Beginners Guide: What is a wallet? How do my coins get stored? How does cryptocurrency work anyway?

[RecentChange]

Thanks for answerring

So once I have the new ripple Public key + Secret Combo. I just send my XRP to that public key and then store my secret key in a safe way. is that correct?

How do I verify my XRP are at that new public key. I am guessing I could do that on the ripple ledger on one of the sites. Am I understanding this correctly.

Then when I want to sell them I should load my secret key at one of the sites like kraken or gatehub to create a new wallet.. 

 

[Guest]

@strikerjax you are welcome.  Yes that is correct.

 

However...  I would not be confident to store my funds in a cold wallet unless I had proven the secret key worked first.  You can see your XRP are at your wallet by putting the public address into a Ripple ledger explorer. Eg https://bithomp.com/explorer/

But that doesn't prove that your secret key is the correct key for that public address.  One person reported on here that their secret key didn't work for their public one...  the two keys didn't match the one wallet address.  They had used the Apple Safari browser which apparently had a bug in its large number handling.

The following is maybe going overboard but I don't think so....   imagine years down the track trying to access your fortune and finding you can't.

Really you should send some XRP to the cold wallet address to activate it...  (more than 20).  Maybe 30?  Then using offline cold wallet software create a new instance of the wallet with the secret key then create a transaction to send say 5 XRP back to where it came from.  (You must leave at least 20 in the wallet.)  Take the transaction file to a online software wallet and send the XRP.

That sending proves that you have the right secret key and that your future use of the wallet will be fine so long as you don't lose they key.

This means that a paper wallet doesn't really do enough in my opinion unless you are absolutely confident in the paper wallet creation and want to trust it completely.

 

I know this seems hard...    but it's because it's early days, which is why the coin is undervalued.  Later it will be well known what phone apps etc are safe and all will be slick and easy.

[gray]

On 8/18/2017 at 1:15 AM, strikerjax said:

Can I use the paper wallet and store the resulting secret key and the QR codes form ripplewarpwallet as a screenshot & text file  and encrypt these on a Usb + backup Usb

Is that enough to get my wallet back up when I decide to sell them?

Yes but then you're just using it as a normal paper wallet and losing all the benefit of using a deterministic wallet. If you use RippleWarpWallet then you should be either memorizing or safely storing your passphrase, not your secret key directly. Then you type your passphrase back into RippleWarpWallet and it will spit out your secret key whenever you need it.

[gray]

On 8/18/2017 at 3:22 AM, Tinyaccount said:

@strikerjax you are welcome.  Yes that is correct.

 

However...  I would not be confident to store my funds in a cold wallet unless I had proven the secret key worked first.  You can see your XRP are at your wallet by putting the public address into a Ripple ledger explorer. Eg https://bithomp.com/explorer/

But that doesn't prove that your secret key is the correct key for that public address.  One person reported on here that their secret key didn't work for their public one...  the two keys didn't match the one wallet address.  They had used the Apple Safari browser which apparently had a bug in its large number handling.

The following is maybe going overboard but I don't think so....   imagine years down the track trying to access your fortune and finding you can't.

Really you should send some XRP to the cold wallet address to activate it...  (more than 20).  Maybe 30?  Then using offline cold wallet software create a new instance of the wallet with the secret key then create a transaction to send say 5 XRP back to where it came from.  (You must leave at least 20 in the wallet.)  Take the transaction file to a online software wallet and send the XRP.

That sending proves that you have the right secret key and that your future use of the wallet will be fine so long as you don't lose they key.

This means that a paper wallet doesn't really do enough in my opinion unless you are absolutely confident in the paper wallet creation and want to trust it completely.

 

I know this seems hard...    but it's because it's early days, which is why the coin is undervalued.  Later it will be well known what phone apps etc are safe and all will be slick and easy.

4

If you do this then you're losing the benefit of a cold wallet. The second you import it to an online wallet or have it touch the internet in general, it's now a hot wallet and could theoretically have been stolen. If you want to check if your secret key works, DON'T import it into an online wallet to do so -- use offline transactions to send a test transaction like so: 

Oops, misread.

Edited August 21, 2017 by gray

[Guest]

1 minute ago, gray said:

If you do this then you're losing the benefit of a cold wallet. The second you import it to an online wallet or have it touch the internet in general, it's now a hot wallet and could theoretically have been stolen. If you want to check if your secret key works, DON'T import it into an online wallet to do so -- use offline transactions to send a test transaction like so: 

 

I think you might have misread my post.  I didn't say import it I said create a offline transaction and take that to a online wallet software.

[gray]

Just now, Tinyaccount said:

I think you might have misread my post.  I didn't say import it I said create a offline transaction and take that to a online wallet software.

Oops you're right, yes I did misread it. Sorry.

[khomsky]

I'm fairly new to xrp/crypto so bare with me plz. Currently i purchase btc on coinbase, send to bittrex to buy different cryptos. I want to store my different cryptos(XRP my most invested in) in their own paper wallet address. I have read for other cryptos to generate addresses offline using bitaddress.org.  this is as far as i have gone as i am cautious proceeding before getting all details. any help is greatly appreciated.

1. Once I send to address generated by bitaddress, what would I do if I wanted to sell each and any of my cryptos? How do I go from having them in my paper wallet back to bittrex? I know I have to have my private key in order to do this.
2. I have read about using omniwallet when storing maidsafe + btc to view paper wallet through public address. Any recommendation about using omniwallet with xrp+btc?
3. would anything happen if i stored all my cryptos in the same address? neglecting if i lost that address then all my hopes and dreams would be lost with it.
 

[gray]

1 hour ago, khomsky said:

I'm fairly new to xrp/crypto so bare with me plz. Currently i purchase btc on coinbase, send to bittrex to buy different cryptos. I want to store my different cryptos(XRP my most invested in) in their own paper wallet address. I have read for other cryptos to generate addresses offline using bitaddress.org.  this is as far as i have gone as i am cautious proceeding before getting all details. any help is greatly appreciated.

1. Once I send to address generated by bitaddress, what would I do if I wanted to sell each and any of my cryptos? How do I go from having them in my paper wallet back to bittrex? I know I have to have my private key in order to do this.
2. I have read about using omniwallet when storing maidsafe + btc to view paper wallet through public address. Any recommendation about using omniwallet with xrp+btc?
3. would anything happen if i stored all my cryptos in the same address? neglecting if i lost that address then all my hopes and dreams would be lost with it.
 

I'll answer 3 first. You can't. Each of your cryptos will require at least one unique address to store them. If you try to send XRP to a bitcoin address, it won't let you because it would fail the checksum. Bitcoin addresses can only store bitcoin, Ripple addresses can only store XRP (well... kind of, XRP is a weird one, but basically a ripple address can basically only store XRP directly), etc for other cryptocurrencies. Now... this isn't quite true. In fact, some cryptocurrencies are what are called "tokens," which means they are based on an existing blockchain and are therefore associated with the parent currency's chain. For example, Golem (GNT) is a token on the Ethereum network, and so you store GNT in an Ethereum account. I assume this is why you can store MAIDSAFE in a Bitcoin address, but I am not familiar directly with MAID and so can't actually comment in that respect.

So, you should make paper/cold wallets for each of the currencies you want to store, and then send some small test transaction to those addresses and make sure they work. Check this using one of that coins' blockchain explorers. Once you confirm that address is working, send however much you want to that address. In order to use it, you would then use whichever piece of wallet software you prefer that supports that cryptocurrency and "import" the private key that is on your paper wallet into the wallet software. From there you can sign and send transactions from that wallet to Bittrex or wherever else.

I don't know much about Omniwallet to comment. Any paper wallet you have you can view the public balance of using the public address by using a blockchain explorer for that coin. For example, XRP has Bithomp, bitcoin has blockchain.info, etc.

 

[khomsky]

 

19 hours ago, gray said:

whichever piece of wallet software you prefer that supports that cryptocurrency and "import" the private key that is on your paper wallet into the wallet software.

 

 

 

Is the recommendation then gatehub for XRP? If i understand correctly, I can view in gatehub using my public key and when i want to transfer back to bittrex, i then import my private key.
And if i generate my paper wallet public and private keys offline, print/store physical copies, my XRP coins become nearly impossible to hack until i enter the private key onto gatehub or any online wallet?

[D_345]

I would like to use a raspberry Pi3 B that runs on Raspbiam to generate a XRP wallet and private key. Does this sound correct:

1. download ripple-wallet  @ https://rippex.net/carteira-ripple.php#/   Linux version

2. Copy to thumb drive 

3. Install in raspberry Pi3 B

4. Setup desktop wallet, copy and save public and private Key.

5. Send XRP from Polo to created public address

6. Store for as long as I want

[gray]

5 hours ago, khomsky said:

 

Is the recommendation then gatehub for XRP? If i understand correctly, I can view in gatehub using my public key and when i want to transfer back to bittrex, i then import my private key.
And if i generate my paper wallet public and private keys offline, print/store physical copies, my XRP coins become nearly impossible to hack until i enter the private key onto gatehub or any online wallet?

Gatehub is one option, personally I think there's no reason to use Gatehub as purely wallet software unless you also want to use it as an asset exchange and take advantage of the fact that they are a gateway. If you just want a wallet software, check out one of the several other ones that are just wallet software. You can view on any blockchain explorer and some wallets may allow you to just use your public key to view as well.

 

And yes, you have the second part right, assuming you do the process correctly.

[gkatz]

hi guys; first of all thanks for the tutorial.

looking at https://github.com/termhn/ripplewarpwallet it seems the last formal release was on feb 2016 and  the last repo activity was 5 months ago. I have 2 questions:

1. is this still a good wallet generator even though there is no activity?

2. which should I use? the latest formal release? or the latest repo? in order to generate.

thanks!

[trax]

Hello there i am Trax from holland, Please forgive my poor Englisch but i have a qustion.

A few years ago i bought xrp directly bij xrp i was in the very begin of xrp and the coins where store @ a on line wallet directly bij the xrp company.

Now i can,t find the wallet on line or some information about it.

i still have al the passwords and the key of the wallet.

 

Is it possible to get the ripple back ?

 

thank you very much

 

greetz Trax

 

 

[gray]

On 11/26/2017 at 2:33 AM, gkatz said:

hi guys; first of all thanks for the tutorial.

looking at https://github.com/termhn/ripplewarpwallet it seems the last formal release was on feb 2016 and  the last repo activity was 5 months ago. I have 2 questions:

1. is this still a good wallet generator even though there is no activity?

2. which should I use? the latest formal release? or the latest repo? in order to generate.

thanks!

Apologies for this being such a late reply, I haven't been checking this super frequently.

Yes, the generator still works; you may want to try a small test transaction just to sate your own fears that the generated key really controls the generated address before transferring significant funds.

The latest formal release is the same as the latest in the repo, it's just that the stuff in the repo has not been compiled. So, using the latest release is best. This is also nice because you can download the web page (right click -> save page as...) and store it somewhere and then just double click that file and it will work now or in the future as well. Just in case GitHub burns down or something

[S1rWilliam]

I think febuary we will have the otn wallet