How do I check the balance on my paper wallet?

[J9901]

..without having to unload/sweep my entire balance on some other address/wallet?

Basically im going to use the Paper Wallet as a piggy bank...but I want to monitor it and confirm my BTC transactions are going through.

Whats the best and easiest way to do this?





also, I have some BTC sitting in my coinbase wallet and even when I enter the several addresses, including Wallet Address and those several automatically generated addresses after each transaction, into Blockchain.info, it says the balance is 0 BTC....hmmmmm

[1715121986]

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[Silly Money]

Just bookmark the public address of the wallet and check it on the blockchain.

[J9901]

i did that..or at least i think i did.

Using blockchain.info, i checked all the addresses available to me in Coinbase...all were at 0 BTC.

[byt411]

Coinbase is an online wallet, and your coins are mixed. That's why it can do off-chain transactions, your bitcoins in your account are recorded in a system in coinbase, and not actually on the blockchain.

[J9901]

Coinbase is an online wallet, and your coins are mixed. That's why it can do off-chain transactions, your bitcoins in your account are recorded in a system in coinbase, and not actually on the blockchain.

oh ok. well no wonder. Many thanks for the clarification.

So if I use Coinbase's paper wallet feature (which i plan to), I'm assuming my balance still will not show up on the blockchain?  If so, how would I easily monitor my balance on my Coinbase paper wallet?

[@cryptopumper]

you can do a watch only address on blockchain.info.

[yatsey87]

Coinbase is an online wallet, and your coins are mixed. That's why it can do off-chain transactions, your bitcoins in your account are recorded in a system in coinbase, and not actually on the blockchain.

oh ok. well no wonder. Many thanks for the clarification.

So if I use Coinbase's paper wallet feature (which i plan to), I'm assuming my balance still will not show up on the blockchain?  If so, how would I easily monitor my balance on my Coinbase paper wallet?

No, it probably will show up. I'm not 100% sure but I'm guessing their paper wallet feature is so you can safely store your bitcoins offline, which if is the case then you'll be able to check them on the blockchain.

[byt411]

Coinbase is an online wallet, and your coins are mixed. That's why it can do off-chain transactions, your bitcoins in your account are recorded in a system in coinbase, and not actually on the blockchain.

oh ok. well no wonder. Many thanks for the clarification.

So if I use Coinbase's paper wallet feature (which i plan to), I'm assuming my balance still will not show up on the blockchain?  If so, how would I easily monitor my balance on my Coinbase paper wallet?

No, it probably will show up. I'm not 100% sure but I'm guessing their paper wallet feature is so you can safely store your bitcoins offline, which if is the case then you'll be able to check them on the blockchain.

I personally don't use Coinbase, but if you use that feature then you should be able to see it on the blockchain.

[Kprawn]

That is one reason, why I do not want to use them. I'd rather dump my coins into a paper wallet, created with bitaddress.org and copy and paste the adress into blockchain.info search, to see if it's still there. But thats me. 

[odolvlobo]

So if I use Coinbase's paper wallet feature (which i plan to), I'm assuming my balance still will not show up on the blockchain?  If so, how would I easily monitor my balance on my Coinbase paper wallet?

Coinbase gives you an address and the private key in an image that you print out. Then you send your coins to the address on the paper wallet.

You have the private key, so it is your address and only you control it. Any coins sent to that address will remain there until you send them to another address.

You can monitor the address by entering it into a blockchain explorer site (e.g. blockchain.info).

[Gianluca95]

So, when you create a paper wallet, surely there is a Bitcoin address.

Insert it on www.blockchain.info, and you can check the balance of your paper wallet

[Lamigo]

So if I use Coinbase's paper wallet feature (which i plan to), I'm assuming my balance still will not show up on the blockchain?  If so, how would I easily monitor my balance on my Coinbase paper wallet?

Coinbase gives you an address and the private key in an image that you print out. Then you send your coins to the address on the paper wallet.

You have the private key, so it is your address and only you control it. Any coins sent to that address will remain there until you send them to another address.

You can monitor the address by entering it into a blockchain explorer site (e.g. blockchain.info).

If you are going to create a paper wallet, I would suggest you to use Electrum or Bitaddress without internet connection, instead of coinbase.
First, we don't know if coinbase has logged anything down.
More importantly, we don't know how good their PRNG is (how much entropy).

[oli123123]

You can check with it's address from blockchain.info

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

Most paper wallets have two QR codes, one for the private key and one for the public key.

You can scan the public key QR code to get the public key saved to your clipboard and check blockchain.info

Another option is to use a "watch-only" address with your blockchain.info wallet.

[MarcSummerss]

Hi J99, This also goes out to anyone who may come across this thread in the future,

I have started a service called Cointrack.
Cointrack.net is a solution for users who need a convenient location to keep track of their various digital currencies stored in a variety of forms.
Cointrack does not store your coin; instead it displays any number of your address balances. It can also notify you of balance changes via email. This streamlines the process of keeping tabs on all of your addresses, especially if they are stored remotely and/or on paper.
If there are any features you would like to see added, please let me know..
Currently supported: BTC, LTC, DOGE, FTC

Follow for updates and new features:
Twitter: @CoinTrackdotNet
Facebook: CoinTrack
Email: info@cointrack.net

[axel2078]

This is an older post, but it's worth nothing that Coinbase still doesn't have a paper wallet feature where you can have "watch only" accounts for other paper wallets.  They will just let you sweep a paper wallet into your account.  They claim that 97% of their customers bitcoins are stored offline though.  They also have a vault feature for long-term storage.  Anything you move into the vault requires 2FA to move it back out and there is a 48 hour time delay in case you change your mind (or didn't initiate the process).

[btc_enigma]

I know this in a older post, but if you are still looking for an easy way to monitor your paper wallet , you can try importing addresses into blockonomics

[Brewins]

do a paper wallet for an online wallet?

it is an paradox and useless, because if it is an online wallet your keys are already probably compromissed

[mattiadeabtc]

..without having to unload/sweep my entire balance on some other address/wallet?

Basically im going to use the Paper Wallet as a piggy bank...but I want to monitor it and confirm my BTC transactions are going through.

Whats the best and easiest way to do this?





also, I have some BTC sitting in my coinbase wallet and even when I enter the several addresses, including Wallet Address and those several automatically generated addresses after each transaction, into Blockchain.info, it says the balance is 0 BTC....hmmmmm

If you are using android, you can download and install the app  Bitcoin Balance, it's very useful and easy to use.
You need only to scan the qr code of the public key, and the app will sho w the balance

[Dahhi]

do a paper wallet for an online wallet?

it is an paradox and useless, because if it is an online wallet your keys are already probably compromissed

I heard blockchain.info is a reliable and safe online wallet.