[Ethereum] Is it possible to *write* (not print) a paper wallet without having to copy a big JSON

backupbrain-walletscold-storagepaper-walletsprivate-key

In Bitcoin, you can store a paper wallet by merely writing down the private key of an address, which is very small. You can also write ~20 words generated from that address, if you want. In Ethereum, in order to backup an account, I was suggested to copy a file on my keychain directory (OSX). The issue is, that file is a moderately big JSON. Writing all that in a paper is very error prone.

Is it possible to generate a small set of words, or just a hex private key, that I can write down in a paper and restore later?

Best Answer

Yes, you can simply generate pairs of unencrypted or encrypted private and public keys. For example, use this bulk key generator:

1,"0xb7d3a6d96960c2e9650822be7c1cc4ebe8bb3718","9a130892d949ab5faf678ac6295d3ab05a434448b824c0dc43bf86a4c2bbf747"
2,"0xbf3407c1231b3612dc6d2da07f32208ed1e17ebd","e9a1bc1d7e5a815499009cf94139b3a4f532b0530df737247b6a0eccb65e5384"
3,"0x7637dc580f362786cbdc9e59a1baa9db4b46aa38","d7c8c4735ac5d665b7d9dd4a4d3dc61f4c1bffcad9b77d0f3aee5568d6dcdd10"
4,"0x395c3f208c09a9640880ae387331d7d58123bbd1","c0f075d2aa6510f75281b19f2c43771b99248f5784503344b21c590b8003419e"
5,"0x0d59b6bc0d014ee806230c4fee77e0c83bb6f453","0da749536ce1279d99663016428fe23a3799b842f982c6a1e81fa69cc0219a45"
6,"0xad17e413f8a47a07c8c7660f5c495b20176c59e0","994c6d8e93216ebd2f1e82662c00f3a7fb3e24f1245b4571791dc369f098bf20"
7,"0xa839ecc2305f433535eb1be00fc065ef728c61df","449fcc4846ec446e996653f3be7e81cf2f9c7df072ff2ece51e9f173928fb1cd"

Which outputs CSV: ID, public key (address), private key (here: unencrypted).

You can write them down. In general, I would recommend to encrypt them with a passphrase, but the output will be much more difficult to write down:

1,"0x5a594c44c194d9269025d07b9cf95e4b8fd767d2","U2FsdGVkX18TjcT/+fNBhHk1uPh1N72Vf3CLo/vkhor2+eKSEjeFbd13PbNcx78kwfwa0Gckv5yFjjQiR0qxyApPX6Buhs5e4IsYI90llPS0t75eJOz2b7qtPKlfX28T"
2,"0x052ce0c54dd7ec93fd513688fe954ae030889e6b","U2FsdGVkX1+XJEy6O2hw1N7PGnHtpQyrlLY+xD1J2X1TlgRqUB5gnQOS6rwi/mSEbdviLCjWKc3psQuV5UikS4wOmDunlWshGNTaoMIPj51Yh0KvfW22g6Evs1Z9COo3"
3,"0xbe8467807ea1374780d56a1bf9278fc1e1f5348a","U2FsdGVkX19SHpzNamqBl/JbmW2qzddPdQpIlKBadLstvlLtjmKI9YROxZlZEnHtK4mhPrKtTUWHGEF2sLAesVkBAqD71ORbWo6cEqa+C7pm4tkInuUTWWQVGEviNmGa"
4,"0xd903ff3313fdef8126b5f38c6775c0e34577ef33","U2FsdGVkX18V+us+TZ5ebawywwbW1eDtRjv8el6adTWcqf9Ag2nzWAtKlvZytCATEge4jzPZQaYJb7dZAMgjywGmxD63BPwZu7nc4hRzd+rWdVdT3NoyDE1WGJBa47Xp"
5,"0x425c6cd22c1673084d91bdc555115cf053a128a3","U2FsdGVkX1+BRDxxc4aDdYsdzjCDmHvBwiVp7GGFeBO2fc44pE+biTTaSz52Xrm9HhcwzHyQOxQc0KpRDckTiAV0VHb6MnfWcHKxlGTt5XzoMutZYrT6DWj8refcolp2"
6,"0x47bd738c482de1017c1bb44daed1174befe599f3","U2FsdGVkX1901zVkK+GEG1PNL5LWhAM/1EGGebUVKTBEqlEesgMliEb5bSGqQF+XbgmfefXjo/1lly8tPmEKz4vS4JNQU/m9gl9KMx/TADzz+mWbYj4WVo4KIqpaRdur"
7,"0x5600370a09691dea4e81735b86fb0b76182dcdee","U2FsdGVkX1+RwHwIB6SfPMAsoBGyWoz9QO72YY+J3hcfqWvlVnlW68jd5qAOaRVlZgnywpiKJmGjDCrTNR/ZiN0pHj3YlVN3+WdJ13qhFiMBxdLkrifblcNi+mXMCKm4"

A good alternative might a brain wallet, where you just have to remember the 20 words to generate the key pair. Here is one generator. Here is another (click "get address").

But as always, test this with small amounts first!

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