Safely storing bitcoins a few questions

[bradders]

I recently have got in to bitcoin just out of pure interest for cryptocurrencies and learning the mining, buying, selling concept. I have a few questions for anyone who can answer and give advice. 

I have made several trades between accounts of small amounts around 0.001 BTC and i have never had a problem, the transaction seems to complete and get confirmed within 10 mins.

However i tried to make a transaction between 2 of my accounts, 0.002 and for some reason it has been unconfirmed for some time around 30+ hours, I know people are going to say be patient and wait however i would just like to know the reason behind it, I'm not worried about the 20p worth of bitcoin I'm just curious.

Here is my address of the unconfirmed transaction : 15K4F2EhHCEBQ81jx3W2gQanmoojdDFVGm

Also is it correct in saying that when an account has a unconfirmed transaction sent from it, then you can not send or receive any more ? is this why people split up BTC between different accounts ?


Regarding security and storing BTC for a long time, is my method safe ?

I have printed 10 paper wallets from bitaddress.org and deposited a small amount in each one. I have added the public key of all 10 addresses to my blockchain.info account as (Watch Only) just so i can see the balance of all paper wallets combined, I have then locked up the paper wallets in my safe...... is this a recommended way to store BTC ?

I'm not worried about some security factors such as "someone stealing safe" - "house burning down" - "printer storing print in memory", using my method is it impossible to have my BTC stollen ?

Best Regards

Thanks for advice / help !

[1715103431]

1715103431

[1715103431]

1715103431

[1715103431]

1715103431

[cakir]

15K4F2EhHCEBQ81jx3W2gQanmoojdDFVGm - (Unspent) 0.00000481 BTC
Problem is the change. It's below the recommended  amount of bitcoins. It should be at least 5430 Satoshi. (AFAI remember, it might be lowered to 1k sats, I'm not sure).

[bitbaby]

However i tried to make a transaction between 2 of my accounts, 0.002 and for some reason it has been unconfirmed for some time around 30+ hours, I know people are going to say be patient and wait however i would just like to know the reason behind it, I'm not worried about the 20p worth of bitcoin I'm just curious.
Here is my address of the unconfirmed transaction : 15K4F2EhHCEBQ81jx3W2gQanmoojdDFVGm

See the warning by hovering your mouse over the symbol besides the 'medium priority' on TX, it says that "this transaction has a very small output and is non standard" which means one of the output is below Dust threshold, which currently is 2730 Satoshi cmiiw, it may still get confirmed but it will take a while.

Also is it correct in saying that when an account has a unconfirmed transaction sent from it, then you can not send or receive any more ? is this why people split up BTC between different accounts ?

You can send and receive coins but if you try to spend an input which is unconfirmed due to whatever reasons, the next transactions will stay unconfirmed until the previous one confirms.

Regarding security and storing BTC for a long time, is my method safe ?

I have printed 10 paper wallets from bitaddress.org and deposited a small amount in each one. I have added the public key of all 10 addresses to my blockchain.info account as (Watch Only) just so i can see the balance of all paper wallets combined, I have then locked up the paper wallets in my safe...... is this a recommended way to store BTC ?

I'm not worried about some security factors such as "someone stealing safe" - "house burning down" - "printer storing print in memory", using my method is it impossible to have my BTC stollen ?

Did you printed them offline? which means downloading the bitaddress source from github, taking it to an offline computer or an air-gapped machine and then printing them offline so no malware and virus can know their private keys. If you printed them online they're still not safe.

Apart from that, if you're not worried about theft or any other unforeseen circumstances then they're safe but make sure that the paper is safe from degradation.

[NorrisK]

You could laminate the printouts to be really sure. It will slow the degradation process of the paper and ink due to contact with oxygen.

Though, you'd have to be sure to use your own laminating machine, as you don't want to hand those puppies over to some shop

[iram66680]

-snip-
However i tried to make a transaction between 2 of my accounts, 0.002 and for some reason it has been unconfirmed for some time around 30+ hours, I know people are going to say be patient and wait however i would just like to know the reason behind it, I'm not worried about the 20p worth of bitcoin I'm just curious.

Here is my address of the unconfirmed transaction : 15K4F2EhHCEBQ81jx3W2gQanmoojdDFVGm

Also is it correct in saying that when an account has a unconfirmed transaction sent from it, then you can not send or receive any more ? is this why people split up BTC between different accounts ?

Your transaction most probably either had a low fee/kb or any output in the transaction would be below the dust thershold (2730satoshis). This would result in miners giving your transaction a lower priority or nodes not relaying as it is considered as dust. Transactions can still be made and received but newer transaction brunched from the unconfirmed input would have to wait for the input to confirm. You can still spend coins from other inputs and get confirmations relatively fast. Most people don't really split BTC between accounts. Some uses a wallet client which sends the remaining to another address, completely different from input.

Regarding security and storing BTC for a long time, is my method safe ?

-snip- is this a recommended way to store BTC ?

I'm not worried about some security factors such as "someone stealing safe" - "house burning down" - "printer storing print in memory", using my method is it impossible to have my BTC stollen ?

Best Regards

Thanks for advice / help !

Your method is relatively safe as long as the code that you used to generate the address did not have any vulnerabilities or poor random number generator, resulting in a private key with lower entropy. Or as the user above mentioned, having virus on your computer.

You should make backup copies for the paper wallet in case of natural disasters and store them at different location. If the person were to steal the safe and crack it, your safe probably isn't safe enough. Printers do have a cache on them as the information are sent from computer to the printer for it to print. Instead of repeatedly request information, it just stores the information in their tiny memory and read from it. Some printers do save the cache and is thus dangerous if someone decides to read the cache. There are various methods to clear the memory though. To counter the last two problems, use BIP38 encryption. It encrypts the private key and thus any attacker will not be able to spend the Bitcoin without the key. With a strong password, they are highly unlikely to steal the funds in their lifetime or at least till you decide to discard the paper wallet.