Paper Wallet Balance Checker in App

Ideas & Recommendations
1

There needs to be an intuitive way to check paper wallet balances.

2

I agree @user43 it will be much easier to know what your balances are on certain paper wallets i think they should make a check for that on the wallet also :thinking::+1:

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3

I initially thought that was what the “view key” was for, but it seemed not to be the case. Would be a nice functionality to have…

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4

agree 110 percent!!!

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5

The problem with checking your balance is, as with many other things, security of the funds.

The paper wallet is unhackable when you print it out and erase the PDF files it was printed from. This is because the private view key and private spend key exist only on a piece of paper, and nowhere else. But as soon as you expose those keys to the Internet, they are prone to hacking.

Why Checking your Balance is Unsafe

As soon as you send those keys anywhere (whether it be to Electroneum’s servers through the app, to your Gmail account, or anywhere else), there is a chance that someone might gain access to the keys. Some person could be monitoring your wifi or mobile connection and get a hold of data passing through. This is mostly prevented when the services you use have implemented secure socket connections (https), which are the norm these days, but one never knows for sure. There might be an unknown bug somewhere in the pipeline that allows a hacker to exploit a vulnerability.

That is why the app was programmed without the ability to view the wallet balance. They don’t want to take chances with someone tapping the communication between your device and the server.

The same cautioned is used when importing ETN from a paper wallet. The app imports the FULL contents of the paper wallet by default. This makes sure that, should someone get a hold of those keys, the funds would already have left the wallet, and there won’t be any ETN left in the wallet for the hacker to steal. (To follow the safest route, you are advised to create a brand new paper wallet if you want to move your coins back to paper.)

View Key VS Spend key

Regarding the comments above, the view key only allows you to view the sum of transactions coming INTO a paper wallet. Outgoing transactions are only visible to the person who controls the spend key (a privacy feature introduced by Monero).

This means that if you check the “balance” using the view key, it won’t include any deductions on the wallet made through spending or sending the funds somewhere else. So all the funds might already have been moved from the wallet, but the view key will still only show you the total imported balance.

Use the CLI Wallet

As an alternative. You can use the CLI wallet to check your paper wallet balance, although this exposes your keys to the Internet once again and makes your funds vulnerable for hacking. But this time, security becomes your own responsibility and no longer that of the team.

Installing and running the CLI wallet is quite a process since you need to set up and run an ETN node. But it is not that difficult if you follow the correct steps. Here’s a guide on how to do it:

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6

Great explanation, cheers.

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7

Thanks for the awesome explanation @benjaminoo :sunglasses::+1:

8

I can check my ethereum wallet balance without sending keys. Reason you have a PUBLIC address

9

Ethereum, like Bitcoin, is not as privacy-focused like Electroneum’s ancestor, Monero. You can check the balance of any Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet publicly on sites like Block.info or Ethplorer.

10

Your website rocks, I’ll be recommending it.

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11

so you generate a pdf, print it, then put it in the trash. how hard is it for someone to gain access to documents u delete from the trash?

12

Once it’s deleted, it’s deleted. No one should be able to access it again.

Unless you have really expensive hardware that tries to reconstruct magnetic remnants from a hard drive (which does not always work), you’re going to have a very hard time accessing those wallets.

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13

When you delete a file, put it into trash, and empty the trash, only the directory to that file is deleted. The data itself is still on your hard drive until it is written over by other data.

On a PC the ‘Erazer’ application is what I use to write over deleted files.
What Erazer does is writes random 1’s and 0’s over said data to an extent that you decide on while configuring the app.

As benjaminoo states it isn’t normally something to be concerned about, but if you are a paranoid person this is a good way to ease any worries.

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14

In case anyone is interested, Eraser link below.

https://eraser.heidi.ie

15

Ok. Let’s say im paranoid… But what if that “Erazer” Is a sniffer secretly sending my data to a hacker? XD

16

Then you are screwed :yum:

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17

Then you use Eraser with the internet disconnected and then use an Eraser variant to erase Eraser. :smiley:

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18

Or you throw the hard drive in a blender, and then throw that blender in a furnace.

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19

… And then i’ll use few pounds of C4 or semtex to destroy the furnace!!! Thats it, thank you Nick :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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