Withdrawing from paper - best practice

[Synchronice]

Even though many consider the paper wallet as one of the most secured way of storing bitcoins, there are quite lots of precautionary measures to be taken to secure our bitcoins in paper wallets. I don't think this paper wallet is ideal for frequent transactions.

Really safe creation of paperwallets isn't that easy, now that almost all modern printers like to call home and are network connected. Most paperwallet generators are Javascript based and the security of Javascript-based secure entropy is somewhat disputed. Not to mention actively scamming websites that offer rigged paperwallet generators that will make you loose your funds even when you use the generator offline!

Paperwallets also have limitations and usually reveal the private key easily to an intruder if found by those who shouldn't have gotten access to them.

Just get a decent good hardware wallet and be good with it. (I'm not speaking of Ledger hardware crap.)

Isn't paper wallet basically a short term of the process that involves creating a Bitcoin wallet and writing them down somewhere? On a paper, or a note or etc.
It's recommended approach to generate a Bitcoin wallet on a computer that doesn't have an internet access (air-gapped device in the best case), use Tails, Electrum and write down seed phrases on paper or metal plates or whatever is the best option for the user. I often recommend memorizing but only if you are 100% sure that you'll remember and do follow steps of very frequent repetition.
Or just get an air-gapped hardware wallet like you said. I would recommend ColdCard and The Passport Foundation.

[Cricktor]

Well, we may need to clarify what we mean by a paperwallet. For me and probably commonly accepted it is a piece of paper which has a public address for loading and verification and a private key for spending on it (usually also with QR codes for ease of input of one or the other), something like this (do not use publicly disclosed private keys as here or you will loose your coins):


(created as example with https://www.bitaddress.org; never create paperwallets on an online website!)

I don't see mnemonic recovery words on a piece of paper as a paperwallet. That's a recovery words backup for a deterministic wallet which defines a plethora of public addresses and private keys for a given derivation path.

In my opinion paperwallets are outdated and shouldn't be used anymore. There's not much wrong with them if you understand their limitations and pitfalls. I just don't see a need for them in current times. YMMV.

[Z-tight]

I often recommend memorizing but only if you are 100% sure that you'll remember and do follow steps of very frequent repetition.

I don't know why you recommend memorizing seed phrases, but that should never be an option in my honest opinion, you can never be 100% sure that you will remember it, nor in the correct order, you also do not control if you'll fall ill or have a head injury or anything of that sort. Seed phrase should be backed up on paper or on steel plates, like you also said, but memorizing it should not be part of your recommendation.

[tbct_mt2]

Well, we may need to clarify what we mean by a paperwallet. For me and probably commonly accepted it is a piece of paper which has a public address for loading and verification and a private key for spending on it (usually also with QR codes for ease of input of one or the other), something like this (do not use publicly disclosed private keys as here or you will loose your coins):


(created as example with https://www.bitaddress.org; never create paperwallets on an online website!)

I don't see mnemonic recovery words on a piece of paper as a paperwallet. That's a recovery words backup for a deterministic wallet which defines a plethora of public addresses and private keys for a given derivation path.

What is a Bitcoin paper wallet?
Paper wallets
You can customize things, but see how paper wallets are defined: a combination of private key and public address. If you want to customize it, you can simply cut the paper, and burn the piece of private key, if you want.

But you will need a full paper with a public address, QR code and private key too. If your approach is against private key information, for public use I agree, you can have two papers for two different purposes, one for back up, and one for bringing it around for using in public places.

I want to say one thing, the wallet you want to bring around, even just with a public address, needs to be a small wallet. You don't want to leak your main wallet's public address too much.

Known physical Bitcoin attacks.

In my opinion paperwallets are outdated and shouldn't be used anymore. There's not much wrong with them if you understand their limitations and pitfalls. I just don't see a need for them in current times. YMMV.

Paper wallets are not recommended.

Bitcoin Q&A: Using paper wallets
For the last time: Stop using paper wallets

[Z-tight]

You can customize things, but see how paper wallets are defined: a combination of private key and public address. If you want to customize it, you can simply cut the paper, and burn the piece of private key, if you want.

I don't think i understand your recommendation here, how do you cut and burn the private key of your paper wallet, how to you then recover your paper wallet or spend from it, when you do not have the associated private key to the wallet.

you can have two papers for two different purposes, one for back up, and one for bringing it around for using in public places.

It is not even recommended to carry your paper wallet along with you to public places, especially when the wallet address is holding a large amount of your coins, it is too risky in my opinion.

[nakamura12]

Electrum is great to use. About its safety is that electrum is indeed safe to use but the level of security your wallet will have depends on you. The best thing you should do is to buy hardware wallet which is much more safer than other wallet especially paper wallet. As you can read in other post you can also do it to make your wallet like electrum and it is also the most recommended wallet by many people especially from this forum which many people are using including me.

[NotATether]

Not to mention actively scamming websites that offer rigged paperwallet generators that will make you loose your funds even when you use the generator offline!

Like this one site that starts with 'bitcoinpaperwallet'...

I hope no one still uses it.

[tbct_mt2]

I don't think i understand your recommendation here, how do you cut and burn the private key of your paper wallet, how to you then recover your paper wallet or spend from it, when you do not have the associated private key to the wallet.

The below quote explains it.

But you will need a full paper with a public address, QR code and private key too. If your approach is against private key information, for public use I agree, you can have two papers for two different purposes, one for back up, and one for bringing it around for using in public places.

If you want to use only the public address, the QR code in public places and want to hide the private key at home, you can print two paper pieces, one is full details with private key, public address, QR code that will be stored at home; another paper is only with public address and QR code.

It is not even recommended to carry your paper wallet along with you to public places, especially when the wallet address is holding a large amount of your coins, it is too risky in my opinion.

Is it what I advised, too?

I want to say one thing, the wallet you want to bring around, even just with a public address, needs to be a small wallet. You don't want to leak your main wallet's public address too much.

[Cricktor]

Like this one site that starts with 'bitcoinpaperwallet'...

Yes, I had exactly this malicious website in mind. I still have a loaded paperwallet from the good'ol times when the domain address and website was owned and operated by Canton Becker. His paperwallet generator code was fine and is still available on Github (it's mostly based on code from bitaddress.org).

But this once reputed website domain was sold by Canton Becker (IIRC somewhere in 2018) and ended up in a scumbag scammer's hands. I checked the malicious website code and was able to prove that it uses obfuscated predetermined entropy which is know to the scammer. You will lose your funds even when you use the code offline because the scammer has given you rigged and predetermined entropy for the paperwallets you create. You don't get (pseudo)random keys, you get scammer-knows-all keys.

Only trust a paperwallet generator with open-source code that you've checked and verified to be clean. No exception!

I hope no one still uses it.

I hope so, too. Otherwise they will learn it the hard way.

What puzzles me the most: why is this scammer still operating his scam meanwhile for years. There are numerous victims whose paperwallets have been drained. Still, the site is online and operating their dirty deeds 'til today. This is shocking.

[PomskyFluff]

Thank you everyone for a great discussion. I came across this today, it appears to be a straightforward process.

[apogio]

The best guide I have found in this forum is made by Krogothmanhattan.
I believe you should follow this guide, as it's tested and it's certainly a very safe way. Your private keys will never be exposed to the interent if the instructions are followed properly.