4 ms·

I presume these paper wallets, like paper cash, are subjected to possible erosion, water damage, or whatever happens during storage. Except with paper cash, you

by QML 9y ago

I presume these paper wallets, like paper cash, are subjected to possible erosion, water damage, or whatever happens during storage. Except with paper cash, you have some party, the government, willing to exchange it for new ones. What are the benefits of paper wallets over a hardware wallet or storing it online? Also, is it me or are people more paranoid with their Bitcoins than others with their USDs?

s17n 9y ago
With USD you may as well just put it in the bank - if the banking system fails your paper money probably won't be worth anything anyway. Bitcoin on the other hand could easily outlive any of the companies that will hold it for you.
gruez 9y ago
>What are the benefits of paper wallets over a hardware wallet or storing it online? you can use a multisig scheme where you have multiple private keys, but you only need a fraction of it to access your bitcoins.
- QML 9y ago
  By multisig can be done with paper wallets, hardware wallets, and online right?
  - gruez 9y ago
    >hardware wallets costs $$$, whereas paper wallets are nearly free >online doesn't protect you if your computer is compromised
Sir_Substance 9y ago
>Also, is it me or are people more paranoid with their Bitcoins than others with their USDs? The basic deal of bitcoin is that it's harder for people to tell you what you can and can't do with it, but it's also harder for them to help you if you shoot yourself in the foot with that freedom. A lot of the peanut gallery is scared away by notions like "if you lose your key, there's no one you can yell at down a phone or sue to get your money back, so you'll just have to be an adult and plan carefully". What remains is people who are a bit more systematic and thorough with respect to their finances.
jiggunjer 9y ago
Those bitcoin banks have poor reps for security and liability. If a USD bank gets robbed you're insured. Also the USD bank can't invest your money without your knowledge. Well, at least not everything in high risk stuff.
AgentME 9y ago
>What are the benefits of paper wallets over a hardware wallet or storing it online? If you only have bitcoin on a single hardware wallet, then if that hardware wallet fails to work one day, then you're boned. Paper wallets are easy to maintain and visually verify the integrity of (they're just ink on paper). Definitely recommend people using them keep multiple copies in different locations though. By online: * if you meant in a computer connected to the internet, then if your computer gets malware then it could steal your bitcoin. * if you meant in an online exchange, then you have the above issue (malware could steal your login info) combined with the issue that the exchange could go offline / lose your money / run away with your money. (See MtGox, btc-e, etc.) >Also, is it me or are people more paranoid with their Bitcoins than others with their USDs? If money is stolen from your bank account, then the bank will reverse the transaction. Bitcoin transactions can't be reversed like that, so their security is solely in the user's hands.
- brndnmtthws 9y ago
  This is misinformation. Typically you'd use a deterministic wallet[1], which permits you to restore the wallet from a backed up seed phrase. [1]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet
  - AgentME 9y ago
    I assume this was in response to this part? >If you only have bitcoin on a single hardware wallet, then if that hardware wallet fails to work one day, then you're boned. By "only have bitcoin on a single hardware wallet", I meant the case that the user did not back up their seed phrase (such as to a piece of paper). I was trying to hint that the best setup would be multiple paper wallet backups (or the seed phrase written onto multiple papers; I'm not sure it's useful to call that something other than a paper wallet) combined with a hardware wallet for actually making transactions.
vit05 9y ago
Paper Wallets is to storage your Bitcoin offline. You do not need to use paper. You could use metal, acrylic, tattoo in your body.
DINKDINK 9y ago
>What are the benefits of paper wallets over a hardware wallet? Cost. Use cases: one could transact in a medium trust environment using paper wallets passed around offline. >What are the benefits of paper wallets over storing it online? Limited attack surface. https://cryptoconsortium.org/standards/CCSS https://cryptoconsortium.org/standards/CCSS
- maxerickson 9y ago
  How do you assign the trust level? The ease in duplicating a wallet beforehand (or even having a computer setup to dump it) points towards high trust for me.
kobeya 9y ago
If I kept my retirement funds in $100 bills, I would be just as paranoid about them too.

by QML 9y ago

s17n 9y ago

With USD you may as well just put it in the bank - if the banking system fails your paper money probably won't be worth anything anyway. Bitcoin on the other hand could easily outlive any of the companies that will hold it for you.

gruez 9y ago

>What are the benefits of paper wallets over a hardware wallet or storing it online? you can use a multisig scheme where you have multiple private keys, but you only need a fraction of it to access your bitcoins.

QML 9y ago
By multisig can be done with paper wallets, hardware wallets, and online right?
- gruez 9y ago
  >hardware wallets costs $$$, whereas paper wallets are nearly free >online doesn't protect you if your computer is compromised

Sir_Substance 9y ago

>Also, is it me or are people more paranoid with their Bitcoins than others with their USDs? The basic deal of bitcoin is that it's harder for people to tell you what you can and can't do with it, but it's also harder for them to help you if you shoot yourself in the foot with that freedom. A lot of the peanut gallery is scared away by notions like "if you lose your key, there's no one you can yell at down a phone or sue to get your money back, so you'll just have to be an adult and plan carefully". What remains is people who are a bit more systematic and thorough with respect to their finances.

jiggunjer 9y ago

Those bitcoin banks have poor reps for security and liability. If a USD bank gets robbed you're insured. Also the USD bank can't invest your money without your knowledge. Well, at least not everything in high risk stuff.

AgentME 9y ago

>What are the benefits of paper wallets over a hardware wallet or storing it online? If you only have bitcoin on a single hardware wallet, then if that hardware wallet fails to work one day, then you're boned. Paper wallets are easy to maintain and visually verify the integrity of (they're just ink on paper). Definitely recommend people using them keep multiple copies in different locations though. By online: * if you meant in a computer connected to the internet, then if your computer gets malware then it could steal your bitcoin. * if you meant in an online exchange, then you have the above issue (malware could steal your login info) combined with the issue that the exchange could go offline / lose your money / run away with your money. (See MtGox, btc-e, etc.) >Also, is it me or are people more paranoid with their Bitcoins than others with their USDs? If money is stolen from your bank account, then the bank will reverse the transaction. Bitcoin transactions can't be reversed like that, so their security is solely in the user's hands.

brndnmtthws 9y ago
This is misinformation. Typically you'd use a deterministic wallet[1], which permits you to restore the wallet from a backed up seed phrase. [1]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet
- AgentME 9y ago
  I assume this was in response to this part? >If you only have bitcoin on a single hardware wallet, then if that hardware wallet fails to work one day, then you're boned. By "only have bitcoin on a single hardware wallet", I meant the case that the user did not back up their seed phrase (such as to a piece of paper). I was trying to hint that the best setup would be multiple paper wallet backups (or the seed phrase written onto multiple papers; I'm not sure it's useful to call that something other than a paper wallet) combined with a hardware wallet for actually making transactions.

vit05 9y ago

Paper Wallets is to storage your Bitcoin offline. You do not need to use paper. You could use metal, acrylic, tattoo in your body.

DINKDINK 9y ago

>What are the benefits of paper wallets over a hardware wallet? Cost. Use cases: one could transact in a medium trust environment using paper wallets passed around offline. >What are the benefits of paper wallets over storing it online? Limited attack surface. https://cryptoconsortium.org/standards/CCSS https://cryptoconsortium.org/standards/CCSS

maxerickson 9y ago
How do you assign the trust level? The ease in duplicating a wallet beforehand (or even having a computer setup to dump it) points towards high trust for me.

kobeya 9y ago

If I kept my retirement funds in $100 bills, I would be just as paranoid about them too.