Hello. I have no idea what I'm doing [Cardano and Paper Wallets]

Hello
I’m here because my toddler got a paper Daedalus wallet and I have no idea what to do with it.
Where is short and simple guide for noobs like me?

Hello. You can try starting here:

Some materials and documentation on Cardano is in rough shape, but it’s because platform is still under development :slight_smile:

Basically, for now you only need to know that there’re probably some ADA coins on the paper-wallet you’ve got and those probably gonna cost more in the future than they do now :slight_smile: Additionally in the future you will be able to do some interesting stuff with those coins, once the platform is developed.

On the paper-wallet there should be a long string of symbols printed - this is the wallet address. You can check the balance of the wallet by entering this address in the search field on this website: https://adatracker.com Or you can scan the QR code on the paper-wallet and it should give you the same address.

For now - there’s no much use for the ADA coins, since the platform, as I said, is still under major development. Your options are - either keep the paper-wallet intact and just enjoy learning about the project, for example here:

And you can also check at any time how much a single ADA coin costs (approximately) here:

Or your second option is to install the Daedalus program on your computer and restore the paper-wallet in it. This will give you the direct access to the coins in the wallet and you will be able to spend them. This may be done now, or at any point in the future. There’s absolutely no rush to do it, since paper-wallets are created specifically for long coin storage :slight_smile:

Once you would like to get access to your coins, you can check out this tutorial about the Daedalus wallet in general (tho, the tutorial video is about the older version):

Download the Daedalus from here:

And learn how to restore paper-wallets in here:

:bangbang: Important thing to remember :bangbang:

Your paper-wallet is most probably glued-together (if it’s not - then it should be :slight_smile: ) - this is because there’re 27 secret words on the inside of this piece of paper. This may sound silly :slight_smile: but these “secret words” ARE the key to spending your coins.

If you decide to restore your wallet in the Daedalus program - you will have to tear the glued paper-wallet open in order to be able to read the 27 words (18 of them should be printed, and 9 additionally written by hand).

ANYONE with the access to these words will be able to spend your coins from anywhere in the world with only the internet access. So you should consider this paper-wallet to be of the same importance as a wallet that would have the same amount of money lying in it :slight_smile:

Do NOT show this paper-wallet to anyone you don’t trust absolutely and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES NEVER send these words to ANYONE! If someone will ask you to say these words to them - block and report this person as a fraud!


P.S. Btw, your first interesting assignment might be to create a separate NEW paper-wallet and transfer all the coins from this one to the new one :slight_smile: So not even the person who gave you this paper-wallet will have access to the coins. But even if you want to do this - you DEFINITELY should first try out using Daedalus and maybe creating few wallets and few paper-wallets BEFORE even trying to restore your actual valuable paper-wallet. So you would feel yourself confident of what you are doing, before putting actual money at risk.

P.P.S. Unfortunately - there’re no “short and simple” guides, because this whole matter is not short and simple, and technology at the moment is far from being “non-technically simple”, but this is only because the whole cryptocurrency thing is in its infancy yet =)

5 Likes

Can I add coins to paper wallet?

Yes, you can send any amount of new coins to the same address that is printed on it.

BUT! Make sure you are using the right address! One of the most common errors people are making in the cryptocurrencies - is sending coins to a wrong address by mistake. And, unlike a bank transfer these transaction are irreversible!

The best practice is to find your address on the explorer (https://adatracker.com) and then just add the page to the browser bookmarks. You can copy the full address from its page at any time.

The best way would be to send a small test transaction of maybe 1-2 coins. And if everything goes well - send the rest. But be very accurate with the address every time!


P.S. There’s also a small problem in the latest Daedalus that some paper-wallets have last character of the address on the next line, like this:

Do not lose it in there :slight_smile: That’s why searching for your address on the explorer is the best practice, since it would show you that you have entered incomplete address.

5 Likes

Hi. I set up my initial wallet…but there is no test ADA in it.
the trainng video shows a step after wallet creation where you select which certificate to use; i was not offered this query.

Any clues on how to get my test ADA into my wallet?

It is mainnet now. There’s no “test ADA”. Those coins are now real and cost money.

1 Like