Bitcoin Cold Wallet for ∼ $30 in less than 5 minutes

Project duration: 30 minutes
Components cost: $30

Required Components: Raspberry Pi, USB keyboard and mouse, HDMI connection to display, 4GB+ microSD.

Intro

I had spent recently some hours finding a way to install Bitcoin Core to my Raspberry Pi 2 B+ but I was unable to achieve it due to dependency on a lot of packages, that I couldn't figure out. I decided to start from scratch and build from raw source to find out which packages are missing. Somehow I got to the point, where the error of missing package was not really clear and the .log file didn't provided more enough information. And to be honest, I am not Linux OS ninja at all.

For those who are interested in installing Bitcoin Core, here is the list of packages needed to successfully install bitcoind command line. 

• Autoconf - for automatically configuring packages. 
• GNU M4 - version 1.4.6 is recommended
• Automake - for automatically generating Makefile
• Libtool 
• Any C++ compiler - I recommend build essential that would install all necessary dependencies.

Remeber: Do not forget that Raspibian OS is based on Debian Wheezy, so any time you are downloading package, look for wheezy version.

Fortunately, there is more elegant way to turn your Raspberry Pi to bitcoin cold storage, that does not require any command-line skills.

Those, who would like to build Secure Bitcoin Cold Storage and do not have enough Linux skills may follow the guide.

Start

I assume that you already have your Raspberry Pi ready and can have access GUI of Raspbian. For those who need help with first boot, follow the tutorial from raspberrypi.org.

Bitcoin Armory is a Open Source Bitcoin Wallet Management software that we will be using for purpose of building cold wallet.

First step you need to do is go to bitcoinarmory.com/download and get the latest version of [Offline Bundle] for RaspberryPi. 

Once you download this file, transfer it to USB stick and plug it into your raspi. Copy the armory_0.93_rpi_bundle.tar.gz to /home/pi.

Right-click the file and select Extract here, you should notice that new folder OfflineBundle was created.

One command line and execute the following:

cd OfflineBundle  

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

and wait until the installation of required packages finishes.

If you enounter: dpkg: error: requested operation requires superuuser privilege you are missing the sudo command

Note: It might finish with several dependencies that were not installed such as python-twisted, python-twisted-mail, this does not affect the wallet generator.

In File Manager navigate back to OfflineBundle folder and double-click Install_DblClick_RunInTermina.py and select Execute in Terminal. Several pop-ups notifying you about Granted permissions will appear and you may Close them.

New icon will appear on Desktop. Next step is to start the Armory and create new wallet with Passphrase and a key-pairs.

Create paper backup of key pairs and root key: Wallet Properties>Backup this wallet>See other backup options>Export Key Lists

Remember: For safety purposes, you shouldn't connect your Raspberry Pi to Internet connection while wallet data are stored, in order to prevent access breach!

Once you have the paper bacup, you may format the SD card and continue using Raspberry Pi with Ethernet cable.