You know how you are always told to “write your seed phrase down on a piece of paper and keep it somewhere safe”, or “get a hardware wallet”? But HOW do you actually keep your seed phrase safe?
And even if you do get a hardware wallet, what really matters is your seed phrase anyway which is supposed to be written down on a piece of paper.
Few people ever really talk about the options for seed storage or the obvious problems of paper as the storage material for your crypto fortunes. People have been extremely creative with seed phrase storage solutions but there are criteria and tradeoffs to think about when making a decision in regards to data loss, and data theft.
So in this article, let us look at different ways that you can safely store your seed phrase.
What Is A Seed Phrase?
A seed phrase is a list of words generated by a crypto wallet that enables the wallet user to access the crypto funds associated with that wallet — like the name implies, the secret recovery phrase is a bunch of words (usually 12 words), that give you access to your crypto holdings.
Every address on the blockchain has a unique number — a public key and it can only be unlocked if you know another unique number — a private key.
For example if I had blockchain address “1” and you guessed that the private key that unlocks it is “7”, then you now control all of my crypto. But of course guessing anyone’s unique private key is considered impossible, because we are not just picking from single-digit numbers.
The total space that we are picking from is 2260 which is so large that it is actually quite hard to comprehend — the best comparison would be: if you wanted to count every grain of sand on earth, you would only need 260.
To make things easier for us mere mortals, we invented the secret recovery phrase which takes our big random number and translates it to a bunch of random words — but they are not that random; in total, there are only 2048 possible words in the phrase vocabulary, but you can order them in many different ways — the possible combinations are 2132 which is a lot smaller than the true total address space, but that is good enough for most people.
For even higher security, some wallets even allow you to generate phrases that are 18 or even 24 words long — with that many words, the total possible combinations are 2198 and 2264 respectively.
How Do Seed Phrases Work?
When setting up a crypto wallet, a seed phrase will be automatically generated and the user will be required to keep and store it safely.
The seed phrase is a representation of a long string of random numbers, but what the user gets is a series of simple words and that is because it is easier to remember.
We could say that a crypto wallet is a password manager and a seed phrase is a master password. Since private keys are algorithmically derived from the long string of numbers represented by a seed phrase, this phrase will help you access all the private keys and crypto funds in your wallet.
Where To Properly Store Your Seed Phrase?
1. Solid Steel
This type of storage is probably one you have heard of and understandably so as many people have noticed the glaring shortcomings of paper as a storage medium.
As a result there is no shortage of solid steel seed storage options out there ranging from tens to hundreds of dollars.
Solid steels are fireproof, acid proof, bulletproof, shockproof — you name it. If this is a tad pricey, you can take the same idea for solid steel storage and do a DIY approach.
2. Stone Paper
Stone papers are a budget-friendly and low complexity option and this is a pretty niche product on the market, and it comes with the benefit of being more physically resilient, being greaseproof, waterproof, tear and fire-resistant to some extent.
3.Tamper-Proof Bags
Keeping your seed phrase on exposed pieces of paper or somewhere where others can access means you are vulnerable to having your keys compromised and copied without your knowledge.
Tamper-evident bags make it impossible for your seed phrase to be seen by prying eyes, at least not without making it obvious to you that someone has been snooping. These are the types of security bags used for banking, hospitals and the education sector to make sure that no one has seen or modified the contents of the bag.
A simpler and budget-friendly alternative is simply to use shipping flyers or even sealed envelopes which are among the most common tamper-evident storage solutions you can find.
Read: Unconventional Methods To Safeguard Your Crypto Investments Amid Rising Hacking Threats
4. Safe
Another obvious solution would be placing your seed phrase not somewhere exposed but in a safe or vault which should ideally be permanently installed and hidden.
This is probably more secure than those who opt to hide them in easily accessible but inconspicuous places like in books or kitchen containers.
Read: Crypto Insurance: Safeguarding Your Digital Wealth In The Wild West Of Cryptocurrency
5. Using A Passphrase
This is not exactly a storage method but is an additional security measure that can be used alongside physical storage to keep your funds safe in the event your seed phrase falls into the hands of others.
Some wallets like Trezor or Ledger allow the option of adding an additional ‘passphrase’ which acts like a 13th or 25th word extension to your seed phrase. This is different from the password you would type to unlock your Web3 wallet — with this feature, you could create multiple or even ‘decoy’ wallets with just one seed phrase but different passphrases.
However, we would only recommend this for advanced users as losing your passphrase will result in losing your funds even if you have your seed phrase.
Read: Ledger Recover Rollout Postponed Due To Community Backlash
6. Brain Wallet
The last option is to simply memorize your seed phrase. This could be one of the riskiest options as our brain and memory is not invulnerable to time, injury or disease.
Final Thoughts
I know it is a little simple but I wanted to reiterate the fact that you need to securely store your recovery phrase and if you are new to crypto, it can be something that if you are not familiar with it, can be a very simple easy mistake to make as you are getting into the space.
Whenever you are setting up a new wallet like a new hardware wallet, software wallet or whatever it may be, make sure to never upload your seed phrase anywhere online — anywhere in an email text message, photo or Notes app.
Remember to always keep it in a safe and secure location and also to make multiple copies of it so if you lose one, you have others.