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To: Drago
I don’t trust any smartphone wallet for a large amount of BTC (at least have an encrypted copy of your private key OFF of the smartphone).

Agree in part. The smartphone wallet will lose private keys. It will lose the seed phrase. Personal experience with both. Or you will lose the smartphone or factory reset it or delete the app or ... However I keep my unencrypted private keys in my safe. Don't need to be encrypted.

As for “seed phrase” vs “private key” they are essentially the same thing...the seed phrase makes it easier to save your private key vs. worrying about how to write down a 256 bit HEX #:

Yes, they are the same, but seed phrases are better because they generate an endless supply of keys. But for cold storage that doesn't matter. However you do not need to write down a 256 bit hex number. I have created dozens of private keys , given some away (to people who trust me). Many in my safe. Never written down a single hex number. That's because the paper wallet generates a QR code and you send that to the printer. Maybe you don't trust the printer and that's a fair point. But I am not dealing with a million dollar stash.

Here's a private key I just generated on bitaddress.org Do not use this key

bitaddresskey

The address on the left is the address which you cut and paste into the "send to" field at coinbase. The "secret" key (private key) on the right goes in the safe after sending it to the printer (which you trust). There's no writing down hex numbers and making a mistake. The QR on the right can be scanned into mycellium wallet with the instructions above.

Thanks Drago for your feedback especially if I have overlooked something. I have created many private keys like this for as much as 1 bitcoin without problems.

51 posted on 06/17/2024 6:05:06 AM PDT by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: palmer
To sum up the steps I would do if I were not a geek. Use a browser that you don't use much (e.g. install Firefox if you haven't already). Use that browser to go to bitaddress.org Since you can't really trust anyone disconnect from the internet at this point.

The client-side code will continue to work. Keep moving the mouse to get enough entropy to generate the private key. When it is done the client side software will produce the SHARE and SECRET shown above. Still not on the internet (and thus not connected to your printer) save a screenshot of the browser as I did and shared above. You should be able to right click in Firefox and select "Take screenshot". Then copy that to the clipboard. Bring up MS Word and paste into a fresh document. Next, copy and paste the SHARE address that starts with 1b into a document. That's a public address so no security is required.

Close the bitaddress.org browser tab. Clear the cookies and data. As it turns out Firefox has no cookies or data for bitaddress.org and it should not. If it did, that would be a security flaw. But clear cookies and cache anyway.

Now you can connect back to the internet so you can get to your printer which is presumably on your home network. If you have an old fashioned printer connected to the computer that's even better since you won't be on the internet. But in either case print the word document with the SHARE and SECRET shown above.

Next you can load mycellium to test the private key import. That way you know your paper wallet is readable. Follow the steps above. I will test other wallets Drago mentioned to see if they can import private keys. If you successfully import the private key you can see a key on the screen that I screenshotted above (the one that is partially obscured so you can't see my pathetic holdings)

Next log into coinbase. Send them your DL scans so you will be allowed to send to an address. Click on my assets so you can see what you got. Click on Transfer in the top right. Copy and paste the SHARE address that you saved above into the "send to" field. You may need to click on the arrow in send to to get a field to paste in the address. Once the address is pasted you can preview the transaction. Then do the transaction. I just did it and used the key above that I said to not use. It's up to someone reading this thread to scan in the private key I pasted above and claim the $8 in bitcoin. It will be good practice. Good luck

53 posted on 06/17/2024 7:14:06 AM PDT by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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