust" fully synchronized on your machine on the ready.

Now, when you need to make a withdrawal, close the client, copy over your USB wallet.dat, reopen client and make withdrawal, then reverse the process to restore the dust wallet. Keep one flashdrive hidden and one within easy grasp.

Interesting. Would that be considered a multi signature wallet?

I just setup a wallet that I'm thinking is super-secure. Basically, I have Multibit and my wallet files/keys running off a usb drive. The drive is then encrypted using a piece of software called VeraCrypt. I'm thinking that this wallet is near impossible to crack. The password to the drive is ginormous and since Veracrypt takes about 10 seconds to verify the password is correct, it won't likely be bruteforce-able. The wallet is still easily accessible for me because I can get the usb drives password quickly using another app called 1Password.

[AgentofCoin]

I just found out that you can't withdraw a designated amount of Bitcoin from paper wallets, you can only sweep or import them.

This seems kind of weird to me. What is the point of a paper wallet if its sole purpose is to later on be swept clean of its coins? If security is an issue, wouldn't it make more sense to have a software bitcoin wallet that runs off an encrypted usb drive?

You've had some really great responses in this thread. In my view, paper wallets are inferior to the double-flashdrive approach.

Just keep your wallet.dat files on 2 drives stored in separate locations. Then, keep a bitcoin client "containing dust" fully synchronized on your machine on the ready.

Now, when you need to make a withdrawal, close the client, copy over your USB wallet.dat, reopen client and make withdrawal, then reverse the process to restore the dust wallet. Keep one flashdrive hidden and one within easy grasp.

Interesting. Would that be considered a multi signature wallet?

I just setup a wallet that I'm thinking is super-secure. Basically, I have Multibit and my wallet files/keys running off a usb drive. The drive is then encrypted using a piece of software called VeraCrypt. I'm thinking that this wallet is near impossible to crack. The password to the drive is ginormous and since Veracrypt takes about 10 seconds to verify the password is correct, it won't likely be bruteforce-able. The wallet is still easily accessible for me because I can get the usb drives password quickly using another app called 1Password.

In reference to 1Password, check this out:
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/06/serious-os-x-and-ios-flaws-let-hackers-steal-keychain-1password-contents/

What you have described sounds reasonable otherwise. Maybe not use computer software to store your passwords.
Also make sure you have a backup somewhere else, for your USBs.
I'll keep using paperwallets in the mean time..

[exoro]

I just found out that you can't withdraw a designated amount of Bitcoin from paper wallets, you can only sweep or import them.

This seems kind of weird to me. What is the point of a paper wallet if its sole purpose is to later on be swept clean of its coins? If security is an issue, wouldn't it make more sense to have a software bitcoin wallet that runs off an encrypted usb drive?

You've had some really great responses in this thread. In my view, paper wallets are inferior to the double-flashdrive approach.

Just keep your wallet.dat files on 2 drives stored in separate locations. Then, keep a bitcoin client "containing dust" fully synchronized on your machine on the ready.

Now, when you need to make a withdrawal, close the client, copy over your USB wallet.dat, reopen client and make withdrawal, then reverse the process to restore the dust wallet. Keep one flashdrive hidden and one within easy grasp.

Interesting. Would that be considered a multi signature wallet?

I just setup a wallet that I'm thinking is super-secure. Basically, I have Multibit and my wallet files/keys running off a usb drive. The drive is then encrypted using a piece of software called VeraCrypt. I'm thinking that this wallet is near impossible to crack. The password to the drive is ginormous and since Veracrypt takes about 10 seconds to verify the password is correct, it won't likely be bruteforce-able. The wallet is still easily accessible for me because I can get the usb drives password quickly using another app called 1Password.

In reference to 1Password, check this out:
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/06/serious-os-x-and-ios-flaws-let-hackers-steal-keychain-1password-contents/

What you have described sounds reasonable otherwise. Maybe not use computer software to store your passwords.
Also make sure you have a backup somewhere else, for your USBs.
I'll keep using paperwallets in the mean time..

Damn... I'm not worried about anyone getting my usb password, since they can't use it unless they physically have it, but I have a ton of other passwords on their as well. I guess it's time to look for a better way to store passwords...

[exoro]

I just found out that you can't withdraw a designated amount of Bitcoin from paper wallets, you can only sweep or import them.

This seems kind of weird to me. What is the point of a paper wallet if its sole purpose is to later on be swept clean of its coins? If security is an issue, wouldn't it make more sense to have a software bitcoin wallet that runs off an encrypted usb drive?

You've had some really great responses in this thread. In my view, paper wallets are inferior to the double-flashdrive approach.

Just keep your wallet.dat files on 2 drives stored in separate locations. Then, keep a bitcoin client "containing dust" fully synchronized on your machine on the ready.

Now, when you need to make a withdrawal, close the client, copy over your USB wallet.dat, reopen client and make withdrawal, then reverse the process to restore the dust wallet. Keep one flashdrive hidden and one within easy grasp.

Interesting. Would that be considered a multi signature wallet?

I just setup a wallet that I'm thinking is super-secure. Basically, I have Multibit and my wallet files/keys running off a usb drive. The drive is then encrypted using a piece of software called VeraCrypt. I'm thinking that this wallet is near impossible to crack. The password to the drive is ginormous and since Veracrypt takes about 10 seconds to verify the password is correct, it won't likely be bruteforce-able. The wallet is still easily accessible for me because I can get the usb drives password quickly using another app called 1Password.

In reference to 1Password, check this out:
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/06/serious-os-x-and-ios-flaws-let-hackers-steal-keychain-1password-contents/

What you have described sounds reasonable otherwise. Maybe not use computer software to store your passwords.
Also make sure you have a backup somewhere else, for your USBs.
I'll keep using paperwallets in the mean time..

I just came back to read that article about 1Password. From what I gained, the attack happens through iCloud. I disabled iCloud completely on my Mac and use dropbox for 1Password backups. Do you think it'll be safe from that type of attack?

[d4n13]

I just came back to read that article about 1Password. From what I gained, the attack happens through iCloud. I disabled iCloud completely on my Mac and use dropbox for 1Password backups. Do you think it'll be safe from that type of attack?

Honestly the best security has nothing to do with passwords at all, but instead just make sure that the keys never, ever touch the outside world.  Have an offline computer that never, ever goes online.  Then only load very trusted SW on it.  Use this offline machine to generate the paper wallet keys, and use it to print them.  To spend, a common approach is to boot a machine (preferably without a nic) using an Unbuntu disk, then side load bitcoin-qt and sign your cold wallet transaction, then only expose the signed transaction to the outside world.  You could even enforce multisig between two cold wallets to make the attack vector even more complex.

Highly technical, but infinitely secure.  Someone would have to infect the Unbuntu disk or infect the bitcoin-qt client before sideloading to gain access to your keys.  Once you start shuffling around thousands of dollars in BTC, this lunacy starts to make sense.

[Light]

You've had some really great responses in this thread. In my view, paper wallets are inferior to the double-flashdrive approach.

Just keep your wallet.dat files on 2 drives stored in separate locations. Then, keep a bitcoin client "containing dust" fully synchronized on your machine on the ready.

Now, when you need to make a withdrawal, close the client, copy over your USB wallet.dat, reopen client and make withdrawal, then reverse the process to restore the dust wallet. Keep one flashdrive hidden and one within easy grasp.

As far as security goes - that really isn't much better than having your wallet permanently on your computer that is synced with the blockchain. You'd be far, far better off running a proper cold storage (i.e. Armory) and simply sign your TXs offline. Paper wallets are particularly designed for regular usage - that's why you keep a hot wallet - they are designed with the intention of securing your coins in a physical medium that is in most scenarios hacker-proof.

[iram66680]

you can do whatever you want with your paper wallet. it is the same as any other bitcoin wallet with an address and a private key. but whenever you use your private key you risk your address.

It can't do much, just can store bitcoin just as simple as that. The difference with bitcoin wallet is that bitcoin wallet is online and it has a higher risk to get hacked but paper wallet you store it without having a risk at all. So if you got more bitcoin to store this paper wallet is the best. And it will hold your bitcoin so you wont spend it randomly for gambling 

Honestly, it has to do with how is the address generated and how the coins are spent. If you're generating it and spending it on a computer that hasn't been wiped, the risk could be more or less equal. Desktop wallets can be safe if you use linux and dont go to random sites.