PaperGen Plugin - Create and Fund Paper Wallets within Electrum

[BkkCoins]

I've created a new plugin for Electrum that provides quite sophisticated Paper Wallet functions. I'd appreciate if users interested in this could have a look and test it. I've done a basic amount of testing on my own Ubuntu install but have not attempted to use it on other OS.

PaperGen allows users to easily:

- generate addresses in bulk (or use existing ones)
- print paper wallets to PDF using SVG templates (samples provided)
- fund those addresses with one multi-output transaction

For additional info see my new repo readme at,
https://github.com/bkkcoins/papergen

If you have the scrypt module available then BIP38 support is enabled. (sudo pip install scrypt).

You can tweak or create new SVG templates with Inkscape. I provided a few samples using the Mike Caldwell colornotes images. Details on variables/layout rules in readme.

Advantages of using this method for paper wallets:

- only need one app if already working offline with Electrum
- can create bulk wallets for giveaways / gifts based off a seed so that unclaimed funds can be swept back
- easy to split a single balance into a series of separate paper keys, thereby reducing risk of a single large theft
- easy to tweak your own layout graphics using Inkscape

Please have a look. I welcome feedback. Use care with real funds as this probably needs more testing before it's fully trustworthy. ie. BETA software

[BkkCoins]

Update: I've added a Christmas themed layout as sample on github now.

This background image was designed by QuickBT.com and they indicated it was CC licensed with attribution. So with permission I've adapted it slightly, with Merry Christmas (and a little less conspicuous credit line).

Here's a screen grab from a PDF with a BIP38 encrypted key.

[yakov]

Can't understand how to make it work with electrum 1.9 on ubuntu 12.04

The only change I can see from enabling the plugin is on the right-click menu in the Receive tab there appears "Select for PaperGen". Selecting it appears to do nothing.

[captchunk]

Can't understand how to make it work with electrum 1.9 on ubuntu 12.04

The only change I can see from enabling the plugin is on the right-click menu in the Receive tab there appears "Select for PaperGen". Selecting it appears to do nothing.

Did you check Tools-> PaperGen?

[Abdussamad]

Revealing the private key of an address in a deterministic wallet is much more risky than doing the same for an address in a non-deterministic wallet. If someone were to get their hands on any one paper wallet AND the master public key he would be able to calculate all the other private keys too. So this plugin needs to come with a warning attached to it.

[captchunk]

Yeah I was just going to post something to that effect; also if the private keys stay in the wallet itself it kind of defeats much of the purpose of a paper backup.   

The plugin has some great features though, I wonder if because of it's deterministic properties it wouldn't be better if it a new wallet entirely? Maybe because it's electrum it needs an entirely new option of making paper backups? Something involving the 12 word seed? I'm using electrum for cold storage right now actually, except my paper backup is the 12 word seed written on a piece of paper, and I using the watch-only counterpart to have addresses to send funds to when I want to add to my savings.

[Abdussamad]

The plugin has some great features though, I wonder if because of it's deterministic properties it wouldn't be better if it a new wallet entirely?

Yes you could create a wallet specifically for the purpose of printing paper wallets. Then you would delete the soft copy of that wallet to prevent anyone getting their hands on the MPK. The MPK, unlike the seed, is not stored encrypted on your hard disk.

[yakov]

I was playing with this plugin to learn a bit how to write electrum plugins.

Can't understand how to make it work with electrum 1.9 on ubuntu 12.04

The only change I can see from enabling the plugin is on the right-click menu in the Receive tab there appears "Select for PaperGen". Selecting it appears to do nothing.

Did you check Tools-> PaperGen?

Yep, nothing there that wasn't there before.

[samaney]

For my information - are these plugins open source, audited and trustworthy? (Not intended for the original poster - for my general knowledge so that I will look at other plugins too.)

Creating many wallets at one go seems to be a good idea.

[xephyr]

Electrum already supports offline cold storage, paper wallets are not needed and may be security risk.

[BkkCoins]

This plugin was not intended for offline cold storage. Obviously the 12 word seed is the best way to do that.

This plugin was intended for cases where the intention is giving away small gift amounts in bulk but still maintaining the ability to clawback unclaimed balances. Several people have wanted such a thing in the past and had to resort to keeping lists of private keys, and then manually monitoring them. This way you can easily keep an eye on what gifts are claimed or left unused.

Do not use this plugin with a wallet intended to be secure offline storage.

@Yakov,
If you don't get the Tools, Papergen menu item then it is probably related to not having an open wallet. I couldn't find a generic start-up hook for plugins to trigger attaching a new menu item, so I do this on the wallet-open hook.