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Wednesday, 2 July 2014

Afraid of Bitcoin Hackers? Use a Paper Wallet


From Cointelegraph

“Whether it’s from hackers, thieves, or simple carelessness, one of the biggest threats to Bitcoin safety is wallet security. An Austrian research and development startup, however, is trying to bypass some of the greatest digital currency dangers by moving Bitcoin wallets off electronic gadgets completely and onto the old-school stuff: paper.

A bit of technology (in the form of a USB device and a printer) is still obviously required, though the development team at Megion Research and Development say the process is simple.

“Paper wallets are created in 3 simple steps,” read the instructions for the USB device, called Mycelium Entropy. “1. Insert [the device] into a printer that allows you to print pictures from a USB flash drive. 2. Select the print option on the printer. 3. There is no step 3.”

When the USB is plugged in, it creates a random number with 256 bits of entropy (a tidbit from information theory that basically means the number is really, really random. No, REALLY).

Mycelium Entropy turns that random number into a Bitcoin address and private key, which are then printed off (in number/letter form and as QR codes) onto a piece of paper.”

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