How to setup a paper wallet tutorial for bitcoin beginners

Paper wallets are the most secure and simplest way to store your bitcoins. To generate a truly secure paper wallet, you need to make sure that your private keys are never on an OS that isn’t clean and that they never see the internet. The service we used for this process is BitAddress.org, the easiest place to create new paper wallets for bitcoins. In the following figures, you will see the steps you need to take in order to have your own paper wallet ready for usage within minutes.

1. Visit http://bitaddress.org in your favorite browser

2. You can print off the paper wallet from Bitaddress above, but this is not truly secure, since the private keys are created by a third party while connected to the internet. You need to use their tools while offline. To do this, save the Bitaddress page (as an .htm file).  

3. Put the file on a USB drive.

4. Open the file on a clean OS that is not connected to the internet—and preferably never has been.

5. You will see a screen similar to picture above that automatically generates new bitcoin addresses and private keys for you. Move the mouse pointer around a bit and enter random text in the text box to increase the randomness of your addresses and keys.

6. Don’t save the private key and QR codes presented to you. Instead, click Paper Wallet.

7. Select the number of addresses you want to generate.

8. Hide the art if you prefer to, even though the standard design looks great. Glick the Generate button to start the generation process for your number of paper wallets.

9. To save the paper wallets or simply print them out, click the Print button. 

10. Print your paper wallets or save them as a PDF to your hard drive. Saving them as a file is not recommended though, as it is best to print out these wallets as soon as they are generated. 

11. Delete the file and make sure that there is no electronic record of the private key remaining on the computer or USB drive.

12. Ensure the printed paper wallet remains secure from theft, fire, flood, bugs, or other damage. If you lose your paper wallet, or is it not readable, you cannot retrieve your Bitcoin! Remember, to use Bitcoin, you must have a private key that corresponds to your public address. A paper wallet —properly created—ensures that the private key only resides on a piece a paper, and no one else can use the coins in that particular public address. That’s why if you lose your paper wallet, you lose your private key, and you lose the ability to access your coins too. 

13. Scan the QR code on the left side with your mobile bitcoin client, or enter the public key address in the bitcoin client on your computer. In doing so, you can start transferring bitcoins onto your paper wallet. The private key, used to verify ownership of the account in order to spend the balance, can be scanned with the QR code on the right side. 

A quick note on paper wallets: If you do choose to ‘withdrawal’ from the wallet, make sure you take out all the bitcoins from that wallet at once. A paper wallet that has been used once means it is no longer a paper wallet; you will need to create a new one to be completely secure again.