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Let's say I have 10 bitcoins. I won't be using 8 of them any time soon. How can I put the 8 in a separate "offline" wallet not related to the bitcoin client?
This would be a good security measure. If the bitcoin client is ever compromised, only the remaining 2 bitcoins would be at risk.
It seems rather reckless to have all of one's savings in the same wallet.
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Now you have two wallet files - one with 2 bitcoins for your normal use, one with 8 bitcoins for keeping them safe. Just make sure not to lose either of the two wallets, or you'll lose your coins.
Keep your wallet.dats backed up and don't run duplicates at the same time.
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I recently created a blog post about this: https://bitinnovate.com/creating-an-offline-bitcoin-wallet/
To get the offline wallet back online. Move out the existing wallet.dat file and replace it with you offline file. Open the Bitcoin client and you will now have access to the bitcoins associated with that wallet.
When linking to a post on another site it is generally a good idea to include some relevant part of that post in the answer, so that the answer is still useful even if the link does not work anymore. – D.H. - bitcoin.se – 2012-11-15T21:06:58.083
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To save the copy/rename of your wallet.dat you could also use one of the alt-clients that have built in multiple wallet support. Both Armory and MultiBit show multiple wallets directly in the user interface.
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It seems there's a more secure and easier method. I'm a noob so please correct any mistakes, but I would suggest he create a paper wallet on bitaddress.org, print it off or memorize it or keep it on a USB flashdrive. Then he can go to his Bitcoin client, send 8 bitcoins to the public address of that newly-created private key and that will be most secure. Even if his client is hacked or PC crashes, those 8 bitcoins are damn secure.
Founder of bitaddress.org steal your money like candy from a baby. – None – 2013-08-05T19:51:05.890
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Step 1:
Step 2:
From Bitcoin.org client, send money, enter Bitcoin address, Qty 8 BTC. Press send.
Done.
Is there a small transaction cost to doing this? – doc – 2017-09-17T10:10:09.120
What happens if I run duplicates of the same wallet? For instance, if my mother accidentally spends 4 of those 8 backed up coins. Can I later take the original wallet file (of "8" coins), and spend the remaining 4? – BitcoinButter – 2012-10-24T14:48:54.740
1@BitcoinButter Yes, you can, as long as your mother didn't spend those coins so many times the wallet had to use new addresses that were never part of the original wallet. Then only her wallet would be able to spend those coins. Copy of wallets drift apart after each use. This is why you shouldn't use the same wallet on more than 1 machine most of the time. – ThePiachu – 2012-10-24T19:01:44.097
Does that hold for both sending and receiving address? – BitcoinButter – 2012-10-24T19:48:20.950
1@BitcoinButter The most important information in the wallet are your keypairs. The public key is used for receiving bitcoins, the private one - for sending them. The wallet also stores information about all the transactions that took place on those keypairs, but that information can be retrieved from the block chain if needed. – ThePiachu – 2012-10-25T05:04:30.433