seeking guidance on storage -- willing to pay for help over phone if necessary

[hedge29]

I want to buy some BTCs, and, from my research, it seems that you shouldn't store any BTCs that you're not prepared to lose in an online wallet.  And I don't think that I have the computer skill or computer memory necessary to use Multibit/Electrum/Armory.  So that leaves the option of a paper wallet...

As far as creating a paper wallet, is it really as simple as writing down your private key on a piece of paper (that's what I heard on a video from Let's Talk Bitcoin)?  If so, that's right up my alley!!   

So I would purchase BTCs on Coinbase, send them to my blockchain.info wallet, and then I somehow generate a private key on blockchain.info???  

And then i just write the private key down on a few sheets of paper, put them in secure places and I'm done???

Other than losing the sheets of paper or someone finding them (both of which are risks I feel very comfortable taking), are there any other security risks involved with this method?  For example, how likely is it that a hacker could be looking at the screen when I generate my private key?  I was thinking that if someone had hacked my computer, they would've already tried wiring money out of my online bank account, using my credit cards, etc., but like I said, I don't really understand computer stuff.

Anyway, even after getting the above questions answered, I'm not sure how confident I will be in carrying out the transfer/storage process on my own without somehow losing my BTCs, so I may want to have someone guide me through the process over the phone, and I would be willing to pay such a person.  It would have to be someone with an established reputation in this community.  If you might be interested in that, let me know.    

Also, I think it would help if I actually practiced sending and receiving BTCs a few times, generating a private key, etc., so if anyone would be willing to send me a penny or nickel's worth of BTCs, let me know as well.  Would be much appreciated.  

  
  

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[caspar.holzinger]

For acquiring some play money, you can also try to find a working bitcoin faucet, which gives away a very small amount of btc for free. If you search and you can't find one, I don't mind giving you 2 dollars in btc.

[Sharky444]

You can do it with the default Bitcoin-QT client.

1. launch your bitcoin client as usual and wait for it to load the blockchain and start up
2. go to the receive section, right click the address and copy it to clipboard
3. click on 'help' in the menu bar (top right)
4. click on 'debug window'
5. select the 'console' tab
6. type: dumpprivkey PASTEYOURADDRESSCOPIEDBEFORE

you get the output of the private key. You can print this for offline storage and delete the wallet.dat file located atc:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\BitCoin\

If you want to use your bitcoins at a later time, install the client again, wait for syncing, go to the console (steps 1,3,4,5), as above and use:

importprivkey PRIVATEKEYVALUEYOUHAVEPRINTEDBEFORE

[dominicwin]

the easiest way would be the blockchain.info paper wallet

[monbux]

Could I recommend something?  Don't buy off coinbase, you'll regret it eventually when the time comes.
You can just make a paper wallet with your addresses on blockchain.info directly from there.  Be sure to use HD quality printing.

Of course, you can just store it on a very secure computer, don't use that computer, and back up your bitcoin-QT wallet.

[hedge29]

Could I recommend something?  Don't buy off coinbase, you'll regret it eventually when the time comes.

You can just make a paper wallet with your addresses on blockchain.info directly from there.  Be sure to use HD quality printing.

I don't know how to print in HD.  Is it really that important?  If so, why?  (I don't even own a printer.  I'd be using a family member's.)  

Also, this may sound like a stupid question, but what happens if I generate my private key and then I lose my internet connection or my computer freezes before I have a chance to write it down or print it out.  Are my bitcoins lost?

As for buying off Coinbase, I'm aware that there is a delay in recieving the coins once you buy them, but BTC-e and Mt. Gox sound even more risky, plus they take too long to transfer money into.

[meowmix4jo]

Don't make a paper wallet while online. Use something like armory.

https://bitcoinarmory.com/

[hedge29]

Don't make a paper wallet while online. Use something like armory.

https://bitcoinarmory.com/

I don't have anywhere close to the 16GB of RAM required for Armory.  Evidently the beta version requires only 256MB, but doesn't beta mean they're testing it out to see if it works properly?  That shouldn't bother me? 

Maybe one of the other offline wallets requires less RAM?  Would any offline wallet allow me to make a paper wallet or only certain ones?

 

[meowmix4jo]

You don't need 16GB of RAM. You need 16GB of HDD space if you're going to store the blockchain for an online wallet. You don't need that for offline wallet though, you can run the offline version on just about anything made in the last 10 years.