Bitcoin Forum

Have u ever attempted to memorize one of ur Bitcoin private keys?

Do u think anyone has ever done this?

Just remembering one's own key to valuable funds.

With Brainwallet seeds I'm sure people have done this.

I love to memorize.

I'm capable of memorizing up to 32 digits by visualization.

~CfA~

Oh it never came across to my mind. I'm thinking about it after reading this, and I find it complicated. Yes you can memorize it, but as time passes by that you don't review it, you can forget it for sure especially when you have lots of things to do and think every single day. And I know it would kinda be a hassle if you missed one character or when you got confused and ramble those characters on your mind. So even if you want or you are planning to memorize it, it's better if you still save your copy on a safe place.

Maybe some have done this, thinking that it will be safer on their mind and no one can steal it (just a maybe since nothing is impossible).

I've memorised a couple of lengthy passwords, but probably not above 15 figures. I did notice that they started to fade after time so I'd need to keep practicing them.

I seriously doubt I'd be able to manage a private key. At my age my brain's starting to go. In a couple more years I won't be able to dress myself.

If I was committed to doing it I'd do it through reminders somehow or spread it around the house.

a bitcoin private key is a combination of random letters and numbers and worst of all is that they are case sensitive which means the lower case and upper case actually matters so it is impossible for normal human beings to memorize that. unless you have a photographic memory (or whatever it is called in english, like that beautiful mind movie)

I tried it once but couldn't do it after 10 characters :D However, I have memorized a password 30 characters long and it's still fresh in my memory :D

there is no point remembering the random private key. because once you spend it you then have to learn a new private key for the change address.

high deterministic seeds are not only easier to remember but also represent MANY keys that would all be used by you, so even when funds move to a "change" address, that address is also included in the seed

password is so much easier because you are not actually making it out of random characters. i too have memorized at least 10 long complex passwords for my different accounts (email, wallet, forum, ....) but remembering a word (even a wallet seed which is random words) is so much easier.

Our brains are not designed to deal with such long string of characters. Unless the password is a readable one (real normal words, like the ones used to generate seeds) then it's just impossible, it's safer to save them in an encrypted text file (encrypted with an easier password just for some protection) than trying to pretend to memorize it.

Why should I go through a hassle way if there is an alternative/s to do it in a quite easy way?

Private Keys are important, I saving it on my own way of saving any other important keys and passwords.

But in general, it's not wrong for people if they want to memorize it. I just found it hassle in my case. :)

I even haven't tried to memorize neither private key nor those brain wallet seeds as i am not quite good at remembering random words and what we get in brain wallets are just random words. Hardest part with these brain wallet seeds is to remember the sequence of words rather than remembering actual words.

It is prety much impossible to memorize your private key.
Yes if you study it everyday, then at some point u will remember it, but I don't think anyone has done this.

Just print the private key out and keep the paper somewhere safe, and have multiple backups.

It would be a really bad idea to memorize a private key.  If you forgot just one character you would be locked out of your money.  A much better option if you are wanting to memorize something would be to memorize a mnemonic seed for a HD wallet.  That way you would have an infinite number of key pairs and it would be A LOT easier to remember 12 actual words rather than 30+ random characters.

it is not even possible to do it! and even if you could memorize it by some miracle i think that is not a good idea to do it because forgetting or mistaking even one character of that private key means losing all the funds in that address.

Boy are you guys so stupid!!!!   

Hassle?  Easy.

Our brains can remember with no problem!  (some combinations)

You can send the change back to the same address.  Totally allowed. 


This is a private key:

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

This is also a private key:

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001


This is one too! 

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000101010101010101010

Put your mom's birthday in there!  Put anything you want in there. 
1214890000000000000000000000000000000000000000101010101010101010
...is also a private key. 


Therefore, you design your desired private key, which is easy to remember and then make the public key hash.  The public key hash will so no signs whatever that your key highly organized. 

The first two above kind of suck.  But with just a few chunks of easy to remember information BAM!!!  you've got a memory key!!! 


Cool - eh?

It is too hard for the work, unless you are a memory champion like Dominic O'Brien.

But if you use Multibit you can recover you wallet from some worlds, that are much easier to remember than a private key.

Still I don't think it is worth if you can just backup them where no one will find

RawDog explained everything very nicely, and his idea can make private key much easier to remember. Making combination of important dates, favorite numbers is something that can help a lot.
I never tried to remember my keys and address, I wrote everything. I'm a bit forgettable, and I don't wish to have problems later with this, cause when ever I said I will remember passwords, after some time of not using that password I totally forgot it. So this memorizing is definitely not for me.

this is a terrible idea, and you should never do it. it may sound cool but trust me, anything that you create by hand lacks the randomness required for safety and the chance of getting hacked by brute forcing, social engineering,... is very high in this cases.

so do this if you want to have some fun making a custom private key to memorize but never send any money to it.

actually this is one of the reasons why brainwallet website was shut down. people can not make random stuff. it is best that it is done by machine instead.

 Pretty good info except that the lowest value for a private key is 0x1 so
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Is not a private key.

Edit: that might have been a little nitbit-picky ;)

I think you certainly could memorize a private key, but it would probably have to be a private key with low entropy.  Consider, 0 is a private key, so is 64 'f's.  But you really don't want to use either of those keys to generate your bitcoin addresses.  As you said, brainwallet effectively let people memorize phrases that hashed to keys, but we've all learned that that actually doesn't provide enough entropy to be secure.  You could probably make a private key out of 1-f, 19cafebabe5... but you'd have a low entropy key based on the fact that it was memorizable.  I dunno, if you don't keep too much money there, it might be a fun experiment to see what happens.

Why are you interfering in other's way? If they have their own view about memorizing then so be it.

Me too, I don't want to memorize it since I can listed it in multiple safe notes of mine.

Am I stupid then because I don't want to memorize it?

Don't say stupid to other people. That's their own view and you are out of it.

I strongly believe on human brain (that it forgets too often). Especially when it comes to memorizing something related with financial credentials, I would never take such risk even if my IQ level would be as equal as Einstein. I like to memorize but not on the cost of huge risk associated with it. Those who can remember I appreciate them but that doesn't mean I should follow them.

wtf? lol why would you want to do that when you can easily write it down to a piece of paper? you know you shouldn't use your brain for
Such activities but you can count cards without anyone noticing and gamble to win big :D

Right. Lets respect for others view in memorizing their private key. It can help them when it needed. But for me, I never memorize it. I'm poor  in memorization, I hate it even in school. :) There are people who are gifted that can memorize long string of words. Theres have technique using mnemonics.Others through singing :)

You are VERY fucking stupid.  I didn't say they are stupid because they don't want to memorize it - I am saying they are stupid for saying the wrong things they said in the quotes. 

You on the other hand are stupid for so many reasons I can't count that high.  Especially stupid for thinking of that bullshit reason and suggesting that is why I said they are stupid.

You take the stupid cake for sure.

normal human beings can train to memorize a combination of random symbols, there are many effective techniques to do that task. there are bunches of Guiness about memory. countless number of people have tried and success in memorizing Pi number 3.14... you don't need to be a genius with IQ above 150 to do it. don't underestimate human.

Read most of the posts on this forum.  It would be very hard to 'underestimate human'.

For me very hard to memorize it but if you are doing it daily im sure you can be memorize it because i can memorize serial keys in xp os and other os just practising my daily habit to memorizing..
But to sure to dont forget it save it first in notepad and save it for safe place..

What would be the point? You only use it once when you swipe it to a useable address and most of us memorize things with repetition or repeated use. At my age, you start to forget more and more and

this would not be a very good idea. I too experimented with some brain games and strategies to improve the memory, but I got lazy over time. These days, I just write down the important things and

store them in a safe place. {Safety deposit box}  ::)

obviously it is people who can remember their private keys, many can more decimals of Pi.

Well, if you have a photographic memory and you are well trained to recover even the most minute details - then it would make sense - otherwise forget about it.

Lol, forget about it, I see what you did there.

Anyway, if the OP is just doing this with a small amount of bitcoin, there's also the possibility to use a relatively easy to remember private key.  Remember that at the end of the day, a private key is just a large number and there are many ways to write down a number (binary, decimal, hex, ascii, base64, etc).  For example, say you used base64 and the private key was actually a phrase which was relatively easy to remember.  Then, to use the key, the OP would have to convert it into hex or WIF or whatever format his wallet software uses and generate the two addresses associated with it.  As I said, if there's only a small amount of bitcoin there, it would be interesting to see if anyone takes it or if it sits there safely.

Nice one mate, you caught me :)

Apology for my stupid post that makes your head hot. Still..

..just because they are wrong to your eyes they are considered as stupid now. That's their own view.

Again, apology and please calm down. Otherwise I might considered your trust review.

Well if you take some NZT its easy !! ^^
i think its freaking hard to memorize all this thing ! it is huge and it doesnt make any sense to keep it in order in your mind
iv managed to memorize just some random passwords with capital & numbers symbols but i learn them over time by typing them every day and it been near 10 years and still remember them !  :D i brainwashed my self eventually!

I believe some people had ever do that, but I myself even want to try doing that. It would be pretty hard for me to do it tho, but I think I can do that with a lot of practice.

Because Private keys are pure random while we create our passwords with something familiar to our self, I can create 50 character password long with my favorite music and I can remember that 50 character easily while the others might have a hard time figuring it out ;)

I don't think someone manage to remember his own private keys, But I do believe if someone says that he managed to remember his seed code for the wallet, that seed is much more easier to remember compared to private keys :)

This question is not about whether you can do it - because I've seen people memorizing even longer and more complicated numeric strings.
With mnemonic techniques of all sort it is quite easy if you put some effort into it.

But you don't have to do this (or you can only for sport). With Deterministic Wallets it is not needed to remember your private keys anymore.
Or you can simply write it down...

haha nice dude, unfortunately I can not memorize up to 32 digits. So I have never had to try to remember bitcoin private key, I prefer to write in a notebook: D

Satoshie could have made us all memorize private keys if he would made bitcoin in such a way that you would need to enter(type, not copy and paste) your private key every time you want to spend BTC.

Belive me after 300 bets you will know your private key ;)

I've never thought about it, but it sure is interesting.  I'm not good at memorizing that many characters so I will not ever do that.  Also, I would still write it down in case I forgot.

there are a lot of geniuses here, i know. but i'm not talking about them, i'm talking about normal people and normal people shouldn't be underestimate, and don't underestimate our own selves too. if practicing with the right methods and techniques, we all can become geniuses. read the book 'Jerome becomes genius'.

it is a pretty good idea only if it could be doable. but because of the way a private key looks like (which is a random set of upper case and lower case letters and numbers) it is impossible to remember it.

but if you could somehow find a way to memorize a private key and never forget it even after a few years i think that would be the safest cold storage in the world but the important part is not forgetting it over the years because forgetting even one letter or even misplacing them would cause losing funds.

Any body who thinks you can read a book to become a genius, especially a book titled: "Jerome becomes a genius" will sadly never be a genius.  The good news is they might get to spend the remainder of their life thinking they are a genius and that might make them very happy.  So, they have that going for them.  Ignorance is bliss. 

If you forget one letter - you'll know about which one it is.  Like if it is at the beginning or the end.  Anyway, you could easily write a script that tries loads of addresses similar with one character variant - and recover your address in about 3 minutes.  Not hard at all. Even if you forget about 8 of the characters, VanityGen will be able to try all the combinations in about 1 week.  Very easy.  If you forget more than about 8 characters, it gets tricky.

Relying on your memory for a private key sounds to me like a good way to lose your funds.
Why would you even want to? You can store a private way in any format you want, anywhere you want. Write it under your car seat, inside your fridge and on a few more locations. Or much easier: get a BIP38 encrypted key, don't bother about keeping the key secure, just keep your password secure.
There's a topic somewhere with 1 BTC for whoever guesses the 6 digit code! After a year, nobody guessed it. If you make it 8 random digits, it's still a lot easier to remember than a complete private key, and I expect the chance of someone guessing it to be much less likely than the chance of you forgetting a private key from your memory.

I may link them by memorizing the photos and the seed linked on them. I never try to memorize them because the brain is not a safe place to save sensitive data, I even forget how my password is even those that I use every day/week.

Memorizing private key are you kidding me?  I might failed onn it if it is an exam lol. Honestly I have a poor memory.  I can hardly remember 10 characters.  I even have my password written somewhere and always looked at it everytime i am to log in. 

Not a good idea  :o

Unless the key has some simple memorizable characters it would be So difficult for me that it would be better if you gave me Dark souls 3 in the top difficulty.
I suck at memorizing . maybe i could remember around 12 -14 digits but not sure about the whole key .
it would be fun to try tho. also , even if i knew my key without looking, i would still look just to be safe .

it is not just about being able to memorize the private keys (which is impossible by the way) but the important part is to make sure you won't forget it over time. because human memory works in a unique way, you may memorize something now but a month from now you will forget some details about it for sure.

haha, same as me. I also would have difficulty if must memorize the private key  :( But if bitcoin private key can we change as we would like perhaps this can be done easily, but I think this is not possible.

Ahhhhhh it all makes sense now. You mom was born December 14th 1989. Let's say she had you when she was 16 (because obviously you have a terrible life which made you angry at the world so that would make sense). That would make you born in the end of 2005 or in 2006. So you're about 10 or 11 years old.

It all comes together RawDog. Did mommy give you enough allowance to buy another bitcointalk account soon? This one's all negged up because of your pre-teen angst.

---

I would never try to memorize a private key mainly because I'd only use it for one transaction then it's useless. If you have a photographic memory you're golden but otherwise us normal people will just encrypt our wallets.

I don't think I would have the confidence to trust myself in memorizing my private keys and use that as my only back up. I'm sure most of you don't too. Especially if your wallet has a large amount in it.

of course that it not a good idea to do that in my opinion, you can easily forget it and then all your bitcoins would be lost, i think it is better to just print the paper wallet

I have never thought about memorizing a private key. what is the benefit from doing so ? I can simply write it down on papers as many as it is comfortable for me and store them in different secure places.

There are people who have a photographic memory,they see something and remember that.But most of people will probably write private key and put it in a safe place.Even if you remember private key this is not forever,memories fade with time so that constant reminder is needed.

If I try to memorize private key I divided it into several parts and tried memorize each separately and then I put them all together :)

The benefit off course is that you are less vulnerable since you won't have to store it on a device. Hackers can hack any device, but they can't hack your brain.
But i found a good way to by pass it. I have divided my passphrase in 3 elements and store it on 3 different devices So in times I need it, hackers need to hack all 3 to get my private key which is nearly impossible since 1 is offline always.

Did you also create 3 different backups? Now you have 3 points of failure: if you lose/break one of the devices, your private key is inaccessible.

yeah, it is a really interesting idea in my opinion, i will surely try it out when i will have some time with small amount of bitcoins, though i think it will be a hard thing to do

Rather then to store in on computer store it on a piece of paper. It's not very likey a hacker will ever be able to see that piece of paper.
So in time of a hack you are still safe.

Memorizing a private key will for sure need a hell of a brain.  :D Its not impossible but sure very hard to do it. It will take me a whole month or may be longer to memorize the private key even if I try to.

Yeah i guess you are right. Can't wait to see a Guinness World Record of someone memorizing Bitcoin addresses.
 

I think it's possible to memorize the Private Key, just find the method and strategy to memorize every single character.
But the chalange is keep them safe on your brain wallet for ling time is very hard.
Everyone will be old, along with the aging period ability to remember of peoples will be increase so that memorize the private key it may not be safe.
i just won't take any risk.

That's awesome. I wish that i can memorize that long character since i can only memorize 25 below any characters.

But remembering this would take some time. Since if you have a lot of private key. :)

I have only memorized the master password for my password managing program where I keep all my important information including passwords and mnemonic strings for my Bitcoin wallets and that's a perfect solution for me. I don't think trying to memorize your wallet private key is a good idea because human long memory is not perfect and unless you are related to elephants in some way sooner or later your memory might get corrupted and you will lose your money.

I think it is dangerous to store an important key like that only in your memory.

Imagine having an accident with head trauma or having a fatal accident, that way there may be no way for you or your relatives to ever gain access to the coins again.

I think it is possible to do it and remember a private key though. Using a memory palace and some training it should be quite easy. If people can remember the order of cards in a 40 deck shuffled stack, surely it should be possible to remember a relatively short string like this with correct training.

Well, that's a way but just having it on a piece of paper would surely not work on me, since I've got quite a lot of papers and documents that's just scattered all around or house and I usually just forget where I place what.
Memorizing, however, wouldn't be that much of a problem for me, only if it's not-so-long term because I tend to forget it if it isn't used after a month more or less.

Memorising your  private key is posible but for long year would come surely you will forgot it,not all people had a good mind to memories for long term even a year would come so I prepared to use back up is much safer.

just print the private keys and make a paper wallet and laminate it then find a picture frame at your house and take out the back of it and put your paper wallet there and then close the back and put the picture frame back, that way it is safe and you never lose it.

It's possible. However, I would not risk it. And as NorrisK mentioned you could not rule out a risk of stroke or serious head injury. I think, it will be better to use multisig for security.

i tried but sorry not possible.. too long for me. better i should just scan

Personally, I would not think that this would be a very good idea. Even if you can remember 32 digits, there is every chance that you may over time forget your private key.

Brainwallets' security is proven to be questionable and therefore should not be used to store your coins.

I have not tried to memorize private keys myself. But if you are involved in an accident, and lose your memory, then you're screwed.

That book is one of a bunches of good best-seller books on the world which teach people techniques and methods to improve our skills, to master life. No one becomes a genius just from reading a book, but from learning how to become a genius. Like with martial arts, any normal person can master them through hard practicing in the right ways.

Honestly its hard to memorize it unless if you really want to memorize it every day practice and memorize it and you will not for got it if you always use that manually without using the backup copy of private key ..

You just need to find a way to manage your papers, it's a common useful skill which can come in handy lots of time, so it's worth develop it. You know, you are already have got a bunch of paper in your house to deal with right now, you need that skill anyway. It's an office skill, so you can find great help from officers and stationeries.

I am quite sure I am not able to do this, but there is also no need to stress myself out just for the sake of being able to remember a string of characters. And another important thing is that I don't want to point too much attention to just remembering one of my private keys as I have my coins spreaded in around 10 cold wallets right now.