Bitcoin Forum

What are some best practices for storing private keys or seeds? Are there any good resources with best practices? What are your best practices?

Some questions that come to mind:

• How many copies to you keep?
• Do you keep it on multiple mediums (paper, usb, cryptosteel, cdrom, etc)?
• Do you keep the full seed/key on each medium or split it (e.g. 1/2 on one paper, 1/2 on other paper)?
• If the seed/key is encrypted (e.g. veracrypt or keepass), is it safe to store on cloud storage?
• Where are the best places to keep copies (cloud, buried in yard, home safe, bank safe deposit box, parent's house)?

Keep as many as you want. I don't keep all my funds on one wallet either. I have several which I've split the funds up. So if you lose one, then it's not such a big hit. (Don't lose them)

You can keep them split if you want. If someone is wondering around your belongings and only finds one piece of paper then maybe it could be a good idea. My codes aren't exactly in plain text though but one. I have a back up which if I were to have an accident someone  in the family will be able to access it.

I wouldn't recommend storing it on cloud. Even if they are encrypted.

I like your imagination! Anywhere which is safe from theft and accidental damage. For example, fire/water proof locations.

Are you trying to ask where we keep our private keys and seeds?
My backup for my 1000000BTC:s is on my backyard dug behind the large tree, and my address is xxxxxxx. Why do you want to know?  ;D ;D

On a more serious note,
Remember to protect them from fire too. At least one copy should be in a different location.

 

I also recommend at least 2 backups, of which at least one is at a different, secure location. In my opinion paper (or laminated paper) is fully sufficient, but that really depends on where you plan on storing your backups. Burying a plain piece of paper may be a bad idea ;)

But most importantly, keep those copies offline! Don't store wallet backups in the cloud. And also...


...don't store them on computers, unless they are offline.

It depends on the quantity of bitcoin and how I plan to use them, but typically I keep at least three copies.


Not always, but generally for anything more than $100 worth I use at least 2 mediums.


I have occasionally used secret sharing and/or MultiSig to split keys or seeds for larger amounts of bitcoins. More commonly, I just encrypt the data.


If your password is stong enough, and you encrypt it properly, it theoretically *should* be safe to store on cloud storage. Personally, I've never been willing to try.


Everyone's situation is different.  What is best for one person is not always best for another.

If it is intended to be long term storage, then I'd suggest making sure that copies are physically separated so that a disaster that destroys one key (flood, fire, earthquake, mudslide, tornado, hurricane, burglary, volcano, aircraft collision, bomb, police "civil asset forfeiture" search, etc) does not damage the other copy.

Is there anyway to get the private key for NEM wallet? Had the wallet on ios10, restored new phone and wallet did not transfer over after completion of download. I have made transactions with bittrex before, not sure if maybe they have a ledger or not or if I am just screwed....

Well for me personally, I prefer an offline PC to generate new Seeds. For keeping the seed save, I prefer atleast 3 copies, 1 on an offline PC, 1 on a usb Drive and 1 on a plastic covered paper. I have never thought of splitting up the seed but it sounds like a good idea. As for keeping encrypted seeds on cloud storage, I am always against that. You never know when your data might get leaked and with the dictionaries out there these days, its not the risk i am willing to take. Last question is a bit tricky, The ideal situation will be to have multiple storage points but they do carry a risk. A home safe sounds like a good idea as for banks, its a big no! Parents house yes! I believe there is no perfect way to protect your btcs, you can just take necessary steps to prevent your losses.

As of now i only have plenty of bitcoins so i am only storing my funds in blockchain wallet . I seperate my private keys into 2 parts . Im using 2usb and one back up in a paper wallet as well. In the future if i will have big amount of btc im planning to use ledger nano s as my storage of bitcoins.

Just a quick word of warning that usb disks are not really suitable as they can and often do just stop working. I'd recommend that you spend a little extra on a portable HDD to replace that and also make sure it's not stored in the same place as the paper wallet as a fire or whatever could result in you losing both.

1) 2 - PC and cloud
2) Yes cloud
3) No
4) Yes
5) Cloud

I keep all my private keys and wallets in the cloud
They are all stored in an encrypted RAR archive with a very strong password consisting of A-Za-z0-9+special characters

I use different methods. For small amounts, I use an online wallet. If needed, I can make a seed for backup. I also use paper mind and mobile wallets. I use different offline password managers to store the keys of mind wallets.

No cloud，I store my key in rar format with strong password and store it at USB drives and my laptop, so i think this is much safer

I personally keep two copies of my private keys.

Yes, for larger amounts, I have a few paper wallets which are laminated an a copy on usb drive made on a pc that was never connected to the internet.

Full seed on each medium, I think this is enough for ;y personal needs, we're not talking about that many coins.

I definitely would never store anything important on cloud storage.

You need to figure this one out for yourself, but I like to keep it in a place I have easy access to.

Properly is the keyword.
Truecrypt already had massive security issues regarding encryption. As far as i know devs made mistakes when using/overwriting RAM.
Veracrypt may not have this issue.. but i wouldn't call it 100% safe.
I did not know you can encrypt files with kpass yet. Thought it was a password manager only.

I've been meaning to ask this around, so perhaps I can interject this into the discussion -- is there any emerging 'best-practices' on whether to use Hardware Secure Modules (HSMs) for this type of backup?

e.g. from safenet -- https://safenet.gemalto.com/data-encryption/hardware-security-modules-hsms/

In my view, this should be a very appropriate backup option, but I'm happy to get inputs on whether others have used this route. 

Create a paper wallet on a Linux Live Cd and from there you'll be very secure. The next thing you should do is create 2 or 3 backups and store them in a safe, safety deposit box or somewhere far away. Always encrypt with something you can remember. If you forget , your funds are gone. It's a good idea to keep a backup of this as well.

for example, are there Bitcoin Forum members that use this type of flash drive for private key storage?
 
 https://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Validated-256-bit-Encrypted-ASK-256-4GB/dp/B00741U31E/ref=pd_lutyp_im_4_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00741U31E&pd_rd_r=45TZRTX28P6RM2N4M16M&pd_rd_w=zBjl2&pd_rd_wg=zjfHg&psc=1&refRID=45TZRTX28P6RM2N4M16M

I keep not much cash in the same wallet, so I limit myself to an encrypted copy on a personal computer and in a cloud storage. if the amount was more significant, I would prefer paper storage

heres my personal answers to your question.

• How many copies to you keep?

- i keep only two copy, one for .json file and one is saved on my notepad

• Do you keep it on multiple mediums (paper, usb, cryptosteel, cdrom, etc)?

- i keep them in phones internal memory and external memory ( memory card ) plus i also saved a copy on my desktop computer.

• Do you keep the full seed/key on each medium or split it (e.g. 1/2 on one paper, 1/2 on other paper)?

- i keep the all but if you split them it can cause you confusion and much hassel.

• If the seed/key is encrypted (e.g. veracrypt or keepass), is it safe to store on cloud storage?

- i dont think so, because it can be stole or hack and its better to just store it offline.

• Where are the best places to keep copies (cloud, buried in yard, home safe, bank safe deposit box, parent's house)?

- best place would be on home inside the house on a safe place like under the bed or cabinets.
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i split my private key copies into 2 usb storage, one half for the first storage and another half for the second one. I have also my copies in paper that is buried underground. I will never ever store my private key in a computer because i see it is best or main target of a hacker.

Good advice in this thread, taking note of some ;)