How do I make a paper backup of my bit coins ?

[Simon Whelan]

Hi :

I’m new to this site and, actually new to both Bitcoins specifically & digital crypto currencies more generally.

The question I have may have already have been answered.

The problem is that if such answers exist I’m not sure how to go about finding them.

If you know where the answer to my question has already been posted then please let me kbnow where I may find those answers.

I recently bought some bitcoins and I have them in a wallet on the machine that I’m normally connected to the Internet with.

This is probably NOT the smartest way to protect your wallet.

So my question is :

“How do I make paper backup copies of my bitcoins” ?

My computer is a Mac Mini running  mac OSX 10.9.5 .

I’d like to thank everyone in advance for any constructive advice, help and suggestion you may be so kind as to send me.

Thank You Very Much !

   All the best & I look forward to hearing from you … Simon

[TryNinja]

This article explains everything you need to know about a Paper Wallet and how to generate one:

http://www.coindesk.com/information/paper-wallet-tutorial/

For extra security, open the website, let it fully load and disconnect from the internet before generating a new address.


Take some time to research to avoid any mistakes. You can read some comments in those reddit threads that may answer some of your doubts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/52cug9/is_a_paper_wallet_that_safe_how_do_i_use_it/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/5e3spt/are_online_paper_wallet_creators_secure_which_do/

[odolvlobo]

You didn't say which wallet you are using. The instructions for using the wallet will tell you how to back it up. In general, if you are using a wallet that has a 12 or 24 word phrase, then that phrase is your back up.

[pooya87]

For extra security, open the website, let it fully load and disconnect from the internet before generating a new address.

if you are talking about bitaddress.org it is best to take a copy of the project and then make sure to check the hashes of the downloaded file and then take that copy safely to a computer that has always been offline.

simply disconnecting internet doesn't give you any kind of security! you just cut the internet access momentarily and if you have a malware it will still steal your stuff!

[Cruxer]

“How do I make paper backup copies of my bitcoins” ?

you can create address in software, online website or anywhere else and just write it down on paper.
there are website that gives you nice looking paper wallets ready to print out
im using website from my sig

[HabBear]

Please be aware that making a paper backup of bitcoin you have sitting on your computer that accesses the internet only ensures that if the computer fails you'll still have your private keys to retrieve your bitcoin. It does not protect you from the tisk of hacking and theft.

Comments like this one below are so confusing without greater context. Who has a pc that's never been online?! A computer that's always been offline is  called a calculator.

take that copy safely to a computer that has always been offline.

The safest option is to keep your bitcoin balance stored completely offline, and ideally with a wallet whose private keys have been created offline.

How much bitcoin do you have? It might be a balance valuable enough to warrant getting a trezor or similar cold storage / offline wallet. These provide the ultimate protection from you and hackers.

There's a lot of great info on thos forum, let the search bar be your friend and then ask specific questions.

[pooya87]

~
How much bitcoin do you have? It might be a balance valuable enough to warrant getting a trezor or similar cold storage / offline wallet. These provide the ultimate protection from you and hackers.

it is not ONLY about "how much bitcoin you have". it is about how much money you are willing to spend on something that essentially you can build on your own. in other words how lazy you are when it comes to DIY (Do It Yourself) stuff.
you can have 1000s of bitcoin and hold them on a paper or a wallet that you made yourself.

this USB disk that you see doesn't even have a lid anymore and is 10+ years old contains a backup of my wallet (my very own Trezor) haha

[krogothmanhattan]

I am relatively new to the paper wallet back up as you are. You can read this thread I posted and what I did

      https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1965815.msg19583573#msg19583573

  I bought a new laptop and it will only be used for cold storage..never ever to be connected to the internet.

   I not only created a paper wallet with password but made sure to use a completely separate program made by Mike Caldwell to confirm the encryption password can be decrypted and that it is correct.

  Took pics of paper wallet private and public key...placed in USB chip..printed same and all went into a safety deposit box. Also laminated the paper wallets.

  I also have a Trezor. So split between paper and Trezor.

   Good Luck!

 

 

[krogothmanhattan]

I was relatively new to the paper wallets too. So I started this post that might be helpful

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1965815.msg19583573#msg19583573

  I wanted to make sure the paper wallet was valid and that my coins would not be sent into oblivion or worse the private and public key were not a match.

  I tested one wallet with $10 and swept it to make sure I would be able to retrieve,. it worked..but as You can see once swept you should never use again.

  I also have a Trezor. So I split between the paper and Trezor. Also my laptop acts as a cold storage since it will never connect to the internet.

  Goodluck
   

[HabBear]

Pooya, I love your do it yourself spirit. It does beg the question, what kind of security can that little USB have? Can it be encrypted with 20+ word pass phrase or other equally challenging to crack code? After all, it's not the lid that protects your bitcoin back up from being drained, right?

Provided the security is tight it does sound like a great back up option, however it still doesn't prevent online hacks to your original wallet. What's your full set up? What's the full DIY equivalent to Trezor?

~
How much bitcoin do you have? It might be a balance valuable enough to warrant getting a trezor or similar cold storage / offline wallet. These provide the ultimate protection from you and hackers.

it is not ONLY about "how much bitcoin you have". it is about how much money you are willing to spend on something that essentially you can build on your own. in other words how lazy you are when it comes to DIY (Do It Yourself) stuff.
you can have 1000s of bitcoin and hold them on a paper or a wallet that you made yourself.

this USB disk that you see doesn't even have a lid anymore and is 10+ years old contains a backup of my wallet (my very own Trezor) haha

[pooya87]

Pooya, I love your do it yourself spirit. It does beg the question, what kind of security can that little USB have? Can it be encrypted with 20+ word pass phrase or other equally challenging to crack code? After all, it's not the lid that protects your bitcoin back up from being drained, right?

Provided the security is tight it does sound like a great back up option, however it still doesn't prevent online hacks to your original wallet. What's your full set up? What's the full DIY equivalent to Trezor?
~

i have a couple of these USB disks from old days and 1 new USB 3.1 16 GB. my full set up is as follows:
1. 16 GB USB 3.1: installed linux (Ubuntu 16.04) encrypted home folder + has log in password + installed Electrum + encrypted wallet. all with strong passwords.
2. 2 GB USB 2 (the picture): contains my encrypted wallet file + encrypted seed in a text file.
3. 4 GB USB 2: used to hold a live linux (Lubuntu 16) with the same setup as #1 but only live not installed.
3. seed and my passwords written on pieces of paper as ultimate back up.

the encryptions are all AES256-CBC with a pretty long and strong random password so there is no way in hell they can be broken

[HabBear]

Thanks for the quick, honest reply. One more question and then I'm done...but believe me that I'll benefit directly from your answer.

Since this is a Beginners & Help board, can you give us advice on how a beginner gets this set up or something similar? Or can you point us to that kind of direction in "beginner speak"? I've been around for a while but I'm not even knowledgeable on do-it-yourself wallet set up. I'm Trezor's perfect audience. My DIY spirit comes in different topics than this.

Thanks, truly.

Pooya, I love your do it yourself spirit. It does beg the question, what kind of security can that little USB have? Can it be encrypted with 20+ word pass phrase or other equally challenging to crack code? After all, it's not the lid that protects your bitcoin back up from being drained, right?

Provided the security is tight it does sound like a great back up option, however it still doesn't prevent online hacks to your original wallet. What's your full set up? What's the full DIY equivalent to Trezor?
~

i have a couple of these USB disks from old days and 1 new USB 3.1 16 GB. my full set up is as follows:
1. 16 GB USB 3.1: installed linux (Ubuntu 16.04) encrypted home folder + has log in password + installed Electrum + encrypted wallet. all with strong passwords.
2. 2 GB USB 2 (the picture): contains my encrypted wallet file + encrypted seed in a text file.
3. 4 GB USB 2: used to hold a live linux (Lubuntu 16) with the same setup as #1 but only live not installed.
3. seed and my passwords written on pieces of paper as ultimate back up.

the encryptions are all AES256-CBS with a pretty long and strong random password so there is no way in hell they can be broken

[pooya87]

Thanks for the quick, honest reply. One more question and then I'm done...but believe me that I'll benefit directly from your answer.

Since this is a Beginners & Help board, can you give us advice on how a beginner gets this set up or something similar? Or can you point us to that kind of direction in "beginner speak"? I've been around for a while but I'm not even knowledgeable on do-it-yourself wallet set up. I'm Trezor's perfect audience. My DIY spirit comes in different topics than this.

Thanks, truly.
~

if you are not a DIY kind of guy or are not so familiar with all the details it is best to stick to easier methods, such as buying a hardware wallet. or if you don't want to spend money you can just make a simple paper wallet using this https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

as for my particular setup it is a combination of some pretty basic linux knowledge (which you can find easily online) about things such as how to install it on a USB, how to password protect it,...
and how to use electrum as cold storage which is pretty easy and user friendly and can also be found online http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/coldstorage.html

i am too lazy busy in general otherwise i have a plan to make a nice little walkthrough for this. i have written most part of it already, it just needs screenshots to be added to make it easier to understand.

[SushiMonster]

Dear all,
if i already have a wallet? why do i still need to have a paper wallet? what is the purpose of that? - in layman's terms
sorry if i may sound dumb but it's better for me to be curious just to be sorry in the end tho.

[pooya87]

Dear all,
if i already have a wallet? why do i still need to have a paper wallet? what is the purpose of that? - in layman's terms
sorry if i may sound dumb but it's better for me to be curious just to be sorry in the end tho.

a paper wallet is sometimes like a backup you keep from your most important information. so that in case of your wallet failing, like your computer dying, deleting the wallet file by accident, forgetting the password,... so you can have some way of recovering your funds.

other usage is as something like the ultimate cold storage. a paper wallet can only be physically stolen but all the other wallets can be stolen when you connect to the internet. and it is not affected by any hardware failure which all the digital storage methods are susceptible to.

[Siskaver]

To explain it in REALLY simple terms:

All you need is your bitcoin address which looks something like this:

1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2

and your secret key in an UNENCRYPTED format, which will look something like this:

5HpHagT65TZzG1PH3CSu63k8Dbr7iBogBUcMB5CSBXCyfj7Sz8g

Think of it like "a username": (the address) and "a password" (the secret key).

Your address is public and you can use it to check your balance on https://blockchain.info/address/

Just enter your address to verify the balance at any time.

Your secret key is really SUPER SECRET since if anyone gets a hold of that they own your Bitcoin now, and can move them to their own wallet/address (which you will not have access to since you do not know the secret key for it, and all your bitcoins are lost).

I think all wallets allow you to see your address and secret key, but once you are 100% sure you have it all printed out/written down you need to delete every trace of it from your device.

So all you need to do is print out your address and your secret key, keep them super safe, and you will forever have access to your bitcoins, tomorrow or in 100 years, no matter what wallets or technology will be used in those days.

All this talk about USBs and encryption and other stuff can be dangerous for long term holders imo since technology changes.

If you engrave your address and secret key on a metal plate (make sure you do it yourself, not ask someone else to do it) and then keep that safe where no one can ever find it your bitcoins will always be safe. 

[noictib]

Hi :

I’m new to this site and, actually new to both Bitcoins specifically & digital crypto currencies more generally.

The question I have may have already have been answered.

The problem is that if such answers exist I’m not sure how to go about finding them.

If you know where the answer to my question has already been posted then please let me kbnow where I may find those answers.

I recently bought some bitcoins and I have them in a wallet on the machine that I’m normally connected to the Internet with.

This is probably NOT the smartest way to protect your wallet.

So my question is :

“How do I make paper backup copies of my bitcoins” ?

My computer is a Mac Mini running  mac OSX 10.9.5 .

I’d like to thank everyone in advance for any constructive advice, help and suggestion you may be so kind as to send me.

Thank You Very Much !

   All the best & I look forward to hearing from you … Simon

Since here many of the friends explained you but I think it will be more better if I can explain you in the simplest form .
So now , first of all you should need to learn what is the paper wallet ( refer to the second post of this thread ) , if you get muchs Rudy about the paper wallet then I am 100% that you will.mever ask this question .
Because if you have the wallet of the Bitcoin and also the private key of your wallet that is printed at your paper wallet then you don't need to make backup , because the Bitcoin is in the Bitcoin address and you can handle it by using the private key in the Bitcoin wallet like blockchain or mysellium like wallet .
So if you once imported the private key in the wallet like blocjchaub and you want to threw your paper wallet details then you need surely the backup of wallet in which you imported your keys .
And if you want to have your paper wallet with paper details , then you don't need to have made backup , because if you have price key then there is never exists the chances to.loss your Bitcoin at any steps .

[SushiMonster]

Dear all,
if i already have a wallet? why do i still need to have a paper wallet? what is the purpose of that? - in layman's terms
sorry if i may sound dumb but it's better for me to be curious just to be sorry in the end tho.

a paper wallet is sometimes like a backup you keep from your most important information. so that in case of your wallet failing, like your computer dying, deleting the wallet file by accident, forgetting the password,... so you can have some way of recovering your funds.

other usage is as something like the ultimate cold storage. a paper wallet can only be physically stolen but all the other wallets can be stolen when you connect to the internet. and it is not affected by any hardware failure which all the digital storage methods are susceptible to.

i see, so that is why your cold storage must not be connected in the internet to prevent hacking or whatsoever. thank you for this information sir.
i think i need to have a spare laptop for this that is not connected to a network.