Give bitcoins as a gift to someone that haven't got bitcoin wallet

[kenneho]

Hi all.

I'd like to give (part of a) a bitcoin as a gift to a friend that probably haven't used bitcoins before, and therefore don't have a wallet. In fact, I haven't bought and used bitcoins myself even, so it's quite new to me too.

What's my options when it comes to giving bitcoins as a gift? I'm going to give him a birthday card, so some physical token symbolising the bitcoin would be great.

Regards, kenneho

[notlist3d]

Hi all.

I'd like to give (part of a) a bitcoin as a gift to a friend that probably haven't used bitcoins before, and therefore don't have a wallet. In fact, I haven't bought and used bitcoins myself even, so it's quite new to me too.

What's my options when it comes to giving bitcoins as a gift? I'm going to give him a birthday card, so some physical token symbolising the bitcoin would be great.

Regards, kenneho

You can order a physical coin if you want that token, there are lots of options and priced vary greatly.   But you can do a coin and load it with however much coins you want.   Some come already with key in coin, others you do yourself.  Always be careful on making sure it is secure.

Other most popular will be a paper wallet.  You can print off a piece of paper and put that in a card.   Again lots to make it secure.   But you have a LOT of different options out there.

[~BitSy~]

That's nice gift but due to high prices for most physical bitcoins I would advise on buying some satori coins which is the cheapest one out there and has nice bitcoin symbol in a nicely made texture too but the problem is how his going to use it because neither him or you have used it in the past so better learn a little bit of how bitcoin works so you could teach your friend as well. Another option would be buying t-shirts that have bitcoin symbols as well and it might be more useful to him because he could simply wear it without any further knowledge.

[Petersen]

just make him create a wallet and send them to it

[Snorek]

Op. If you want him to have bitcoin then simply tell him to create wallet and you will credit it.
But if you want give him a great gift and something that will make him 'oomph' with awe then there is only 2 options for you:

1. Buy him hardware wallet, I believe the most popular is Trezor https://bitcointrezor.com/ the problem is that wallet alone costs $99
2. Buy him a physical bitcoin - on the form of beautiful coin, there are huge variety of designs an you can check some on the here: http://www.coindesk.com/10-physical-bitcoins-good-bad-ugly/

[kenneho]

Thanks for the excellent replies.

I find giving him a paper wallet to be the best option at the moment, as the birthday is coming up real soon. Did a quick google search, and there seems to be a lot of sites where one can order paper wallets from, but rather I'd like to use my own printer and put that piece of paper in an envelope together with the birthday card. I'll do some more googling, but if anyone want to point me to relevant resources please feel free to do so.

By the way, is it possible for my to buy say 1/4 of a bitcoin, or must I buy a whole bitcoin and split it up?

kenneho

[Open4lies]

Thanks for the excellent replies.

I find giving him a paper wallet to be the best option at the moment, as the birthday is coming up real soon. Did a quick google search, and there seems to be a lot of sites where one can order paper wallets from, but rather I'd like to use my own printer and put that piece of paper in an envelope together with the birthday card. I'll do some more googling, but if anyone want to point me to relevant resources please feel free to do so.

By the way, is it possible for my to buy say 1/4 of a bitcoin, or must I buy a whole bitcoin and split it up?

kenneho

I suggest that you do not use any online website for your Paper Wallet but make one on your own with Vanitygen

And YES! , you can buy whatever amount you want - you do not have to buy the whole thing

[Herbert2020]

physical coins is not a good idea because they are mostly expensive and more of a collectible thing.

you can create a nice paper wallet, with a neat design on your own. just print out the bitcoin logo with the private key and public key of the bitcoin address with the coins in it and give it a cool background then print it.

[unholycactus]

You can simply hand out the private key of an address which has funds on it on paper (which is basically a paper wallet).
Since you're new and your friend is too, make sure you understand how they work and how to keep them secure.

[romero121]

To avoid complications better create a wallet and send him the identifier with password through a gift card. Also indicate all those online stores that accept bitcoin. This might go good on birthday.

[odolvlobo]

I find giving him a paper wallet to be the best option at the moment, as the birthday is coming up real soon. Did a quick google search, and there seems to be a lot of sites where one can order paper wallets from, but rather I'd like to use my own printer and put that piece of paper in an envelope together with the birthday card. I'll do some more googling, but if anyone want to point me to relevant resources please feel free to do so.

By the way, is it possible for my to buy say 1/4 of a bitcoin, or must I buy a whole bitcoin and split it up?

Definitely, print the paper wallet yourself.

Go to https://www.bitaddress.org and click on "Paper Wallet". Print out one or more and then send bitcoins (or a fraction of a coin) to the address on the wallet you are sending to him. I recommend keeping a copy so that if your friend loses it, you can still recover the bitcoins for him.

Others will warn you about security and such, but this is a gift and the chance of losing the bitcoins to hackers is low, so don't bother with precautions that seem excessive.

[notlist3d]

That's nice gift but due to high prices for most physical bitcoins I would advise on buying some satori coins which is the cheapest one out there and has nice bitcoin symbol in a nicely made texture too but the problem is how his going to use it because neither him or you have used it in the past so better learn a little bit of how bitcoin works so you could teach your friend as well. Another option would be buying t-shirts that have bitcoin symbols as well and it might be more useful to him because he could simply wear it without any further knowledge.

A physical coin would not be right for every gift you are right.  But some actually go up in value depending on which one you pick.   But it is possible to have a nice token and it go up over time.   I doubt we will see any have the jump like some of the originals but still possible.

But with OP mentioning needing it soon a paper wallet is best idea.   Coin takes some planning ahead.   OP just make sure to read on creating a secure paper wallet, and do it at home on home printer.  Also look at clearing printer cache and don't store it digitally on computer is my advice.

[bitbaby]

I find giving him a paper wallet to be the best option at the moment, as the birthday is coming up real soon. Did a quick google search, and there seems to be a lot of sites where one can order paper wallets from, but rather I'd like to use my own printer and put that piece of paper in an envelope together with the birthday card. I'll do some more googling, but if anyone want to point me to relevant resources please feel free to do so.

By the way, is it possible for my to buy say 1/4 of a bitcoin, or must I buy a whole bitcoin and split it up?

Definitely, print the paper wallet yourself.

Go to https://www.bitaddress.org and click on "Paper Wallet". Print out one or more and then send bitcoins (or a fraction of a coin) to the address on the wallet you are sending to him. I recommend keeping a copy so that if your friend loses it, you can still recover the bitcoins for him.

Others will warn you about security and such, but this is a gift and the chance of losing the bitcoins to hackers is low, so don't bother with precautions that seem excessive.

I just think that printing paper wallets online would always have security risks, no matter who you're printing them for, if the key is compromised then the only gift someone would receive is a piece of paper worth nothing, especially if that someone is new to bitcoins and don't know how to transfer them to their wallet right away and by the time they do, it is possible that the hacker might have already wiped it clean.

So even though these precaution may seem excessive, I am still going to recommend that OP downloads the source code from github, verifies the download, takes it offline and prints the paper wallets there. And I would also print a little set of instructions in the back, telling them how to go about redeeming them. Using electrum wallet would be more than easy and it has a sweep key function.

[Cyaren]

Hi all.

I'd like to give (part of a) a bitcoin as a gift to a friend that probably haven't used bitcoins before, and therefore don't have a wallet. In fact, I haven't bought and used bitcoins myself even, so it's quite new to me too.

What's my options when it comes to giving bitcoins as a gift? I'm going to give him a birthday card, so some physical token symbolising the bitcoin would be great.

Regards, kenneho

Use a paper wallet. Write him a card with the paper wallet inside it.

Don't just send him bitcoins. He'll just waste it on worthless fiat once he receives them. But with paper wallets, he will actually have to import the private keys himself.

[iram66680]

She uses a phone right?
Just download a bitcoin wallet app and tell her this is a internet money bank to store her money in and you will send her some. Then it will ding when you send it to her. That will get her curious on how it works. She will be instantly hooked. 

[pooya87]

i also think using a paper wallet as a gift has a nice thing to it, you just have to make it the right secure way.

but also you always have the option to open up a wallet in other forms for them, like on coinbase for example, because it is easy to use and newbie friendly. or also you can use other wallets like eletrum for pc or one of the phone wallets for convenience.

[prix]

I think a paper wallet is the best option for you. Another good option if you setup a wallet to friend's phone and do transaction in real time.
And don't forget to instruct about security, backups and other important things regarding Bitcoin.

[BitcoinSupremo]

Best would be if you install to your friend phone Mycelium if he/she has a Android phone, or BreadWallet if he/she has a Iphone. Get the receiving address from the wallet and send them what you want to send as gift. Just make sure you don't see their encryption Bip37 as there is no need to do this, a wallet should be as much personal as possible. This is good for a start. Then after he/she gets familiar with it, send them an email telling about desktop wallets and hardware wallets so he/she can have a more clear idea how this works.

[jossiel]

I want to be your friend  but don't give him something that he can't appreciate it, since he doesn't know about bitcoin yet,
It is not the right time to give it to him, better exchange it and give him a real money instead of bitcoin.

[RJX]

I want to be your friend  but don't give him something that he can't appreciate it, since he doesn't know about bitcoin yet,
It is not the right time to give it to him, better exchange it and give him a real money instead of bitcoin.

How can somone get to appreciate something when he doesn't start using it, or get involved with it? Gotta start somewhere right? You just tell him 'don't do it'.

Clearly, a paper wallet in a birthdaycard, or whatever the occasion, is a splendid way to introduce people to bitcoin. There are lots of businesses accepting BTC and it's a fun alternative to existing moneys.