How to Import Paper Wallets & Beginners Guide to Cryptocurrency Wallets

When you are generating paper wallets it’s important to disconnect your computer from your wifi or internet connection. It’s the private address that you want to keep from exposing to potential hackers by keeping your computer offline while this is being displayed because it is the private key that allows you to withdraw  funds. Print out this page or write down both the public and private keys or addresses and store somewhere safe.

When you are ready to move your bitcoin or you want to cash out, you can do this by creating a free account with blockchain.info which merely requires an email address and password. Once you are signed up they will send you an email with your wallet ID which you will need to log into this account.

You will then need to go to the settings menu and under the security options be sure to back up your account with the wallet recovery phrase. This will allow you to still gain access to your funds even if you forget your password. Once you’ve written down your recovery phrase, store this in a safe place too.

In order to import your paper wallet onto your blockchain.info account you will need to go to “Settings” and then select the “Addresses” option which will allow you to import addresses. In order to import your paper wallet you will need to type in the PRIVATE address of your paper wallet. It is for this reason that I highly suggest that you take out all coins from the paper wallet as the private key has essentially been compromised.

Even if you want to continue storing some of your bitcoin on a paper wallet, just create a new paper wallet and store them there. Make sure that you discontinue use of any paper wallet that has had it’s private key used anywhere on the internet. You can do so by getting your blockchain.info wallet address by selecting the “receive” option here, copy the address and then go to the “send” option and select the wallet you’d like to send coins from and paste the address of the blockchain.info wallet.

You will then have imported your paper wallet and transferred all of your funds out of that paper wallet address and onto your blockchain.info wallet, the same wallet that is now backed up with your recovery phrase. Whenever you want to send coins from one wallet to another, this includes exchanges, since the coins you have on an exchange are in a wallet on that exchange, you will need to follow this general protocol.

Firstly, be sure the wallet you are sending your coins to is appropriate for the coins you are sending. You cannot send e.g. ethereum into a bitcoin address. If you do this your coins will be lost.

Secondly, be sure you input the correct address into the recipient field. Crypto addresses have a lot of upper and lower case letters and numbers and they can be daunting to look at first, so always double-check the first few characters and the last few characters to be sure that you are sending your coins to the right address.

Thirdly, if you need to transfer a large amount of coins and it is your first time transferring that particular coin or it’s your first time using that particular address, just send a small amount for the first transaction. That way you will have peace of mind that you can send the larger amount successfully.