I want to gift my friend a wallet. I do NOT want to know the private key - how?

[HodorHodl]

Hi all,

Theoretical question only

Let's say I want to give my friend Bob a wallet with 1 Bitcoin in it, cos I like Bob.

I want this to be wholly owned by Bob, and for him to have confidence it cannot be compromised - e.g. by me, the creator of the wallet. Bob's a suspicious one.

Is it possible for me to create a wallet so that the private key can be given to Bob without me ever being able to recover it?

Thanks

[ManaMan]

Hi all,

Theoretical question only

Let's say I want to give my friend Bob a wallet with 1 Bitcoin in it, cos I like Bob.

I want this to be wholly owned by Bob, and for him to have confidence it cannot be compromised - e.g. by me, the creator of the wallet. Bob's a suspicious one.

Is it possible for me to create a wallet so that the private key can be given to Bob without me ever being able to recover it?

Thanks

Easiest way is to give tool for generating paper wallets to BOB and simply ask BOB to send you his public key, by doing this Bob will be 100% sure that private key can't be compromised. The way you have described above is not best, if you ask me. You want to create wallet and give it to Bob, but if you do this then you have an access to private key and Bob can't make sure that you haven't saved it anywhere.

[JumboStrike]

Hi, I don't think it is possible. And you should consider the fact that Bob wouldn't feel safe using BTC wallet given to him by someone else.
In my opinion you should just ask him to create a wallet for himself and then send it to his adress.

[mk4]

Just teach your friend how to download and create his/her own wallet(recommended: Mycelium, for both Android[1] and iOS[2], then ask for his/her address then send over the coins. Or if you're giving him/her a significant amount of BTC, a good idea would be to buy him/her a hardware wallet like a Ledger Nano S[3] or a Trezor[4]. Because if he/she we're to get in to bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, it's very critical for him/her to know how to at least make his/her own wallet.

Anyway, this is so thoughtful of you. A real friend, I must say.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mycelium.wallet&hl=en
[2] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mycelium-bitcoin-wallet/id943912290?mt=8
[3] https://ledgerwallet.com/
[4] https://trezor.io/

[HodorHodl]

Hmm....this could be an option?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81865.msg901491#msg901491

Technically a bit beyond my understanding at the moment, but the theory's the same...

[HodorHodl]

Looks like it is possible, just not sure if practical.

I was exploring an idea based on a recipient receiving a package, with trust that the sender would not be (ever) able to get the contents.

However, the recipient would need to set up "an" address...this is not what I wanted.

Trust seems to be the key, so I'll think my way around the issue

Thank you all for opinions, and confirmation of my initial thoughts!

[chronicsky]

It is very possible to do that
Though there are many hardware wallets out there and so many physical coins as well but you can never know if the creator has retained a copy of the privkey and when he might sweep the keys

Best way to avoid all of it! BIP38 privkeys

It is basically that you have a password for your privkey, so even if one has your privkey- they need the password to sweep those privkeys
He can make a BIP38 privkey (where he only knows the password) and give the privkey to you/someone, so to make a hardware wallet for them.
OR simply ask him to make a paperwallet through vanity or offline bitaddress.org and he should be good

[MoonsGravity]

Just show Bob how to create a wallet, and then send him some coins to his wallet. That's seems like the easiest way. If he's new, explain to him the importance of his private wallet, and the importance of securely backing it up, else he'll probably make a noob mistake and lose it.

[bingble]

Hi, I don't think it is possible. And you should consider the fact that Bob wouldn't feel safe using BTC wallet given to him by someone else.
In my opinion you should just ask him to create a wallet for himself and then send it to his adress.

Well, agree... Ask him to create a wallet and sent BTC to him, that's the most simple and safe way. Others may lead to some problems.

[prozak4kidz]

Buy Bob a Ledger.