How would you dispose of a steel plate seed backup?

[Dunamisx]

This thread sparked a question in my head. Imagine that you are in a situation where you need to dispose of you wallet seed backup, but it is etched on a steel plate - how would you do it? The easiest answer is likely acid, but not everyone has access to it, and depending on the steel plate, it might be even highly resistant to corrosion. Another option is to damage it mechanically - in many of these steel plate products you are supposed to etch the words, so it should be possible to erase them or render unrecognizable. But it's likely hard to do thoroughly and traces of the words could remain.

Any more ideas?

I will bring up the suggestion of using fire to destroy it it one can generate up to the heat temperature required for the sheet to get melted, another perfect means is to go far away, dig the ground and bury it, but erasing them will be a tough task on us because we not not easily achieve doing such, but maybe if there's something called permanent painting or physical destruction if possible depending on the material composition it was made up from. 

[Benedictare]

   In other for you to dispose your steel plate seed back up, you have to break it into smaller pieces and dispose it at separate locations,also by erasing , shredding and flush off the piece s,since your seed phrase give you access to your crypto account.
 
   If it is not acid resistance one can easily make use of acid to get rid of it permanently for those that are written on metals or any other craving materials should look for industrial tool to erase them ,melt it or cut it off.

[DaveF]

Just mail it to me, I'll make sure you got all your coins off.

Seriously, the drill suggestions are the best. You don't even have to totally destroy it if you drill were 12 of the 24 words are and eliminate those your seed is unrecoverable at that point.

I don't know where you are in the world but here in the US a cheap Drill Press is $100 or less and a useful thing to have around anyway.

https://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/drills-drivers/drill-presses/8-in-5-speed-bench-drill-press-with-light-58780.html

https://www.amazon.com/BERXOL-Benchtop-Portable-Electric-795/dp/B0CHSFN7S4?th=1

*Don't forget eye protection.

-Dave

[Marvelman]

The best option is going to the blacksmith ...
the best option is to do it yourself self ...

So which one is the best option? Make up your mind. 

I agree with your second option, though. Exposing your seed phrase to third parties can never be the best option.

Steel is a material that is quite hard and difficult to break, many people will not be able to destroy it on their own. If you bring it to a blacksmith, you just need to directly supervise him doing it and ask the blacksmith to destroy it quickly. I don't think anything too worrying will happen, not everyone knows about bitcoin and no one with a super memory can instantly remember the seed phrases correctly. If it were me, I would talk to the blacksmith and ask him to show me how to destroy it myself, I'd be willing to pay him a higher price .

Yeah, I get that steel is durable, but calling in professional blacksmiths to destroy a seed phrase seems like overkill in my opinion.  There's gotta be easier methods we can use to permanently eliminate those words, right? If you're up for it I think you could probably smash it yourself with just a regular hammer and a hole punch.

[shield132]

This thread sparked a question in my head. Imagine that you are in a situation where you need to dispose of you wallet seed backup, but it is etched on a steel plate - how would you do it? The easiest answer is likely acid, but not everyone has access to it, and depending on the steel plate, it might be even highly resistant to corrosion. Another option is to damage it mechanically - in many of these steel plate products you are supposed to etch the words, so it should be possible to erase them or render unrecognizable. But it's likely hard to do thoroughly and traces of the words could remain.

Any more ideas?

Steel Plates were created in order to prevent seed phrases from any kind of damage, so what you are asking for is counter-productive, you shouldn't buy steel plates if you plan to destroy them ever.

It's not totally useless because it contains your transaction history and you might want it not fall into other's hands. Also there could be situations where it's not an option - you want to destroy just a backup, not the wallet. Imagine you have two backups, one at your current location and another at a remote and safe location. Let's say you are moving from your current location to some new one where you wouldn't keep your steel backup with you because the new place is not safe enough. So you'd want to destroy the backup at your current location, while still relying on the backup at your other safe location.

Seriously, that's not totally useless, that's the best solution in this case. If you don't want to get tracked, then use a mixer or exchange bitcoins for altcoins, there are many ways to minimize tracking and improve privacy or use paper wallet and it will be over.

Long story short, use metal seeds if you don't plan to destroy them or if you think you'll have a moment when it will be necessary to destroy seeds, use a paper wallet or any different method with the possibility of destruction.

[The Cryptovator]

I don't believe that situation will come to destroy your seed phrase, which is on a steel plate. But if such a situation comes up and I need to destroy it totally, then I would make it into many pieces by cutting it through a grinder or something else and through different places. But for a better solution, just don't use it after making it empty. But everything depends on the situation and timing. Each case will have a different solution. I hope that situation will not come to me, and I don't use steel plates to write seed phrases.  

[Assface16678]

I don't believe that situation will come to destroy your seed phrase, which is on a steel plate. But if such a situation comes up and I need to destroy it totally, then I would make it into many pieces by cutting it through a grinder or something else and through different places. But for a better solution, just don't use it after making it empty. But everything depends on the situation and timing. Each case will have a different solution. I hope that situation will not come to me, and I don't use steel plates to write seed phrases.  

Sounds like a lot of work, I think there's someone who already suggesting about melting the metal plate by heating it up to the point that the metal will turn to red, in that way you can Platten the plate and erase the seed phrase that is written there.
but you can make it easier by changing your wallet, I mean make another wallet and transfer your funds there in that way even someone can access that seed phrase and manage to open it, they will get nothing at all, but the thing is it sounds funny that someone really make their seed phrase backup written in a steel plate that is some a hard back up storage there haha.

[spandamoto]

Angle grinder if you got access to one. Otherwise, you'd need to make a makeshift kiln

[fuguebtc]

The best option is going to the blacksmith ...
the best option is to do it yourself self ...

So which one is the best option? Make up your mind. 

I agree with your second option, though. Exposing your seed phrase to third parties can never be the best option.

Steel is a material that is quite hard and difficult to break, many people will not be able to destroy it on their own. If you bring it to a blacksmith, you just need to directly supervise him doing it and ask the blacksmith to destroy it quickly. I don't think anything too worrying will happen, not everyone knows about bitcoin and no one with a super memory can instantly remember the seed phrases correctly. If it were me, I would talk to the blacksmith and ask him to show me how to destroy it myself, I'd be willing to pay him a higher price .

Yeah, I get that steel is durable, but calling in professional blacksmiths to destroy a seed phrase seems like overkill in my opinion.  There's gotta be easier methods we can use to permanently eliminate those words, right? If you're up for it I think you could probably smash it yourself with just a regular hammer and a hole punch.

I think it depends on the type of steel you use because there will be some fastidious people who will definitely use good steel and destroying them will take a lot of effort. But I agree with you that if someone is smart enough, destroying them is not difficult, preserving and keeping them safe is the problem, but destroying them is ten times easier.

Through this story, we realize that every method has advantages and disadvantages, there is no such thing as absolute perfection. From the beginning, we spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to store our seed phrase, and now we're looking to destroy it. LOL.

[dezoel]

This thread sparked a question in my head. Imagine that you are in a situation where you need to dispose of you wallet seed backup, but it is etched on a steel plate - how would you do it? The easiest answer is likely acid, but not everyone has access to it, and depending on the steel plate, it might be even highly resistant to corrosion. Another option is to damage it mechanically - in many of these steel plate products you are supposed to etch the words, so it should be possible to erase them or render unrecognizable. But it's likely hard to do thoroughly and traces of the words could remain.

Any more ideas?

The method is nice, it is your personal decision whether you dispose of the seed backup on a steel plate, but many may find it complicated to save the seed phrase of the wallet. I personally am not able to engrave steel metal, seems too complicated to me. If I do have the help of an outsider to do this, such as someone who is an expert in metal engraving, my wallet is completely vulnerable when the seed phrase will go to him if he is involved in crypto currency. Anyway, I saved my wallet seed phrase in a few steps so that it can be easily accessed in any medium. If you forget to save the wallet seed phrase you can easily lose it, and if you are aware of it you can save it anyway with personal effort.

It's hard if you are not into those mechanical stuffs and then you lack in the right tools but we can always call the help of someone else who are expert on it and I think we will know if those people are into crypto or not and if they are trusted to not steal our coins.

We can also do some measures to prevent them from doing that because it may be hard for us to know their true identity completely. Another safer and easier option (though may not really be cheap) is to simply buy a same type of wallet or seed purse. I already saw a couple of those before. When creating a wallet we are always required to write them down because memorizing them may not be easy and even if we do for a while, there's still a high chance that we can forgot them later on.