Best way to send BTC as a gift?

[Dan The Man]

Supposing I want to send some Bitcoins to a family member that is not particularly computerly inclined, but has a history of donating money to organizations cut off from Paypal. What would be the best way to go about it? I am thinking of some sort of small flash drive with a bitcoin client and some money already loaded on it. Is there any client that doesn't require any installation? The other option I am thinking of is instawallet, but then I am basically just sending them a link... any suggestions?

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[BurtW]

Have them or help them open up a StrongCoin account.  This is an online wallet.  There is no installation.  I use it and it works.  Once they set up an account they can generate a key pair and give you the public key.  Then you can send Bitcoins to them any time you want and they can spend them at any time they want.

Check it out at strongcoin.com.

If you have any quesitons let me know here or PM me.

[Dan The Man]

Yeah, but if they set up an account first, it wouldn't be a real gift. Nobody wants to open a Christmas present that says "hey go online and register at this website and I will electronically give you a gift", no they want a mother effing Nintendo 64 in their hands. Maybe I need some of those real bitcoins.

[BurtW]

I have purchased many physical Bitcoins and use them for gifts, to pay for lunch with friends and to just get people interested in them.  It is now easier than ever to "cash in" the coins if you want to.  You just peel off the sticker and import the mini private keys directly into a StrongCoin account or directly into your Mt. Gox account!  I just tested the new private key import function in my Mt. Gox account with very positive results.  See my post here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=46908.msg561163#msg561163
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=46908.msg561803#msg561803

You can buy the physical Bitcoins here: https://www.casascius.com

See this thread for more technical info:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=41892.0

If you have any questions about the physical Bitcoins let me know.  I am even more fired up about them than the StrongCoin site.

[BurtW]

While on this subject, my parents wanted to invest a small amount in Bitcoins as a long term "just in case" they ever become worth a lot someday play.  I went to another one of my favorite sites, bitaddress.org, generated a paper wallet for them, bought the number of Bitcoins they wanted using my Mt. Gox account and then sent the Bitcoins to the public address of their paper wallet. 

I then handed them the paper wallet in an envelope and they plan to put the paper wallet in their safe.  If they want to buy more in the future they can just call me and I can add more to their account.

My parents are not that computer literate and don't know the first thing about public/private keys but they do understand the concept of a "numbered account" and they are happy to have something physical to put in their safe.

BTW I also gave them a few physical Bitcoins to play with and show their friends!

[Gabi]

Paperwallet or the casascius bitcoins.

First one is safer (how can be sure casascius is not going to scam us?)