credit goes to /u/IRefuseToGiveAName
Read the entire guide here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19Orqm9s...krKHhFCFuI/edit

What is Ethereum?

At a very high level, Ethereum is a network of computers that supports the execution of programs and transmission of data. The key difference between this system and how the internet works today is that while apps and web pages are hosted on a single server (or small cluster of servers), everything on the Ethereum network is distributed. Any machine in the network can process calculations to determine the result of a transaction or piece of code in an app, and all the machines involved eventually reach a consensus on what the correct result should be. In practice, this means that apps cannot “go down” because of some single point of failure. As long as there are enough machines contributing to the network, everything built on Ethereum will persist and the network will ensure the validity of the blockchain.

Where does cryptocurrency come into the picture? Ether (ETH) fuels the execution of these distributed apps (DApps). In order for a DApp to execute a task, or for you to send some message across the blockchain, there needs to be a small amount of Ether spent, which is proportional to how large or computationally complex the task is. It can also be involved in the way an application works, such as a site that charges for a service, or a site where users transfer funds between each other for selling items, gambling, etc. These apps can even create their own currency for use within their ecosystem. A huge advantage of currency exchange via Ether on the Ethereum network is that these transactions are extremely fast, taking no longer than 15 seconds (new block creation time) plus the time to reach consensus. At the time of writing this, the median wait time is 35 seconds. This time will decrease further in the next iterations of Ethereum.

Aside from being able to fuel applications, Ether also functions as any other cryptocurrency does. It is used as an anonymous* ways to make purchases from an Ethereum wallet. If you’re familiar with how Bitcoin works, Ether can be used the same way. Spend it directly at any online storefront that accepts it or sell it on an exchange for cash, another currency, or anything else available.

Smart Contracts: What are they?

Smart contracts are scripts, which are typically written in Solidity.  These scripts are built to autonomously carry out work on the Ethereum blockchain.  They are fully self executing, self enforcing and self governed.  You can think of them as autonomous, transparent, open source businesses which are available on the blockchain, and as such, are fully distributed.  These distributed contracts take away the need for middlemen in most use cases.  Along with their ridiculous fees, restrictive business hours, and long processing times.

ERC20 Token Standard

The ERC20 token standard is the Ethereum network’s formal definition of a token.  This definition allows the developers of said tokens to write smart contracts which directly interface with the Ethereum network, and allow for these tokens to be recognized as valid currencies on the Ethereum network.  As such, they are visible by Ethereum wallets, and easily transferred via the same channels as Ethereum.

credit goes to /u/chickenbreth
Read the entire 50 page guide here
https://www.ethadvisor.com/beginners-guide-...ereum-investing

Securely Storing & Accessing ETH

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not covering hardware wallets, however I will say it’s pretty damn easy to move your newly bought funds to a hardware wallet.
The best way to succeed with securing your funds into a Hardware Wallet is to simply follow the instructions from the manufacturer and reach out on reddit if you run into any issues.  But follow the same overall guidelines and even if you are wanting to skip Paper Wallets for now, I recommend still reading through the following steps on creating a highly secure paper wallet...just so you can get the same principles to follow in dealing with your hardware wallet.

One of the most important things I stress with any new wallet is to always test everything with a very small amount, both ways (sending to and withdrawing from the wallet) and making sure the transactions all go through successfully before sending large amounts.

I’ve mentioned MyEtherWallet earlier and that is the method I’ll be walking you through to create your first Cold Storage Super Secure Wallet for your ETH stash.
In some of the steps below, there is an alternative and easier approach, which is potentially less secure (depends on how vulnerable your computer and tech is or was).  These alternate steps will be italicized and again, although easier do put your cryptocurrency at greater risk.

Now if you read the sections before, you’ll recall that a wallet consists not only of the public wallet address, where coins are sent...but also a private key that unlocks that address...allowing you to access the coins it holds.
To generate a new wallet with the highest security requires a computer that has never seen the internet or any network before.  Sure, you could generate a wallet on a computer that’s been online, etc...and maybe it’s secure and maybe you’ll be fine.  But in the off chance that your computer is infected with some sort of virus or spyware, or in some way can make you vulnerable...why take the chance of putting thousands if not millions of dollars at risk?  There’s no coming back from a cryptocurrency hack.

This is why we keep quiet about our stashes, why we use separate accounts for things, and why I encourage you...even if you use a hardware wallet...to create a paper/offline wallet following this part of the guide.
It’s a little bit involved and may sound complicated, but it’s really not that hard and I hope I can simplify it and help you feel comfortable enough to do it.  Part of this process involves creating a DVD that you can boot a computer from to do this work.  I’m working on developing a bootable disk that will be prepackaged with everything you’d need to do this portion, that I could send to anyone who feels overwhelmed doing it themselves, but that will be in a few weeks at least until I’m able to get it created and ready to copy and mail to people. Let me know if it sounds like something you’d want and if enough people want it I’ll try to really prioritize that.
Okay, now let’s get started!  I hope I didn’t scare you away to thinking it’s too hard, it really isn’t just takes some patience to get things setup the first time, then it’s pretty easy after that.

Part 1 - Get an Offline Computer Setup

You don’t necessarily need a computer that has never been online to do this...as I just mentioned, I’ll show you how to create a bootable CD from which you can boot any computer, keeping it offline and running what’s called a “Live CD” version of Ubuntu (a linux-based operating system normally used to try out the Ubuntu OS before installing).  What’s great about a Live Ubuntu CD is it will run a fully operational OS on pretty much any PC (sorry you will need access to a PC, not Mac) and from there you can open a saved copy of the myetherwallet website, to generate a new Ethereum wallet without ever going online.  We’ll cover accessing this “offline” wallet later and how to transfer funds out of it...without it touching the web.

Step 1

Get your hardware ready, here’s what you need to have at your disposal:

- A PC
- A writable DVD disc
- A new, never used, USB Flashdrive (Any size is fine)
- A USB Printer (you can also just write the public and private keys down, but it’s easier to print them and looks nicer for your records)
- Packing tape or a laminator

Step 2
Visit Ubuntu.com and download and follow the instructions for creating/burning a bootable Ubuntu Live DVD.  You can do this from a normal computer with a DVD burner, but preferably one that is definitely not infected!  Maybe use a Mac and if you don’t have a mac, find a friend who will let you do this from theirs.  Macs are just much less likely to be crawling with computer viruses!
Ubuntu has a very easy to follow process for downloading an ISO (image file) that can then be used to burn a bootable DVD.  This DVD will be used to boot your PC later.

Step 3
Visit myetherwallet’s git (this is where the latest build of their website software is securely updated to: https://github.com/kvhnuke/etherwallet/releases/latest
At this page, under the "Downloads" section, click and download the file that name begins with "dist-" and ends in ".zip".

Step 4
Unzip the downloaded file to the new empty USB flash drive.  It should just be a folder with an index.html file and other subfolders and files inside.  The ZIP is about 20MB in size and inside is a folder called etherwallet-mercury or some other build name after the hyphen. 

Step 5
Take your newly burned DVD and the USB thumbdrive containing the etherwallet folder, and keep them in a safe place.  The USB drive will NEVER be connected to an online computer ever again!  It should be solely dedicated to this use and only plugged into a computer booting off the new DVD you created.
We’ll use these in just a moment to create your new secure wallet.

Part 2 - Creating your cold storage, offline, Ether wallet

Next you’ll generate your first official secure and offline ethereum wallet.  To do this you’ll need the PC, new DVD and USB thumbdrive, and your printer or pen and paper. 

Step 1
Disconnect any Ethernet cable plugged into the PC you will be booting to.

Step 2
Power off the PC, power it back on and insert the boot disk, then immediately reboot.  DO NOT plug in the USB drive yet.

Step 3
Boot the PC using the bootable Ubuntu Live disk.  Choose “Try Ubuntu” when it boots up...and you’ll be taken to a desktop with a menu bar.  DO NOT connect an Ethernet cable or wifi, EVER during these Live boot sessions.

Step 4
After you’ve booted into the Live Ubuntu disk, and are sure it’s offline, plug in the USB flashdrive containing the web software from myetherwallet.

Step 5
It may not allow you access to the flashdrive, you may get an access denied message.  That’s fine, simply press the key combination: CTRL ALT T, and a “Terminal” or “console” window will appear with a flashing command line prompt.

Step 6
Type the following and press Enter: sudo nautilus

Step 7
A new window should appear and on the left you’ll see drives listed...including a flash/USB drive, the one you plugged in….It’s important to point out, you should NOT have any other USB drives connected to the PC while doing this.

Step 8
Double click the drive and it will open this time, revealing the contents which should be the folder containing the website info from myetherwallet...of which there will be an “index.html” file.

Step 9
Double click the “index.html” file and it will launch in the browser of the live session and look, just like a regular webpage, as if you were online.  It should, however, display an error that says something to the effect that you are not online...that it cannot communicate with a server, etc.  This is fine, and expected.

Step 10
The page that displays by default is the Generate a new wallet page.  So simply type in a long and unique sentence that you come up with.  My recommendation is that you choose 9 words, rather than 9 characters and include spaces between each word.  This is what we’ll call your Seed Phrase.  If you are in a private and secure location, you can click the little “eyeball” to reveal the phrase you typed so you can copy it.  Don’t click Generate yet!!!

Step 11
Create a new folder on your USB drive and call it “Wallet”.

Step 12
Back on the myetherwallet page, copy/paste your new Seed Phrase into a text file within that new “Wallet” folder on your USB drive...you can create a new text file by right clicking within the folder and clicking “New document > Empty document” then double click it and paste the phrase….rename the new document to “Seed Phrase”.

Step 13
Now click “Generate Wallet” back on the myetherwallet page and you’ll go through a few steps.  Download the JSON file to the Wallet folder on your USB drive and then click the warning “I Understand. Continue.”

Step 14
Next it will display your Private Key and give you a Print button, so you can print your Paper Wallet. 

Do two things:
1 - Copy your private key and paste into a new text file in your Wallet folder, name that file Private Key.   Make sure it’s identical to the one you see on the web page!!
2 - Next, connect your USB printer to the computer and wait for it to be detected.  If it’s not or you have issues with it, you can print to PDF and work on this later. 
Regardless, proceed by clicking Print.  It will initiate a new tab in the browser and allow you to either print to your USB printer or to a PDF file and save that on your USB flashdrive in the Wallet folder.  The printable Paper Wallet will have both the Address (public key) and Private Key, including QR codes for both.

Step 15
Back on the webpage, below the print section, click “Next: Save Your Address”

Step 16
You’ll be prompted to enter your Private Key or upload your json file to unlock your wallet.  Because you’re offline, go ahead and copy/paste your private key from the text file you created in Step 14 and click “Unlock”.  This will reveal your Wallet Address (Public Key) which was also visible on the Paper Wallet you printed.

Step 17
Store your paper wallet and the USB flashdrive in secure locations!!!  That is your cold storage account!!  But before you send large amounts of money to it, we need to test and make sure everything works and you have everything recorded correctly.

Part 3 - Test Send (Deposit)

To test your new wallet and make sure everything went as expected in the setup phase, you’ll need to actually send Ether to the wallet, check it’s balance and see the Ether arrive, and the send Ether from the new wallet out to your Coinbase account...and again check that the transaction goes through and that you have access to your new wallet.
To perform this test, you’ll want to remain offline and you’ll be incorporating your smart phone for part of the test. 
But let me stress this: at no time will you need to connect the offline computer to the internet, ever, to send funds from it...it probably sounds weird and how is it possible to send money from an offline wallet.  But the reason it works is the offline computer will generate a transaction ID that contains all the data the Internet needs to process a transaction...you’ll use your smartphone to send the transaction ID to the web, without having to enter your private key on your phone or on any online device.  You enter the private key on the offline computer, unlock your wallet while offline, generate a transaction with the parameters you want (like the amount to send out) and it will generate a TX ID that your phone can then scan from a QR code and send to the blockchain, initiating a withdraw from your wallet!  Pretty cool stuff.
So here are the steps involved:

Step 1
First let’s send a small amount of ETH to the newly created offline wallet, go to your Coinbase account from your mobile device, preferably using the Coinbase app, and locate your ETH Wallet using the menu in the upper left of the screen.
From your ETH wallet, either touch the little “paper airplane” looking icon in the top right of the screen, to initiate a Send.

Step 2
For this test, just send $2 worth of ETH.  Enter the amount as USD and touch SEND.  To make sure you are entering USD and not ETH amount, make sure the number on top is $0 when you arrive at the send screen...if it shows 0.00 ETH on top and $0 on the bottom, just touch the two arrows on the left and it will swap and put the $0 on top, where you can now enter $2.
I point this out because 2ETH could be an expensive mistake if there were a problem during our test!  Remember, anytime you send cryptocoin, use caution and make sure you entered things the way you expected to.

Step 3
The next screen is where you enter your newly created offline wallet address, so you can send this $2 test to that wallet. 
Rather than type in the wallet address, you can simply open the PDF you saved earlier or use the paper wallet you printed, and scan the “YOUR ADDRESS” QR code by touching the little QR looking icon in the To field on your smartphone.
It will scan pretty quick and you’ll see the To field populate with the wallet address.  Make sure it matches up to the printed “Your Address:” on the paper wallet.  If part of it is cut off in the To field, just touch the To field and it will activate the text field so you can see the entire wallet address.
After you confirm they match, on your mobile device select and copy the address in that To field and then paste it in your Notes or note taking app so if the test is successful, you have an easy to access way of copying and pasting that address in the future.

Step 4
When ready, simply touch “Send” in the upper right of the mobile device and it will prompt you for your PIN or fingerprint, etc. and send the ETH to your paper wallet.

Step 5
Sending/Receiving Ether can take a few minutes or seconds, depending on many factors, so the next step you’ll do is to check the progress of the funds reaching your new wallet on the blockchain...but you may need to keep checking for a few minutes before they arrive.
To do this, from an online computer or the same online mobile device you’re using, open a browser and go to https://etherscan.io.  Paste your new wallet Public Address (the same you just sent to) into the top search box and hit Enter or return.

A new page will display, showing the balance of that address, any transactions, etc.  Near the bottom of the window you should see the new transaction you just placed processing or “pending”.
After you see the transaction go through and no longer “pending”, you should see the balance on the etherscan page for your wallet reflect roughly what you sent to it.  A very small amount of ETH is used in transactions as “gas” which is sort of like a tiny fee for doing a transfer...so that’s why it’s “roughly” what you sent.  The amount of gas is very very small, we’re talking pennies basically.
Not only can you look up your public wallet address on etherscan and see it’s current state, history of transactions, etc...you can also look up a specific transaction by transaction ID.  We’ll talk a little about this when I cover sending from your offline/cold storage wallet.
But suffice it to say, etherscan is an extremely useful site to keep tabs on things, balances, transactions and much more.  You can also see the balance of anyone’s wallet using the same method and their transaction history.  Remember, the blockchain is a public ledger.

Part 4 - Test send FROM your new offline wallet

Now that you have confirmed a successful send to your wallet, don’t send more just yet!  First make sure you can withdraw from that wallet...while it remains offline of course.
Again, we’ll be using a smart phone in tandem with this process to make it easier.  This is also the same process by which you would do any future sends out of this Cold Storage wallet safely and securely without exposing the wallet’s private key to any network or prying eyes.

Step 1
On the Offline computer where you created your wallet, return to the browser that has the offline version of myetherwallet opened from earlier. 
In the future when you go to send out of this cold storage wallet, you’d boot from the disk like we did before, plug in the USB and open the index.html file to do this step.
On that myetherwallet offline site, choose the menu item on the top that says “Send Offline”.  Don’t fill in any fields yet.

Step 2
On your smartphone go to https://www.myetherwallet.com/#offline-transaction and you’ll see the same page.

Step 3
From your smartphone on that page, in the top field under Step 1: Generate Information, enter your cold storage offline wallet address...this is the address you just created on the offline computer and did your test send to.  You should have copied and pasted that wallet address into your note app on your smart phone and you know it’s correct if the send test succeeded, so go ahead and copy and paste it into this Generate Information field in the browser of your smartphone.
Then touch the “Generate Information” button.

Step 4
When you touch the Generate Information button, two new boxes appear below that button on the smartphone’s webpage.  They are Gas Price and Nonce.  You’ll need these exact values for the next step, so copy or write them down.

Step 5
Next you’ll need to know your balance in your offline cold storage wallet, so also paste that address into a new browser tab over at https://etherscan.io and then look for the ETH balance for the wallet.  We’ll be sending half of this balance out back to Coinbase for this test, so write down approx half of the ETH balance number (not the USD equivalent)

Step 6
Now go to your Coinbase app to get your Coinbase ETH Wallet address.  This is where you’ll be sending the test to from your offline wallet. 
To get this, open the app and navigate to your ETH Wallet.  (make sure you are in the ETH Wallet, not the BTC) Then, in the upper right, next to the little “paper airplane” send icon, there’s a little QR looking icon.  Tap it and you’ll see a QR scan screen open, at the top you’ll see an option called “My address”, tap it and you’ll see a large QR image and a link that reads “COPY ADDRESS” beneath it.
Touch “COPY ADDRESS” and it will say “COPIED” when it has successfully copied it.
Now paste this in your note app on your smartphone and make sure it’s not the same as your cold storage address...make sure it copied the new one.  You can also write this down if it’s easier in the following steps to enter it on the offline computer, as you’ll have to enter it by hand on that computer.

Step 7
On the offline computer, you’ll go to the “Step 2: Generate Transaction” section of the offline myetherwallet page.
Using the data you collected in the previous steps, fill out each field of “Step 2: Generate Transaction” except for “Gas Limit” and “Data”, these can be left alone for this test.

Step 8
You’ll then need to unlock using your private key...so open the text file you created earlier on the USB drive and copy and paste your private key in the field that appears when you select Private Key on the offline page....or upload the json file you downloaded earlier when setting up this offline wallet...and click Unlock.

Step 9
After unlocking, click the button “Generate Transaction” just below this unlock section of the page. 
A QR image will appear on the right which contains the Transaction ID (TXID).

Step 10
Using your smartphone, open a QR reader app (or download a free one and use it) and point your phone’s camera at the offline computer screen to read the QR TXID.
The QR Reader App should provide the very long string of characters which constitutes the TXID.  Copy it and return to your phone’s browser where you have the myetherwallet website open.
On that same page, at the bottom, is a blank area to paste the TXID under “Step 3: Send / Publish Transaction”.  Paste it there and touch “Send Transaction”.

Step 11
If all went well so far, the phone’s browser will produce a message that has a tracking link to track the transaction.  You can touch that link to open the etherscan.io page where the transaction will show as processing or some similar message.

When it’s completed, it will show you the completed status and you’ll be able to check your Coinbase account and see an incoming deposit of the ETH to your Coinbase ETH wallet!
Practice this a few times with small amounts, until you feel comfortable doing it with larger.  And after I do a test send of a tiny amount, and it goes well, I do another of a slightly larger amount and make sure that goes well and THEN do the target amount.
Get in the habit of always doing a couple tests before the real deal, to make sure you are not making some simple mistake that can cost you big.
Also a note to reiterate on etherscan...some transactions take time, more than a few seconds and maybe more minutes than you feel comfortable with...so don’t panic until you are sure it’s not showing up.  Usually it’s just delayed a bit if you don’t see it right away, especially when it comes to sending to an exchange. 

FINAL STEP: Returning Online (IMPORTANT)

It’s important to do the following steps before you return online.

Step 1
Eject the USB thumbdrive, and store securely.

Step 2
Using a laminator or clear packing tape, laminate your printed wallet(s) and store securely.

Step 3
Eject the DVD and shut the computer down.