[Guide] Saving your wallet.dat to PAPER

[jrwr]

Basics
A program called PaperBack(Win32 at this time, Open Source'd) allows a user to encrypt and  print a paper copy of a file, to restore the file you scan or provide a image of the printed paper and it dumps out the file

How to use with you wallet.dat
1) Download PaperBack from the location provided before
2) Open PaperBack
3) Open Options and select the options you wish to have (For more info, read the page provided above)
4) Drag and drop the file (wallet.dat) into the window for printing
4.5)File -> Save to bitmap, It will ask you what file to encode, and then where to save the bitmap

Restoring your Wallet.dat
1)Scan or provide the bitmap of the backup
2)Wait for processing
3)Save wallet.dat

Example
(Due to me not having a printer, I had to kinda fake it)
Here is the first Image: http://imgur.com/8b7nz
Its a empty wallet.dat with Encryption on (AES-256), standard options past that
Here is the damaged copy, Opened in GIMP saved as a JPEG at 4% Compression, then converted back into a Bitmap
http://imgur.com/nKKLO

ECC had to correct 56bytes of bad data.. once decoded the md5 hashes where the same!

Here is a screenshot asking for the password (The password is "bitcoin")
http://imgur.com/OEj6G

Extras

Found this while googling around,

http://ronja.twibright.com/optar/ Its GPL'd and seems to be better for data storage and recovery, but I hear its harder to use

[1714900072]

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[1714900072]

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[eramus]

what problem do you see this solving? just curious.

[jrwr]

its just another form of backup

I've backed up some private keys to paper in the past, and found it very useful when i had to go and recover them

[Precog]

If the wallet.dat isn't located on a hard drive or memory it cannot be used by anyone.

The piece of paper can make the wallet.dat appear from physical to digital.

I like this.

[eramus]

I guess for long term backups it could make sense.

If the wallet.dat isn't located on a hard drive or memory it cannot be used by anyone.

The piece of paper can make the wallet.dat appear from physical to digital.

I like this.

a file still exists on disk after you delete. it is only gone when new data is written over it.

[Namegduf]

Low level format takes care of that

[Precog]

a file still exists on disk after you delete. it is only gone when new data is written over it.
[/quote]

I think a lot of people know that.

[eramus]

Low level format takes care of that

certainly. but that seems a bit extreme. lets not give anybody any ideas

not saying a physical copy isnt an interesting idea, but i think an encrypted thumbdrive would serve the same purpose.. or maybe always reading/writing to a tape drive if you really want to eliminate any trace from your machine.

[eramus]

I think a lot of people know that.

most dont actually, but thats not the point. we are talking about turning something that is on disc into something physical that can be stored and then read back on to disc. no way around it, its still there unless you go through the trouble of manually flipping the bits.

[jrwr]

What about this, you print your wallet.dat and store it, and print the method of reading it

30 years down the line (BTC is still around) your kids find it, and wish to decode it,

Paper last longer then most digital medium at the moment

[eramus]

This about this, you print your wallet.dat and store it, and print the method of reading it

30 years down the line (BTC is still around) your kids find it, and wish to decode it,

Paper last longer then most digital medium at the moment

this is probably how i would utilize it, but i suggest also storing a copy of the program somewhere to reread it. it would be a total bummer if 30 yrs in the future the software is long gone.

[jrwr]

if you download the source, and if your any kind of programmer. decode.cpp seems simple to work with print that thing in plain text

[eramus]

if you download the source, and if your any kind of programmer. decode.cpp seems simple to work with print that thing in plain text

id suggest adding this to your howto just in case. this is an interesting idea for a sort of alternative bitcoin savings account.

[byronbb]

What about this, you print your wallet.dat and store it, and print the method of reading it

30 years down the line (BTC is still around) your kids find it, and wish to decode it,

Paper last longer then most digital medium at the moment

Agreed. Very cool.

edit---

So in 30 years people have to still be able to run this program or could it still be decrypted as long as the passphrase is known?

[MtRev]

Only if it supported by the new OS



But, this is actually a good idea. I would keep one on a flash drive and another on paper. Digital data can be damaged easily, so having a paper backup in the same location wouldn't be a bad idea.

Thanks for sharing this!

[zaphod]

Only if it supported by the new OS



But, this is actually a good idea. I would keep one on a flash drive and another on paper. Digital data can be damaged easily, so having a paper backup in the same location wouldn't be a bad idea.

Thanks for sharing this!

Remember, flash drives are almost a pain to delete things from.  The technology that protects cells from repetitive use also keeps security programs from effectively overwriting data....

[MtRev]

But honestly, it's safer then holding cash.. . and if you want to hide it from the IRS.. . this maybe the next best thing lol

[jstorm]

Interesting idea.

Say, where IS the wallet.dat? I just downloaded bitcoin and am trying to learn and have been looking for a couple hours for an answer - all over the wiki and here and on my computer, too - can't find wallet.dat.

I, of course, have no bit coins yet - will I get one if I can figure how to get a coin? Thanks and sorry for being a dumb n00b. I'm not computer illiterate by any stretch but this one got me good.

[bal3wolf]

Pretty cool but id end up losing the paper that i saved it on.

[MtRev]

Interesting idea.

Say, where IS the wallet.dat? I just downloaded bitcoin and am trying to learn and have been looking for a couple hours for an answer - all over the wiki and here and on my computer, too - can't find wallet.dat.

wallet.dat can be found in these locations:

Windows:
%APPDATA%/Bitcoin/

Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/wallet.dat

Linux/Unix:
~/.bitcoin/wallet.dat