Here are the best (and worst) places to store your seed phrase

There is no way to hide seed phrase under a mattress or in a garage. Today, let’s look at where best to keep (and where not) the key to unlock and restore your cryptocurrency. The seed phrase (sometimes called a mnemonic recovery) is a list of 12–24 words that form a mnemonic phrase.

Seed phrases work like a code: each word represents a numeric value that your crypto wallet understands.

It can help you regain access to your wallet and its contents if you lose your phone, your hardware wallet breaks, or your computer crashes. Therefore, gaining access to your passphrase can give someone complete control over your cryptocurrencies.

When your seed phrase is stored in your head with no backup pic.twitter.com/SfmCFsC7Df

— GégéLSMR 3 (@GegeLaSaumure) July 27, 2022

What to avoid (don’t read it if you have too much money)

• Don’t store data in the cloud or on any Internet resources. Because of this, a couple of cybercriminals lost $4 billion in Bitcoins on the Bitfinex exchange. They stored the seed phrase on their iCloud account. It was enough for the FBI to crack their cloud password to gain access to billions of dollars. This can also include ridiculous options.
• You shouldn’t take pictures of your seed phrase. Each photo you take creates an additional external file that can be duplicated, lost, or stolen. The smaller the digital footprint your code leaves, the more secure it is hidden. You can write your mnemonic recovery key on a piece of paper and keep it in a safe, for example (having it laminated in advance just in case).
• Have you ever had Google Assistant turn on by itself or interrupt you during a call? Yes, you are constantly being overheard. For this reason, keep your mouth shut and never say the seed phrase.
• Give up password managers and don’t use email/notes. Storing the pass in the password manager only seems like a good idea. The seed phrase is quite different from a regular password for, say, a social network account. That’s because passwords are just authentication tools for centralized services — that is, if your account is locked or hacked, you can contact support and get control back. And in the case of a crypto wallet, there is no support service. There is no central party controlling transactions. Therefore, if you lose your seed phrase, you risk losing all of your digital savings. And don’t be so dumb as to email it or store it in a Google doc.
• Don’t use an online seed recovery service. It is almost 100% of the time a scam, and your wallet is immediately hacked.
• Fear the wrath of the Earth. Whether you store your seed phrase on a flash drive or a steel plate (physically), it is imperative that you consider protection against possible natural disasters. So make backup storage options (copies hidden elsewhere, protection from water or fire, etc.).
• Never type it on your phone. Text prediction on your smartphone may actually give away the initial phrase to someone who has taken possession of your smartphone.

And what to keep in mind

• Split it up! Some people use a scheme to divide all the words into several parts. For example, the first part contains words 1 to 16, the second part contains words 8 to 24, and the third contains words 1–8 and 16–24. Therefore, if one part is lost, it is still possible to recover the seed phrase.
• Offline crypto metal wallets. For example, the CryptoSteel metal wallet or Crypto Key Stack. There is a great variety of them. Metal wallets can be in the shape of a cylinder, card, disk, and so on. They are engraved and/or encrypted with words that you do not want to forget but also want to hide from prying eyes. The important thing is not to lose it!

• Hardware. You can store your seed phrase on a portable SSD or flash USB drive. But losing them could cost you thousands of dollars (or much more). There are also (more advanced) hardware wallet options from Trezor. Special software will divide the passphrase into different parts (or “fractions”). You can choose the number of parts, and how many of them are needed to restore the wallet yourself. But there’s a downside: this can only be done and restored on Trezor. Don’t forget to keep multiple copies of your recovery seed. You may always need a second copy if the first one gets stolen, you lose it, and it gets lost in a natural disaster. You can put one copy in your home safe and another copy you can keep in your office, bank, or give to a trusted person.
• Sometimes it’s worth thinking about family. You can add access to your recovery seed to your will. Unfortunately, there have been many cases where a person has died due to an unforeseen incident without leaving a hint of the seed phrase anywhere.
• In general, wherever you decide to store your mnemonic recovery, take care of multiple copies and their extra protection in case of theft, loss, or natural disaster.

Instead of writing down (and storing) your seed phrase as a basic word list, why not turn it into a crappy poem. Just another way to protect your recovery words and add another layer of security! pic.twitter.com/n75ASqjiUn

— Grove Commander 🌱 (@CommanderGrove) August 1, 2022