Christmas always presents us with a gut-wrenching conundrum: what do we get people for Christmas? All too often there’s really nothing that our family or friends really actually need (or at least need AND is inside of our price range for a gift for them). Gift certificates are an easy out, but lack any degree of real thought, consideration or personalisation. But, there is an alternative!
Give a Xaya wallet with CHI on a USB flash memory stick. Or a seed phrase. Or a paper wallet.
Ok, so I can already hear some people out there mumbling this or that, but hear me out.
After creating 44 personalised wallets like this, I can most certainly assure you that for that many people, it’s a LOT of work to do that many (I also did a LOT more than just what you can read in this article). A massive amount of effort and work for that many people. If nothing else, I hope that people appreciate the effort I went to for them this Christmas. We’ll see though.
In 2015 I offered my relatives at Christmas $50 in Bitcoin when it was $417. Nobody accepted it. Not. 1. Person. Had they have accepted it, and sold at the recent ATH, they’d have over $8,000.
How will people react this time around? Like I said, we’ll see…
WHY GIVE CHI OR CRYPTO FOR CHRISTMAS?
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re already sold on the idea of cryptocurrency or blockchain gaming. Not only is it a pretty cool gift that they’re unlikely to get from anyone else, it’s a conversation starter. Also, it requires some personal effort from you as each gift must be unique. You can’t just buy 10 of them off the shelf then wrap them up. There’s a personal touch here, and very often, that’s what matters most — that you put some thought and effort into giving someone a gift.
GIVING CHI FOR CHRISTMAS
Giving CHI to a few select people/gamers is pretty easy though. Here’s how you can do it a few different ways.
- Give a seed phrase that they can import into a supported wallet, i.e. Xaya Electrum
- Give a USB flash memory stick with everything on it. They only need to run the Electrum wallet then
- Give a paper wallet
Each approach has different pros & cons. Aside from the technical side, they’re largely aesthetic choices, i.e. which “presentation” works best for you?
We’ll explain each of the different methods below.
GIVE A SEED PHRASE FOR PEOPLE TO IMPORT
Seed phrases are 12 (or more) words that you can use to restore a wallet. Very easy.
Simply create a standard wallet (with Segwit) with a new 12 word seed as normal in Xaya Electrum and record those seed phrase words (details on how to do this are in ). Here’s an example:
cart hire despair inquiry supreme awkward ship night coffee prefer medal essence
Open up the Address tab (don’t use the “Receive” tab as it uses a request expiry time), copy an address, then send some CHI to it. Done.
Now you can give those 12 words and your friend or family member can simply use them to “restore” the wallet on their computer or mobile phone. How you deliver those 12 words is up to you, but you can get creative and turn it into a fun surprise. Here are a few ideas:
- Engrave the words on a steel plate or steel business card
- Use newspaper/magazine letter clippings for a “ransom note” feel
- Create a crossword puzzle where the words are the answer (example below). You can decorate this in numerous ways. (Lots of free “create your own crossword puzzles” websites out there to choose from.)
- Any darn way you feel like!
BONUS!
Here’s a Christmas bonus for the first person to do it… the wallet in the seed phrase example above has some CHI in it. The first person to claim it, gets it!
SECURITY WARNING!
As you can see in the “BONUS!”, it’s possible to steal the CHI if it’s intercepted. Consider the chain of custody. You can always send the CHI to them after they receive and import their wallet. A best practice would be for them to immediately move the CHI to a new wallet that they securely created. This may or may not be practical for some people depending upon their abilities.
SETTING UP A WALLET ON A USB STICK
Copy the portable version of the Xaya Electrum wallet on a USB stick, create a wallet, then send CHI to it.
To do that, get the Xaya Electrum v3.3.8c portable wallet from here:
https://github.com/xaya/electrum-chi/releases/tag/3.3.8c
This is the direct download link:
Virus scanners can sometimes play havoc, so you may need to set an exception. This is true for many crypto wallets.
Copy the electrum-chi-3.3.8b-1-ge74f03735-portable.exe file to the USB drive. Setting up the wallet is simple.
- Run the portable wallet from the USB stick
- Choose “Auto connect” and click Next
- Leave the “default_wallet” as is and click Next (optionally you can create the wallet with the person’s name, e.g. “my_brother_mike”)
- Choose “Standard wallet” then click Next
- Choose “Create a new seed” then click Next
- Choose “Segwit” then click Next
- Copy the seed phrase exactly, save it securely, then click Next and verify them
- Leave the password empty in order to use it for games then click Next (this poses a security risk, and you may wish to password protect the wallet then have them create another for games)
- Click “Yes” to enable updates
- Click View then “Show Addresses” and “Show Coins” (optionally, copy and save all the addresses for your reference to assist them later)
- Click Tools > Preferences then choose CHI as the base unit and set “Zeros after decimal point” to 8
- Done
That gives you a simple default installation on a USB drive that you can send CHI to (either immediately, or after they receive it). It also sets up some decent default settings, e.g. CHI as the base unit.
Now, depending upon just how tech-savvy the people you’re giving this as a gift to, you may wish to keep a copy of the wallet and seed in a safe place, just in case the recipient needs help later. (See below for more about that.)
DECORATIONS
Ok, giving CHI for Christmas is already pretty cool, but presentation is everything.
There’s no end to how far you can go with this.
TECHY STUFF
To decorate the actual USB drive when they put it in their computer, using your favourite text editor, add an “autorun.inf” file to the root of the USB drive with these contents:
[Autorun]
icon=electrum-chi-3.3.8b-1-ge74f03735-portable.exe,0
label=Merry Christmas
Alternatively, you can use an ICO icon file. You can download that icon file here:
Xaya and Xaya Electrum-CHI icons
Simply change the icon line to 1 of the following:
icon=Xaya.ico
icon=XayaElectrum.ico
When they insert the USB drive, it will then have the Xaya Electrum icon (or Xaya icon if you changed it).
The “label” is the label that will appear.
NORMIE STUFF
Your local dollar store will have gift boxes and different craft supplies that you can use to accentuate your gift.
You could get a wood box, then engrave the name of the person and a Christmas message.
Or, for a bit of a joke, you could simply use a matchbox and put the USB stick in that. Just how surprised would someone be to get a “box of matches” from you for Christmas, only for you to reveal the real contents after seeing the perplexed look on their face? Have your camera ready!
Just how far you go to customise and decorate your gift to them is entirely up to you, and will likely depend upon the kind of relationship you have with them, e.g. a cousin you joke around with, or a more serious uncle.
PAPER WALLETS
Paper wallets are a common way for people to give coins to other people.
To create a paper wallet, download the “xaya” branch of either of these 2 paper wallet generators:
- https://github.com/domob1812/bitaddress.org/tree/xaya
- https://github.com/domob1812/WalletGenerator.net/tree/xaya
The 1st one (bitaddress.org) will only create Xaya CHI wallets, but has no branding and looks like it only generates Bitcoin wallets. Functional, but boring.
The 2nd one (WalletGenerator.net) can create many different wallets, and you must select the XAYA option for a Xaya CHI wallet. However, it has a Xaya branded paper wallet that you can print, so it’s much more aesthetically pleasing.
To use either, simply download the “xaya” branch (as linked above), unzip the file, open the HTML file in the root folder, and follow the instructions. Super easy.
The paper wallet from the 2nd one looks like this:
(Sorry, no bonus CHI for you to claim in that wallet.)
The important parts there are the public and private keys and their QR codes.
KEEPING COPIES OF WALLETS, SEEDS, OR PRIVATE KEYS
“Not your keys, not your coins.”
Yeah, sure. That’s true. But c’mon… if you’re going to give a relative that isn’t very tech-savvy some coins, you may just want to help them by keeping a copy yourself just in case they lose their wallet/seed phrase/private keys.
For your family members or friends that are more crypto savvy, they can easily transfer their coins to a new wallet, and you should make them aware of this.
Ultimately, these are decisions that you and the people that you give gifts to must decide on for yourselves. You holding private keys for someone is a security risk for them, but at the same time, it’s also an insurance policy for them. Whichever direction you go is up to you.
HAVE FUN & A MERRY CHRISTMAS!
There’s a lot that you can do creatively to make your CHI gifts fun for people.
But make sure to include some links for people so they can get more information, and play some games, like Soccer Manager Elite. (Lots of links below in the footer.)
Whatever you choose to give as gifts this Christmas, may you and your family have a very merry Christmas from all of us here at Xaya.
Cheers,
Ryan from Xaya
Want to know more about the benefits of blockchain for gaming?
Visit https://xaya.io
Join the conversation:
https://taurion.io/
https://twitter.com/XAYA_tech
https://www.facebook.com/XAYAtech/
https://discord.gg/r4BdtNQCNV
Find out more about the Xaya platform and its components:
Xaya GitHub
Tutorials & Documentation
XID
Game Channels
Game Channels demo (2)
Ephemeral Timestamps
