24 seed word offline bitcoin storage

[caveminer]

What is the best way to create offline bitcoin storage that never touched/touches the internet? I want to only use the 24 seeds words, and not any sort of product like a ledger or nano.

[OmegaStarScream]

What is the best way to create offline bitcoin storage that never touched/touches the internet? I want to only use the 24 seeds words, and not any sort of product like a ledger or nano.

You can simply create a standard wallet using electrum and if you're interested in transacting and watching the balance etc. you can follow this guide: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

[caveminer]

I'm fine with that, but they only allow 12 words.  Also, is there an alternative where I don't have to use software?

[ajaxtempest]

air gapped raspberry pi 400 with raspberry os and electrum. You can extend the seed words to 24 words!


this also
https://armantheparman.com/bitcoin-core-and-electrum-personal-server-electrum-wallet-on-a-raspberry-pi/



see video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQumISxkJsQ


to be more secure your watch only electrum should be connected with bitcoin core via bwt plugin. (hence no need for using electurm personal serveR as the first link stated)
https://github.com/bwt-dev/bwt-electrum-plugin
https://armantheparman.com/why-should-you-run-your-own-bitcoin-node/

[caveminer]

I heard that with electrum you aren't in control of your private keys?   Is there a better alternative?

[ajaxtempest]

I heard that with electrum you aren't in control of your private keys?   Is there a better alternative?

who said that?
Its the most open source app with lightning network.

just follow the links above


ps: burn your wallet.dat file on cd rom. its emp proof and will out last all other electronic wallets.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5395813.msg59953606#msg59953606

[caveminer]

Thank you so much for those links I'm really liking what I'm seeing, I'll make sure to look at all of them. 

If I can get my private master key straight from core why do I even need to bother with electrum?  Can't I just use core only?

[ajaxtempest]

core meaning bitcoin core?
well bitcoin core will solve your fear of not using seed words. But it will be online and act as node.

solution is to buy raspberry pi 400. install raspberry os or ubuntu 22.04 (slower)
install electrum

steps
https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/install-electrum-on-linux/

warning do not download old version. use electrum 4.2.1 and must verify the sign

then disconnect the pi 400 FOREVER

then create new wallet. generate seed (you can extend to 24 words )and save it on paper and lock it.

save the wallet.dat file on cd rom.

then on your online pc create watch only wallet.

and use this step to buy\sell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQumISxkJsQ

WArning

before creating electrum WATCH only wallet which is connected to internet in windows. first download bwt plugin and put it in electrum plugins folder (destination is in c:\users\appdata\roaming\electrum)

and then link it with bitcoin core. This will make sure your transcasction is not leaking to third party. This has to be done offline.

once your electrum is connected with bitcoin core showin as connecting to only 1 node, you can then connect to the internet.

Then create a watch only wallet

[caveminer]

Ok thank you very much.  The creator of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JNL3-1lnvg in the comment section said this in reply to someone:

"Thanks TFS, Electrun is a great wallet but they are have announced that they will support BIP148 which means if that fork fails you have the potential to lose coins. Best bet is to control you own private keys." 

So he is implying with electrum you don't control your own private keys, but is he wrong? 

[ajaxtempest]

Ok thank you very much.  The creator of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JNL3-1lnvg in the comment section said this in reply to someone:

"Thanks TFS, Electrun is a great wallet but they are have announced that they will support BIP148 which means if that fork fails you have the potential to lose coins. Best bet is to control you own private keys." 

So he is implying with electrum you don't control your own private keys, but is he wrong? 

The best way to save private key is to save wallet.dat file. save the file on cd rom.

Lets say  in future electrum does not exist, your wallet.dat file can be loaded as it has the private keys.

[AGD]

Ok thank you very much.  The creator of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JNL3-1lnvg in the comment section said this in reply to someone:

"Thanks TFS, Electrun is a great wallet but they are have announced that they will support BIP148 which means if that fork fails you have the potential to lose coins. Best bet is to control you own private keys." 

So he is implying with electrum you don't control your own private keys, but is he wrong? 

The best way to save private key is to save wallet.dat file. save the file on cd rom.

Lets say  in future electrum does not exist, your wallet.dat file can be loaded as it has the private keys.

... and save it encrypted with a very good password.

[ajaxtempest]

I'm fine with that, but they only allow 12 words.  Also, is there an alternative where I don't have to use software?

When creating electrum seed you can extend the seed to 24 words!!!!



~~~~~~
Tried to Send you PM but could not: SO here is my message

Hope you liked my replies. can you tell me your btc history?
Here is mine
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5395810.msg59948590#msg59948590

I read your reply here
" I am also willing to pay for someone knowledgeable with a large post history to walk me through the process on discord voice call, so I can learn more about the whole process."


hope you have understood the steps. I am not a computer geek but used a lot of trial and error. the most difficult part was to how to link electrum via bwt to bitcoin core.

will help you if you need guidance but it will be very slow process as i can only do via this web forum. no third party site.

knew about btc back in may 2011 and dled the btc core app on 30 sep 2011. got free btc .0* something via bitcoin facuet, mined via bitminter in 2012 via geforce 525m and forgot about it. HDD crashed and i did not saved the wallet.dat file.

started this year with a bang.

follow trader university youtube channel.

btc address for donation is in my profile page.

[NeuroticFish]

What is the best way to create offline bitcoin storage that never touched/touches the internet? I want to only use the 24 seeds words, and not any sort of product like a ledger or nano.

1. Install Tails onto an USB stick
2. Get Ian Coleman tool from git: https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39/releases, see for latest release and get the stand alone one; check it too. Put it to another USB stick.
3. Boot from Tails and make sure your internet cable is unplugged, also select in the start screen an admin password
4. Access the other USB from inside Tails (you may need admin pwd), copy Ian Coleman tool to /home/amnesia/Tor Browser folder
5. Run Ian Coleman tool.

- or -

Run Electrum and use that 12-word seed. It's usually good enough and may be safer than a seed generated by an in-browser script.


PS. adding 12 extra words to Electrum seed is not the same as having a 24 words seed.

[nc50lc]

I'm fine with that, but they only allow 12 words.

You can create 24-words Electrum seed via the console:

• Enable and open console: "View->Show Console" (needs to open/create a wallet to use)
• Type: make_seed(256) for Native SegWit or make_seed(256,"standard") for Standard
• Copy the result and use it to create a new wallet: "File->New/Restore->Standard wallet->I already have a seed"

But take note that Electrum's seed isn't BIP39 compatible.
It will only work in Electrum and some compatible wallets and tools.

[ajaxtempest]

What is the best way to create offline bitcoin storage that never touched/touches the internet? I want to only use the 24 seeds words, and not any sort of product like a ledger or nano.

1. Install Tails onto an USB stick
2. Get Ian Coleman tool from git: https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39/releases, see for latest release and get the stand alone one; check it too. Put it to another USB stick.
3. Boot from Tails and make sure your internet cable is unplugged, also select in the start screen an admin password
4. Access the other USB from inside Tails (you may need admin pwd), copy Ian Coleman tool to /home/amnesia/Tor Browser folder
5. Run Ian Coleman tool.

- or -

Run Electrum and use that 12-word seed. It's usually good enough and may be safer than a seed generated by an in-browser script.


PS. adding 12 extra words to Electrum seed is not the same as having a 24 words seed.

I did not know this!
ANyways even more better option is to use raspberry pi zero
https://armantheparman.com/how-to-set-up-a-raspberry-pi-zero-air-gapped-with-electrum-desktop-wallet/

[NeuroticFish]

ANyways even more better option is to use raspberry pi zero

If I had a way to buy Raspi Zero (preferably not W) not as overpriced as I see it nowadays, I would build a hardware wallet off it: https://seedsigner.com/
I sooo hate this chip shortage...

[dkbit98]

What is the best way to create offline bitcoin storage that never touched/touches the internet? I want to only use the 24 seeds words, and not any sort of product like a ledger or nano.

I would say that using casino dices is probably one of the best offline methods you can use to generate bitcoin seed words, and you don't have to pay anything for that if you already own them.
This way you will get truly random results for 23 words and last word needs to be calculated, for that you can even use hardware wallets like Seedsigner, Bitbox or ColdCard if you already have them.
Alternative easy and fast way is to use Iancoleman.io website offline to do the same thing.
Important thing is that you always verify if seed words are correct before using them for generating addresses and receiving payments.

Here are few instructions that I know for process I mentioned above:
https://github.com/veebch/Bip39-Dice
https://shiftcrypto.ch/blog/roll-the-dice-generate-your-own-seed/

[DireWolfM14]

But take note that Electrum's seed isn't BIP39 compatible.
It will only work in Electrum and some compatible wallets and tools.

This is the only reason I don't like to create generic seeds in Electrum.  Unless I'm going to use the seed solely for Electrum I prefer to have a Bip39 seed for hardware wallet compatibility.

I've used the Ian Coleman tool on an offline burner OS to generate 24-word Bip39 seed phrases.  To overcome the entropy limitations of a browser-based seed generator I use dev/urandom to generate a 256 character HEX string, and use the advance entropy settings.

Code:

cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'A-F0-9'  | fold -w 256 | head -n 1