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With the advent of bitcoin, several types of cryptocurrency storage have formed. We tell you what cold storage is and how to apply it.


Cold storage is storing your bitcoins in complete isolation from the internet. While "hot" (online) wallets, such as the Bitcoin.com Wallet app, are perfectly safe and also very convenient for everyday use, including trading, cold storage wallets, because they never come in contact with the internet, offer an even safer method of simple, long-term storage. They also provide a unique way to give bitcoin as a gift.


The first step is to create a public/private key pair without internet access. A public/private key pair can be thought of as an email address and its corresponding password. For the highest level of security, it is important that this key pair never goes online.

Setting up a cold storage wallet is fairly simple and doesn't require much technical knowledge. The only tricky part is that in order to ensure that the private and public keys of your paper wallet never touch the Internet, you need to save the web page where the keys are generated, disconnect the device from the Internet, open the saved web page on your desktop, and then generate the keys.

The next step is to create an offline copy. You will then use the public key (also known as the address) to fund the wallet with bitcoins, and the private key (also known as the password) to sign transactions if you want to spend the contents of the wallet.

To make an offline copy, simply print out the public/private key pair. In fact, you can simply write the key pair on a piece of paper. However, if you're sure your printer and computer are disconnected from the Internet, you can safely press the print button (this way you'll avoid human error when typing in dozens of randomly generated numbers and letters).
Congratulations, the hardest part is over! You've created an offline bitcoin address and made a physical copy of it for safe keeping. Now you can securely connect to the internet.

The printed page should have the public Bitcoin address in alphanumeric form and as a QR code, as well as the corresponding private key, also in alphanumeric form and as a QR code. If you plan to keep a large amount of funds in this wallet, we strongly recommend keeping the paper wallet in a safe place, such as a fireproof safe. If you don't have a lot of funds on it, you can think of the paper wallet as a regular $20 bill (which is what makes it an interesting way to gift someone bitcoin).


Since your new paper wallet has a public address just like any other Bitcoin wallet, funding it with bitcoins is simply a matter of sending bitcoin to an alphanumeric address.


When you're ready to spend funds from a cold storage wallet, you'll need to import the wallet's private key into an internet-connected bitcoin wallet (a "hot" wallet). Any wallet that supports importing the private key will do. After successfully importing the paper wallet into the hot wallet, all funds that were previously sent to the paper wallet are now ready to be spent.

Important: Never reuse cold storage wallets. Once you have redeemed them online, follow the above process to create a new wallet as needed.