Bitcoin Forum

My memory wakes up today and I think it's interesting to share this funny story.

How do you safely keep your recovery phrase written on paper? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5407326.0)

Having backups for your wallet is good but it is not enough. You must do two other important things

1. Keep your backups safely from others to avoid risk that they will steal it (if they are greedy) or throw it away (because they did not know importance of that piece of paper).
2. Make sure you assign a place for your backup storage and it's always in your mind. In case there is emergency, you can quickly know where it is and can take it to run away.

To be doubly safe during an emergency, have an alternate back up spot which is in a separate location.

So if you somehow cannot access the first one due to a natural disaster or some other event, you always have the second one to rely on and access your funds.

Having different locations to store your backups is good but if you can quickly exit from emergency with your back up at any location, it's good, not bad.

Black swan event can happen if your backup in 2nd location is unusable too.

That is somewhat of an old thread, and in that topic all the suggestions on the best way to protect your backup was provided in it, i think making a second thread out of it is redundant because all the same suggestions would be repeated here. If there was anything unique you wanted to add, you could have just bumped the topic as it is still not yet locked.

It's the same as what happened to me the only difference is that you are lucky that you still find the paper backup in the garbage compared to mine where they already burned my backup paper.
That is why I decided to put all paper backups in a storage box that includes my important documents and I told them not to touch my storage box without my permission.

Storage boxes or let's say a metal vault might easily to spot from stealing.
This was what I suggested to my friend a long time ago, in your room if you have books, just place them there by the book and spread your private key per page, the book that has a strong cover.  A book also usually didn't mystically throw in the garbage.

It's essential to keep your backups in a safe and secure location that is inaccessible to others.
This can help prevent theft or accidental damage to your backup, which can be devastating if you need to access it in an emergency and if you find yourself in a situation where you need to quickly access your backup, you'll know exactly where to find it.  This can be especially critical during emergency situations when time is of the essence.

I don't think you need to create a new thread to share this funny story. There is lots of advice on how best to protect your backups that can be taken away in an emergency or when you change domicile. Your two suggestions are among the many suggestions that can be used for wallet backup, you can post there because the direction is still on the same track especially since the topic there is still open for anyone who wants to bring it back up.

I have my seed words stamped into steel and in a safe location but in the wake of the recent train derailmemt in east Ohio, I have had to re-evaluate where I store my seed phrase.

Ideally, you want somewhere that is accessible and permanent but if the air becomes unbreathable due to chemical fires, you won't be able to access it.

Having a backup location, with your seed phrase is probably a good idea. It is also showing me the importance of using BIP39 passphrases to add a layer of protection if I need to ask a friend or family member to keep a copy for me. 

Read the OP a little better, because he just showed an example of another member, it's not his story.

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Regarding the topic of backups, there are hundreds of similar threads discussing how to achieve the best security and reduce risk to a minimum, but there is no single method that can be considered absolutely safe. One backup is generally a bad idea, but multiple backups in the same location also doesn't make much sense.

Unfortunately, most people cannot afford to keep their backups in different locations, so you have to be innovative and creative. Whatever you do about it, don't talk about it to friends and acquaintances, but also to family members who don't know how to keep their mouths shut.

It's easy to avoid to talk it with friends and acquaintances, but for family members it seems to be tricky because you don't have a way to make sure they will shut their mouths and will not making any mistakes.

Imagine you have teach your family members about Bitcoin and your backup, they will remember today and maybe until the next few weeks. But after a year, they might either forget or they might accidentally mention if it's your Bitcoin backup when your family members discovered it.

It is dumb to write something as valuable as recovery seed on a piece of paper, of cos something bad will happen to it very fast, you can on your fan and the paper goes missing, someone can come into your room and play with the paper until they ruff handle the paper and throw into the dustbin or somewhere. Write the seed down in a strong book and keep the book where you can lock it up, or stainless steel is even more reliable,  this has been discussed too many times on the forum, find one and use nail or a sharp object to carve the words on the stainless steel.

It is important that we keep our keys well and not just in one place. Perhaps keeping a spare on a piece of paper is still a risk like getting burnt or exposed to water. It is better to keep it in a place that is safe from burning and safe from being exposed to water.
Your case is lucky, what if there is no other backup when the piece of paper is thrown into the trash and gets wet.

This means that choosing to store your keys in a place away from these risks is a good idea.

You should always have your keys safely back up in multiple locations but they all should be secured with you having access to them but storing them on paper always have risks like getting ruined with moisture or any other natural disaster through which you will not be able to recover your funds.

So look for other ways like engraving them on some metals and then safely securing them on safe place will help you in many ways.So you can check out this thread by @fillippone here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5389446.0)here[/url] to help you find better ways to secure your seed phrases.

This means you must have carelessly handled your seed phrase for your mum to have discovered it an something less of value and put in a trash bin, i see you being lucky enough not to have missed it all because your private key is what should be left private with you only, am not against your mom seing it but let's treat it as it's been called "private keys" no third party interference, now i believe you should work on more secured ways to handle your seed phrase and I will suggest you make a back up for it in case of unforeseen circumstances like the one you  experienced.

That's why we need to store backups in several places away from various risks that might occur.
I can imagine if the backups were just kept on a piece of paper.

In this case I would say that you are right. Make some metal to write seed phrases That's an acceptable option. It's much safer than storing on a piece of paper.

We can only try to secure as best and as safe as possible. Regarding natural disasters, it is beyond our control.

If your mum stumbled upon your recovery phrase on a paper and mistook it for garbage, it means that you did not do good job in keeping it safe and away from people. If it was neatly written and kept properly, maybe among other of your important things in a way that it is not obvious that it is a seed phrase but enough to show that it is important, your mom will not have thrashed it. Asides you not keeping your room clean which should be your responsibility, you also have failed to properly keep your recovery phrase.

If your house, room or space is always messed up, it will be difficult to know if someone entered and touched your things since everywhere is always scattered. But if you keep a tidy space with things always well kept, unless you are not the observant type, someone cannot enter and touch/tamper with your things without you knowing.

More users commented in this topic, did not read OP at all. If they spent 10 seconds to click and read, they knew it is not a careless story of mine.

They did not read your post too!

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Some others commented like my advices were written many times in forum. Maybe I missed those advices somewhere but by my memory, I did not see it in the past.

It is why this topic was created with a main point is my #2 advice for emergency.

It's really important to secure your backups of your crypto wallets in a safe place. I think it can be written on your diary or any personal wallet. It's better to have more backup than one.

Sometimes it happens to everyone that they misunderstand something, but unfortunately there are a lot of members who don't read anything more than the title, which in the end results in posts that don't make much sense. If you stay active on the forum for long enough, you will notice a lot of illogic yourself, but we can always hope that our actions will change some things for the better.

Great tips everyone! In my experience, it's always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to protecting our valuable assets. Having an alternate backup spot in a separate location is an excellent idea, and it's crucial to ensure that both locations are safe and secure.

I agree with Lucius that there is no foolproof method for protecting our backups, but having multiple backups in different locations can certainly reduce the risk. It's good to be innovative and creative, especially when we can't afford expensive high-end commercial solutions, like safe deposit boxes in banks and the like.

Overall, it's important to consider all the possible scenarios and risks and take the necessary precautions to protect our assets as best as we can.

If someone shares a house with other people, they should either be upfront and tell them that there are very important papers belonging to them, or if they can't trust those people at all, then they should hide their papers really well, and make a few copies stored in different places. Although if someone is determined enough, they would find it sooner or later. If you are afraid that they will steal the coins, the wallet should be protected with password, so that the seed alone is not enough to unlock the coins.

We have to make more backups in a separate place, but know that it is we ourselves who know not other people or our mothers, if it is stored on a piece of paper and away from the risk of being exposed to water or fire it will still be safe if we store it somewhere a location that no one else knows about.

I have my own way even though it is written on paper but I make backups several times and store them in a separate place, I guarantee this security and I make sure to always check on a scale to find out some other backups.

There are other tools that are safer I think that's also good it's just that there are some that are more comfortable maybe on a sheet of paper and he can guarantee not to risk anything.

We've got alot of peeps into this whole Bitcoin world, but they don't even know how best they could make their SAFETY, FREEDOM AND ACCESSIBILITY guaranteed. All they know is -- make enquires on how to buy and HODL 'em coins -- and when these set of peeps log on the net, they get scammed easily since they're really interested in getting them worth enlarged stupendously.
I'm gonna say that for everyone that knows the PROs and CONs of BTC as a currency, they'll always try as much as possible to preserve them seed phrase and keys... Protecting them depends on individual difference though.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

Personally, saving your backup means having at least some copies for you to take care off. I remember, some were against having it posted on any social media in the event that it gets hacked, but I do think that putting it on a random e-mail can be relatively safe and secure.

If you are truly worried for its safety, then buy a safety deposit box and store all the necessary and important documents there. In addition, if you are married, telling the seed to your wife and giving her a copy can also be a way for you to store your backups. But at the end of the day, you should weigh all the pros and cons before you keep them in a specific place.

Until now, keeping backups on paper hasn't convinced me that it's a good choice even if we keep it out of reach of people other than ourselves. For now, writing it on metal strips is still a reasonable alternative for storage.

If I may know and if you don't mind, what would that look like. Who knows, we could put it into practice in storing seed phrase backups safely and away from the risks we discussed.

One of the best ways to secure the wallet recovery phrase is to have multiple backups of it in at least two places.
One is for urgent use and writing it on paper will do. The second copy should keep in a safety deposit storage or box to avoid losing the fund during a disaster. An example is the heartbreaking issue that happened in Turkey and I am sure a lot of Bitcoin holders that escape the accident would lose their wallet recovery phrase.

Beirut explosion is another example. [1]

But this thread mainly reminds people that they must keep their room clean, be disciplined with how they organize things including where they store wallet backups.

If they mess their room up, likely they don't store their backups safely and at a fixed location. Then when they need to find backups, it takes time to remember, minutes or hours and in accident case, they will lose that backup as they fail to get it quickly enough.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion

You are fortunate to have located the backup, if one of your friends who is knowledgeable about cryptocurrency had been in your room and discovered the backup, or if the garbage had already been disposed the situation might have been quite different. Nobody can be trusted, especially when it comes to money, so you shouldn't be careless with your backups. In fact, you shouldn't even keep them in a place where a second person could possibly see them. Once, I was about to secure my backup then I exited the room and left it on the table. When my little sister entered my room, she just happened to notice it and torn it to pieces. I was lucky to have another copy of it else I would have lost my asset.


Not everyone is lucky though, i am sure you learn from your mistake just as i did. Keeping your backup in a storage box is good but it’s advisable to make duplicates and store in a separate location in case of any unforeseen circumstances.


That was a horrible incident lots of lives were lost. We will keep praying for the lives lost and the family of those who lost their loved ones to the disaster. We don’t pray to experience such again but that is one of the reasons why you should have multiple locations for your backups.

If you write them on a piece of paper and laminate them and store them in a place known only to you, it is just as safe as the other solutions. And if you engrave them on steel plates but don't take good care of them, you leave them indiscriminately in your room, there's no guarantee they won't be read by others. No solution is absolutely safe, risks are all around us. I used to think about carving the seed phrase onto steel and burying it in the garden, but it's not safe in the event of an earthquake or tsunami, nor will I get my phrase.

You have a point and we can't all have the same understanding but this discussion is created so we can share knowledge and through your point and mine more users will benefit and make securing their backup phrase a top priority.

I pray that those that lost their family and loved ones to the accident have the strength and courage to carry on.
Having said that, having multiple locations of the wallet backup phrase is not enough if you understand my point. What's important is how secure the location is in terms of an unforeseen procedure.