Gifting Bitcoin to a friend

[Pmalek]

I have a friend who is purchasing his own home next month together with his wife. As a gift to them, I would like to give them some Bitcoin. They don’t know much about crypto. He has heard of it but never owned any.

There are various ways to do that, so I don’t need any advice on that front. But it made me think: How cool would it be if there was a way to safely generate a Bitcoin wallet/address for someone else. But without seeing the recovery phrase or private key. The recovery phrase would only be accessible by the person the wallet is created for.

I am complicating a straightforward process of generating wallets, but here is why:

• My friend knows very little about Bitcoin.
• I don’t trust that he can create a decent wallet himself because he uses his PC and phone for all kinds of crap. There could be malware there that could lead to the loss of coins.
• I want to do the work for him, but I don’t want to have access to the seed, only an address to deposit the coins to.

One possible way would be if some kind of service would allow me to sign a message and encrypt the seed phrase/private key with his public key. Then, once the encrypted message is sent to him, he could decrypt it with his private key. But we are now again in territories that he knows nothing about. And If I am the one creating his public/private key pair, it defeats the whole process.

Another way could be having the seed sent to him in an encrypted form via email or online service, but sending or saving the seed in a digital way is really not something I want to do.

Casascius coins and similar collectibles are not an option.
I considered leaving a backup for myself, but I don’t want a way to access the coins. Once I hand it to them, it’s their responsibility to keep them safe. 


Any ideas?

[Coin_trader]

Why not purchase a physical coin like Satori chip or any trusted coin out there then gift it to your friend. That way you didn't know the private key or recovery seed of the wallet you are gonna gift to your friend. Your friend will appreciate a physical gift rather than a pure Bitcoin currency since he is not familiar on it and newbie always want things that they want to see to appreciate it.

I have a lot of friends including my coworkers that I gift satori chip before and they appreciate more rather than sending them Bitcoin because they are too paranoid on the money that they will gonna receive.

[Pmalek]

Why not purchase a physical coin like Satori chip or any trusted coin out there then gift it to your friend.

I have considered physical coins like a Casascius coin. Satori chip would also be an option, but I feel that's a gift more appropriate for people who like Bitcoin. Giving them that is like buying a football for someone who doesn't watch sport and prefers the theatre. You are probably thinking, why do it all then? I am hoping it will intrigue him a little and get him interested.

These coins aren't exactly cheap to gift to someone who might never ever care about them. Or about Bitcoin for that matter.   

[hugeblack]

I do not think that gifting any kind of Bitcoin-related gifts such as hardware wallets, or Bitcoin gifts will be useful because he is not interested in technology and will forget those wallet seed or not remember the location of the device.

It is better to buy something that has a value to him like gold or silver coins then and then print the private key of 2of3 multi-signature address, so you can reduce the risk when he wants to sell those currencies, he asks you and other trusted third part person before sending that money.

[Charles-Tim]

I have considered physical coins like a Casascius coin.

What I understood about Casascius bitcoin is that the minimum available is 1 BTC, that is not just a small value today, not knowing the exact amount that you wants to gift to your friend, but Casascius bitcoin price is not flexible at all, it may not be a good option, I guess. Even in my country, I can buy a very beautiful house with 1 BTC. Although, I do not know the purchasing power in your country.

Also, maybe because of where I am residing, Casascius bitcoin will have to be shipped to my country or something like that, I have not gotten one before but likely will be what will happen. So, if no one to sell in the country you are residing could be another obstacle.

I do not think that gifting any kind of Bitcoin-related gifts such as hardware wallets, or Bitcoin gifts will be useful because he is not interested in technology and will forget those wallet seed or not remember the location of the device.

I have a brother that is not interested in bitcoin all because he is afraid not to lose the coin as he will have the whole responsibilities of protecting the coin, but he knows its worth, if I want to give him bitcoin today, he will gladly collect it and use it for something. The reason why some people do not just like bitcoin is because they do not know much about it and hearing about how some people lost their coin, but they know its worth. I believe almost everyone knows bitcoin now, and the worst he can do is to sell it. I think there is nothing bad to gift a friend bitcoin and making him realize its worth. Just my opinion, but your idea will be pleasant to his friend, it is good to gift what the friend will more appropriate.

[Pmalek]

I do not think that gifting any kind of Bitcoin-related gifts such as hardware wallets, or Bitcoin gifts will be useful because he is not interested in technology and will forget those wallet seed or not remember the location of the device.

He is interested in technology, but not into Bitcoin yet.

It is better to buy something that has a value to him like gold or silver coins then and then print the private key of 2of3 multi-signature address, so you can reduce the risk when he wants to sell those currencies, he asks you and other trusted third part person before sending that money.

I have considered a multi-sig setup as well. But I don't want to have any control over what he does with the coins. It's his decision to keep them, exchange them for fiat, or gamble them away. It also doesn't seem like a gift if he needs my signature to spend it. I am hoping he will see some value in it, but it's his call. 

[dkbit98]

How hard would be for a grown man who is getting married and who is going to have his own house, to learn something about ownership of Bitcoin before he accepts it as a gift from you?

It's better to teach a man how to fish than to give him the fish, and in similar way it is better that you give him instructions manual for generating his own seed words, and learning the basics of Bitcoin, than he can send you his public address and receive BTC gift from you.

Alternative way would be that you generate private key send funds to that address and then send him private keys with instructions to sweep it and transfer to address that only he controls.

I think that best option for newbie is to buy him a hardware wallet that has all instructions, he will have a sense that he owns something physical with multiple seed words on paper + device itself, and there is less chance he will lose all of them.

[RickDeckard]

My fear is that your friend, whenever finds out how to "move"/spend his BTC, with all the excitement, will eventually fall into some scam due to the lack of knowledge regarding this world. I think I'm not giving a "world breaking" recommendation by suggesting the use of OPENDIME[1] right? I guess that it's a simple way to gift someone BTC, but I do reckon that the receiver has to know a fair bit of the inside out to being able to actually spend his/her BTC.
Another suggestion, perhaps a bit more "personal", would be something like what this guy did for his niece[2]. It would be a mini puzzle that would make your friend actually figure out what the hell is he/she supposed to do with whatever you gift him. Whenever he/she finds out the seed phrases my hopes is that he/she found out a bit more about crypto and to be extra careful with whoever funds you gave him/her...

Fun fact: Her "college fund" holds now over 35k USD[3]! Now that's what I call a fat piggy bank!
[1]https://opendime.com
[2]https://imgur.com/gallery/hbB1w#9yLX0fD
[3]https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/address/137XB8QLnJPqJhUm73V1tWLJJQHErLHW55

[crwth]

What about using Binance? Letting them register them and just send them a gift card? Look at the link below.

https://www.binance.com/en/support/faq/d4f5b489c5064322826f202a2bd88d30

It has no expiry so it would depend on them when they are going to use it. It's easy to register to redeem. I think this would make it easier for both of you.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I have a friend who is purchasing his own home next month together with his wife. As a gift to them, I would like to give them some Bitcoin.

Hey it's me, your friend.

How cool would it be if there was a way to safely generate a Bitcoin wallet/address for someone else. But without seeing the recovery phrase or private key.

You can do this using split keys or something similar, but it still requires knowledge and cooperation (and a clean and secure computer) from the other party.


I would agree that education and letting them open their own wallet is the best solution. Since you want to give them something, send them a card with an IOU for 0.05 BTC or whatever along with an offer to sit down and spend an hour or two showing them how to open a wallet. This is superior to any option which involves you setting up an encrypted paper wallet or multi-sig or anything similar.

The next best option would probably be Opendime, as suggested above. With a hardware wallet like a Trezor or Ledger, the recipient still needs to be interested enough to sit down, work it all out, set it up, generate a wallet, send you an address, etc. If you think they might not be motivated to do that, then you can load up an Opendime with whatever you want and give it to them to keep safe until such a time that they want to spend it.

[SFR10]

They don’t know much about crypto. He has heard of it but never owned any.
~Snipped~
Once I hand it to them, it’s their responsibility to keep them safe. 

I am hoping it will intrigue him a little and get him interested.

In other words, you'll be giving them a product, without the manuals in it! IMO, you might just annoy them with that kind of gift.

How cool would it be if there was a way to safely generate a Bitcoin wallet/address for someone else. But without seeing the recovery phrase or private key.

You can still achieve that by inviting them over to assist in creating those in a safe environment, then simply look away when it's time for the seeds to appear ^{[instruct them to write it down in a safe place]}, and lastly, delete all traces of the wallet from your side.

[NotATether]

A more straightforward but riskier option would be to print a QR code of the private key and another for the address using Bitaddress (which you make), load them with coins, and give the paper to your friend.

Then he creates a wallet on his phone by scanning the papers whenever he wants to spend bitcoin, and then immediately delete it afterwards.

As long as the papers are stored securely there is little risk of robbery, unless of course he decides to never delete the wallet out of convenience! (Warm him about how dangerous that is to theft, it's like walking around with big bundles of cash in your pockets).

[Pmalek]

How hard would be for a grown man who is getting married and who is going to have his own house, to learn something about ownership of Bitcoin before he accepts it as a gift from you?

Look, I don't disagree, But I don't want to force my opinions on him or ask him to learn how to do something that he maybe doesn't want to. I thought Bitcoin would be a great housewarming gift and something he would never expect. It's also meant to be a surprise.

My fear is that your friend, whenever finds out how to "move"/spend his BTC, with all the excitement, will eventually fall into some scam due to the lack of knowledge regarding this world.

He is a smart lad and he isn't gullible. He would never fall for the obvious scams. I would of course tell him to check with me for every step he decides to take with his coins. Whether that includes selling them on an exchange, moving them to a different wallet, re-investing into something else, etc.

I think I'm not giving a "world breaking" recommendation by suggesting the use of OPENDIME[1] right?

I have to admit that I forgot about the Opendime and didn't consider that option. Thanks!

What about using Binance? Letting them register them and just send them a gift card? Look at the link below.

I didn't know Binance offers gift cards. The only problem is that new accounts have to undergo KYC now. So he would have to perform identity verification. Since I don't like doing that myself, I don't want to suggest that he does. Do you know any other exchange where you could purchase a gift card that doesn't require KYC?

IMO, you might just annoy them with that kind of gift.

I don't think I will. He knows about Bitcoin's value. At one point he even considered mining it. He is a gamer and always has good computers and GPUs. He thought he could put them to good use mining Bitcoin but unfortunately I shattered his dreams.   

You can still achieve that by inviting them over to assist in creating those in a safe environment, then simply look away when it's time for the seeds to appear ^{[instruct them to write it down in a safe place]}, and lastly, delete all traces of the wallet from your side.

We live and work in different cities. I haven't seen him in almost 2 months and his housewarming party will be the first time we get together after a while. 

[dkbit98]

Look, I don't disagree, But I don't want to force my opinions on him or ask him to learn how to do something that he maybe doesn't want to. I thought Bitcoin would be a great housewarming gift and something he would never expect. It's also meant to be a surprise.

If you receive airplane, helicopter or a boat as a surprise gift from someone, would you go with the process of learning to drive them if he provides you with paid instructions, learning lessons and license?
I would say that procedure for learning about Bitcoin is much more simple, and I never said that you should force him to do anything, instructions are there and he doesn't have to do anything if he doesn't want.
If someone is not interested in learning about Bitcoin than he probably isn't ready to receive and keep it yet.

[gmaxwell]

I think it's best to give coins to non-bitcoiners by moving them to a new securely created private keys, store the key on some physical medium, and give it to them with instructions on safe keeping. (also making it clear that its not secure unless they sweep it).

Because it's a gift they're likely not too worried about you robbing them, and so they'll likely leave it alone until they understand Bitcoin better.  This is good because they're also likely to lose their keys or get their online systems hacked.  If they lose the key you gave them you could retain a backup (offline, lest your own hack causes its loss!) and give it back to them again.

[Pmalek]

If you receive airplane, helicopter or a boat as a surprise gift from someone, would you go with the process of learning to drive them if he provides you with paid instructions, learning lessons and license?

I would, but every person is different. They are used to doing things one way and if that way works, they don't want to change. It's as simple as that. Ask around in your neighborhood if people would use Bitcoin if you showed them how it works and how to use it. Some would, others are stubborn and would probably just chase you away.

I didn't really expect that there was a service or way to achieve what I suggested in OP when I started this discussion. But I hoped I was wrong. It could be an interesting project for someone to play around with in the future.   

[o_e_l_e_o]

If you receive airplane, helicopter or a boat as a surprise gift from someone, would you go with the process of learning to drive them if he provides you with paid instructions, learning lessons and license?

Probably not. Given that I've shown no interest ever in learning to sail a boat, I'd mostly wonder why the hell they bought me a boat and politely decline because I have better things to do with my time than learn a skill I'm not interested in and will almost certainly never use. Just because we all see bitcoin as the future does not mean everyone else does, and you can't force something on someone who is not ready for it.

I think it's best to give coins to non-bitcoiners by moving them to a new securely created private keys, store the key on some physical medium, and give it to them with instructions on safe keeping. (also making it clear that its not secure unless they sweep it).

The reason I don't like this is because it teaches them from day 1 to trust a third party (you). If they are not interested enough in bitcoin to sweep the bitcoin you gift them, then why gift them bitcoin at all? If they are interested enough to set up their own wallet and sweep the bitcoin, then surely helping them to set up a wallet securely and then sending them bitcoin directly is a better option.

[dkbit98]

Probably not. Given that I've shown no interest ever in learning to sail a boat, I'd mostly wonder why the hell they bought me a boat and politely decline because I have better things to do with my time than learn a skill I'm not interested in and will almost certainly never use.

Wtf dude... I was just comparing learning process for Bitcoin that is much easier than learning other random stuff I mentioned, I didn't really mean you would receive a space ship or a nuclear submarine 

[o_e_l_e_o]

I was just comparing learning process for Bitcoin

You are missing my point, I think. It doesn't matter if it is bitcoin or sailing or parachuting or cooking or web design or whatever. If you give someone a gift of something that they have expressed absolutely zero interest in previously, then chances are they are going to smile, thank you for it, then ignore it and wonder about if you really know them well and why you gave them such a strange gift.

There was a post I read a while back on Reddit from a guy who left advertisements for free bitcoin along with instructions and private keys/QR codes around his town, on noticeboards, on flyers, etc., and after several weeks not a single one of the wallets had been swept. I have tried gifting bitcoin to friends with zero interest in it and even telling them I want to give them free money if they spend 10 minutes with me to set up a wallet isn't enough to entice them. If people aren't interested then they aren't interested, and they aren't going to spend the time learning about it regardless of how easy we think that learning process is.

[dkbit98]

...

You can't be a prophet to know exactly what other people want, even they don't know that themselves, and that is not the point of gifts, it's attention you get from person that gave you some gift.
I think that everyone received some stupid gifts in their life, but there is a saying in many countries - don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

I personally wouldn't give Bitcoin to anyone who is not willing to first learn about it or show some interest, but I know some people who left Bitcoin for their kids as inheritance, even if they didn't show any interest before, and that is a gift.
If you know that something is valuable you will probably appreciate the gift you received more, but I could also appreciate something that has no material or economic value.
Max Kaiser for example gave away a lot of Bitcoin to other people before and they lost it all, but he is not depressed about it because once you give away something it's not yours anymore.