A paper wallet for a newborn
A paper wallet is the oldest way to give someone bitcoin: the key that spends it, printed on a sheet you can put in a card. For a baby it still makes sense — with one change from how it was done ten years ago.
Words, not a private key
Early paper wallets printed one private key, often as a QR code. To spend it, you had to “sweep” it into a wallet app, which fewer apps offer today. The modern equivalent is a seed phrase: 24 ordinary words from the BIP39 list that any standard wallet can restore — Sparrow or BlueWallet for Bitcoin, MetaMask for Ethereum, Phantom for Solana. The same words hold all three.
The gift card on address.baby is that kind of paper wallet. It holds:
- the baby's name, and the birthday or due date if you gave one;
- the 24 words, numbered, in order;
- the Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana receiving addresses, each with a QR code;
- the derivation path under each address, so a wallet in 2044 can find the same accounts;
- a short note on keeping it, and on who holds it until the 18th birthday.
Printing it without leaving copies
A printed card is only as private as the route it took to the paper.
- Use a printer you own, on a USB cable or on your home network. Office, library and shop printers, and “cloud” printing services, can keep the job.
- Print, do not “Save as PDF”. A PDF is a digital copy of the words, and it will sync, back up and linger.
- Turn on airplane mode while the card is on screen, and turn it off only after you have left that step.
- Or skip the printer. Writing the 24 words by hand on the card's layout is just as good, and leaves no trace at all.
Before you send any gift, the site asks you to type three words back from the paper. That catches the most common failure of paper wallets: a word misread or skipped while copying.
Paper is a start, not 18 years
Ink fades, paper burns, and families move house. Treat the card as the first copy: make a second one, ideally stamped or engraved in steel, and keep the two in different places. The guide to keeping a seed phrase for 18 years goes through the options.
What relatives get
Never the card. They get a gift link with the name and the three addresses, which can receive but not spend. If someone prefers paper, the address QR codes alone are safe to print and share; the words are not.