[LIST] Bitcoin Seed Backup Tools

[Husires]

Bitcoin Seed Backup Tools

There are a lot of options for securing your wallet seed, here is a list of some of the options available with a quick feedback of them.

Research Methodology:

• Simplicity is always the best: the more moving parts of the device, the worse in some tests.
• 304 Stainless Steel is the best.
• Most devices pass the resistance test but are bad in temperature and wear, so try to reduce the number of moving parts.
• Devices that can withstand high temperatures are often bad.

Device	|	Fire and heat protection	|	Water and corrosion resistant	|	Crush Stress	|	Price	|	Setup	|
Blockplate	|	(Up to 1149°C / 2100°F)	|	12 Gauge 304 Stainless Steel	|	Good	|	$69	|	fastest and simplest	|
Quadrat Register	|	Good (No data)	|	stainless 304 grade german steel	|	up to 20 tons of force	|	249,00 €	|	Hard + (x-ray secure)	|
Coldbit Steel	|	(up to 2192°F / 1200°C)	|	house fires, flood, and electrical shock	|	Good (Hard to read)	|	€69 – €89	|	Easy	|
Stonebook	|	Bad	|	Good (No data)	|	Good (No data)	|	€31,95	|	Easy + Ghost Pen	|
Coldbit Passphrase	|	Excellent	|	Bad (you may loss some data)	|	Good (No data)	|	€9– €43	|	Medium (hexagonal shape)	|
Crypto Keys	|	Good (No data)	|	Good (No data)	|	Bad (you may lose some data)	|	$35.00	|	Easy	|
Cypherwheel	|	Fireproof up to 2000°F	|	Bad (you may loss some data)	|	Good (No data)	|	$200 – $314	|	Hard (you need to watch a Youtube video)	|
Hodlinox	|	Good (No data)	|	316 stainless steel plate	|	Good (no data loss)	|	49 Euros	|	impossible to remove without damaging it	|
Steelwallet	|	Good (No data)	|	against fire, water, electrical-shocks, and corrosion	|	Good (No data)	|	58,99 €	|	Easy	|
Simbit	|	up to 1700°F / 925°C	|	316 marine grade stainless steel alloy	|	Excellent	|	£84.00	|	Hard + (assembly tool)	|
Cobo Tablet	|	1399 to 1455 ℃ (It failed as some YouTube channels claim)	|	304-grade stainless steel	|	Medium	|	$39.00	|	Easy	|
THE BILLFODL	|	Bad (not recommended)	|	Good (No data)	|	Medium	|	$89	|	Easy to set up	|
	|	Good (No data)	|	Bad	|	Bad	|	$ 79.99	|	Easy with a small screwdriver	|
BitHD	|	2624℉ - 1220℉ (It failed as some YouTube channels claim)	|	Bad	|	Bad	|	$ 29.99	|	Easy	|
cryptotag	|	2624℉ - 1220℉ (It failed as some YouTube channels claim)	|	Good (No data)	|	Good (No data)	|	€ 109.00	|	Medium	|
cryptokeystack	|	2500°F	|	Good (No data)	|	Good (No data)	|	Sold Out	|	Easy	|

Sources
Google
YouTube videos review

CHANGELOG

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[o_e_l_e_o]

Jameson Lopp has provided the most in depth and thorough testing of these kind of devices. He tested 30 different devices against a 2000 Fahrenheit flame for 10 minutes, 12 hours in a bucket of muriatic acid, and under a 20 ton hydraulic press. You can see the results of his testing here: https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/

Many devices performed very poorly considering their expensive price tag. Generally speaking, the "tiles slotted in to a holder" type devices often resulted in complete data loss. The best devices were ones which involved engraving or stamping the words directly on to the metal plate or device.

[Chikito]

when talking about seed this means isn't available for Bitcoin only it could be useful for any cryptocurrency like Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and etc. because of hardware wallets like Ledger and Trezor available for many cryptocurrencies using 1 seed only.

I don't see any backup tool like USB disk, paper and cloud. Are you mean that tool isn't safe as backup tools?, I did back up using paper an as long time ago without any problem, low cost and easy to write without knocking hammer on a plate.

IMO

[Lucius]

I don't see any backup tool like USB disk, paper and cloud. Are you mean that tool isn't safe as backup tools?, I did back up using paper an as long time ago without any problem, low cost and easy to write without knocking hammer on a plate.

Of course, you can store the seed or private key on a USB stick or on paper/cloud, but OP is showing us only a solution that should be resistant to fire, water, acids and pressure, and metal/steel is used as the base material.

If you were to compare a USB stick or paper wallet with the above, then they have no chance if they are caught in fire or acid, or even water. And when it comes to storing sensitive data in the cloud, it's still the worst solution, even if it's encrypted - what will you do if you lose access to such a service or it loses your data for some reason?

[o_e_l_e_o]

I only ever use paper for my back ups, and I don't feel in the least bit concerned about this. As Lucius points out, paper will obviously perform very poorly when compared to these devices against fire, corrosion, etc. However, assuming that one of these devices is completely safe is incorrect. What if there is an explosion, and your back up is buried under tons of rubble? What if there if a flood or hurricane, and your back up is carried a few thousand meters away? What if it is stolen or otherwise inaccessible to you?

Given that, the only way to be safe is to be redundant. Everyone should be using at least two back ups in separate secure locations. Because I do this, I am unconcerned if I lose one back up due to fire, corrosion, or similar, and so I do not feel the need to use one of these metal devices. Laminated paper in an airtight and watertight container is good enough for me.

[Husires]

---

It's great, I checked the list, unfortunately some of the devices in the list are no longer available or the company has not succeeded in its development, I will contact him to update that list.
I would also like to point out that the devices mentioned in this list are from steel only.

I don't see any backup tool like USB disk, paper and cloud. Are you mean that tool isn't safe as backup tools?, I did back up using paper an as long time ago without any problem, low cost and easy to write without knocking hammer on a plate.

The reason I just mentioned Bitcoin is that I think 99% of the crypto currency models will not hold up for the coming years, so a small percentage will spend money buying devices to Hodl altcoin.
Ledger and Trezor are Bitcoin & altcoin wallet.
I don't think anyone will pay $ 80 to buy a device for hodling unknown altcoins.

If you were to compare a USB stick or paper wallet with the above, then they have no chance if they are caught in fire or acid, or even water.

The above list shows that this idea is a horrible. 60% of above devices fail to protect your USB, especially against acids or fire.

If you want to protect your devices and build them yourself, you need to use 304 Stainless Steel, remember to reduce the moving parts.

I only ever use paper for my back ups, and I don't feel in the least bit concerned about this. As Lucius points out, paper will obviously perform very poorly when compared to these devices against fire, corrosion, etc. However, assuming that one of these devices is completely safe is incorrect. What if there is an explosion, and your back up is buried under tons of rubble? What if there if a flood or hurricane, and your back up is carried a few thousand meters away? What if it is stolen or otherwise inaccessible to you?

Given that, the only way to be safe is to be redundant. Everyone should be using at least two back ups in separate secure locations. Because I do this, I am unconcerned if I lose one back up due to fire, corrosion, or similar, and so I do not feel the need to use one of these metal devices. Laminated paper in an airtight and watertight container is good enough for me.

if you keep more than $ 10,000, spending $ 80 in enhanced protection is not a bad thing.
Use Stonebook (€31,95) with a fireproof case ($29.)

[o_e_l_e_o]

I don't think anyone will pay $ 80 to buy a device for hodling unknown altcoins.

Absolutely. The small handful of altcoins which aren't complete trash can be backed up using a seed phrase just as bitcoin can, so these devices will work fine, but given that the vast majority of altcoins are completely worthless, then the market for steel backups specifically for altcoins is going to be tiny.

if you keep more than $ 10,000, spending $ 80 in enhanced protection is not a bad thing.
Use Stonebook (€31,95) with a fireproof case ($29.)

If you want to then sure, go ahead, but my point is that making a single back up of your seed phrase is risky, regardless of how durable the material you use is or how well you think you are storing it. There is always something that can happen, and no back up will ever be 100% safe. You should always have at least a second back up stored in a different secure location to your primary back up - this applies to standard important data back ups just as it applies to seed phrases and private keys.

[Lucius]

if you keep more than $ 10,000, spending $ 80 in enhanced protection is not a bad thing.

That amount should be much smaller, because $10k is a very nice amount of money in most countries of the world, and since we are talking about BTC, that amount can be increased by x times at any time. Unfortunately, many people think that a $50 investment in a hardware wallet is too much, and the tools you list are too far away to become something that most will start using.

It's great, I checked the list, unfortunately some of the devices in the list are no longer available or the company has not succeeded in its development

That’s true, and I’ve been checking out some of the tools and some are no longer in production, others are sold out and I have to admit that what caught my attention is unavailable for now.

[Darker45]

Those are a whole lot of options, which means we are still not certain on how to properly function as effective and efficient individual vaults or banks. Well, for me I am sticking to the most basic pen on paper, three copies in three different locations.

I totally agree with o_e_l_e_o that the only way to be safe is to be redundant. But not too redundant. I contemplated on making at least 5 different copies but then I realized that the more copies you hide the higher the possibility that one copy is accidentally discovered. You're lucky if the one who comes across it does not have the slightest idea that it could mean a lifetime of wealth, but if that person is also into backing up his/her own seed, he/she must know that this seemingly insignificant list of words means money.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I totally agree with o_e_l_e_o that the only way to be safe is to be redundant. But not too redundant. I contemplated on making at least 5 different copies but then I realized that the more copies you hide the higher the possibility that one copy is accidentally discovered.

Absolutely. It's a trade off between protection from accidental loss or damage and having one of your back ups being discovered.

There are two main ways you can mitigate this. The first is to encrypt your back ups. This is easily done when we are talking about backing up hard drives or USB sticks, but less so when talking about seed phrases. Indeed, by encrypting it and writing down the random string of letters and numbers you are left with, it kind of defeats the point of seed phrases in the first place, which are to be human readable, easy to copy and recover from with a very low chance of error. Writing down 200+ random characters is much more prone to error than writing down 24 words. You also then need to back up your decryption key, as without it, your encrypted back ups are useless.

The other possibility is to use SLIP39 to split your seed phrase in to multiple parts, with a minimum number of parts required to recover the original seed. Some wallets such as Trezor, and some sites such as Ian Coleman, offer this functionality. This has the benefit of your back ups again being human readable words with a low chance of error.

[dkbit98]

• Simplicity is always the best: the more moving parts of the device, the worse in some tests.
• 304 Stainless Steel is the best.
• Most devices pass the resistance test but are bad in temperature and wear, so try to reduce the number of moving parts.
• Devices that can withstand high temperatures are often bad.

Copper is also good metal and everyone can make their own homemade backup.
My idea is to buy some copper plates and try to make my own backup, and report will be posted here in bitcointalk.  
I don't trust any paper and pen, as I saw it how they fade easy in few years.
Multiple locations is fine, but we are not talking about that here.

Good to read specifics for most metals:
https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/why

Safeseed is one of the cheapest options and it is missing from your list:
https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/reviews/safe-seed/

[The Sceptical Chymist]

However, assuming that one of these devices is completely safe is incorrect. What if there is an explosion, and your back up is buried under tons of rubble? What if there if a flood or hurricane, and your back up is carried a few thousand meters away? What if it is stolen or otherwise inaccessible to you?

You're absolutely right, and though I do have a steelwallet that I got in a bundle with my Ledger Nano S, I wouldn't buy that or any others in OP's list simply because they're too expensive for what they are.  I also agree that redundancy is crucial when you're backing up your private keys/seed words.

There is one on Amazon that I actually think is pretty slick-looking, and I've had it on my watch list for a long time.  I don't think I'll ever buy it, but it's aesthetically pleasing to my eye (lol).

[o_e_l_e_o]

There is one on Amazon that I actually think is pretty slick-looking

Don't buy it!

I don't just say that because of my above statement that I do not believe this devices to be necessary. Rather, this was stress tested by Jameson Lopp, and much like other devices which feature a "tiles slotted in to a holder/template" design, it performed incredibly poorly. The fire stress resulted in almost complete data loss, and the corrosion stress test resulted in not just complete data loss, but complete loss of the wallet entirely as it disintegrated.

https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/reviews/ellipal-mnemonic-metal/

[Husires]

Safeseed is one of the cheapest options and it is missing from your list:
https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/reviews/safe-seed/

Copper is a good conductor of electricity and heat. It is malleable, I don't know why I chose it, but taking the tests would be fun.
I will add it later, but it failed a plantation failure, I am planning to add some devices away from the iron and steel parts.

There is one on Amazon that I actually think is pretty slick-looking, and I've had it on my watch list for a long time.  I don't think I'll ever buy it, but it's aesthetically pleasing to my eye (lol).

As I said before, if the moving parts are not tight and the design is stiff, the device will fail. Do not waste your money.

[dkbit98]

Jameson Lopp made Round IV report for Metal Bitcoin Seed Storage Stress Test:
https://blog.lopp.net/metal-bitcoin-seed-storage-stress-test-iv/

Several seed backup tools included Seedplate, Cryptoetch, Cypherwheel, Hodlinox Single Plate, Tjernlund, SteelKi, SAFU Ninja.
Best performed are Cryptoetch and Seedplate and both are priced around $40

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

A couple of brand new designs in there which makes it interesting. The Cryptoetch looks very interesting with its electrochemical etching process. I poked in to it a bit more and found a tutorial video on their website here: https://cryptoetch.com/. Certainly a cool and novel design, but given how well various "stamping" products hold up, particularly the Seedplate, it seems maybe a bit unnecessary to me.

The Safu Ninja again looks cool, but introduces the problem of the plates getting mixed up should the nut at the end of the screw fail or come loose, which the plate designs do not have. Given the recent data breach from Ledger, it is absolutely a good idea to avoid giving away your details if you can, but if you can go to a hardware store to pick up those components and a stamping set, you can just as easily pick up a small piece of stainless steel, which is what most of the plate designs are made of.

[dkbit98]

but if you can go to a hardware store to pick up those comments and a stamping set, you can just as easily pick up a small piece of stainless steel, which is what most of the plate designs are made of.

I do plan to go in my local hardware shop and buy several stainless steel and copper plates for my personal testing use, all thanks to Jameson Lopp 
They are very cheap and I can also order them online.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Memory is fickle. Unless you regularly practice and recite your seed phrase you will forget it, and most people are also bad at forming habits. Even if you are in the minority who will regularly practice, there are a thousand and one reasons you could forget it instantly, from a mild blow to the head following a simple accident or fall, to an illness or infection. We are even seeing neurological problems in people who have suffered from COVID, even in otherwise mild cases.

For example, imagine getting a call at work that your house is on fire. You immediately think of your paper backup, stored under a loose floorboard in the downstairs closet. By the time you make it home, nothing is left but cinders. Your backup, along with any chance you may have had to recover your bitcoin, is gone.

This paragraph is just wrong. A back up stored in the same physical location as your wallet is not a back up at all, for precisely this reason. Off site back ups are a must.

If you want to memorize your seed phrase for fun, go ahead, but you should not rely on it as a back up method, and you should still use multiple secured paper back ups.

[Lucius]

If you want to memorize your seed phrase for fun, go ahead, but you should not rely on it as a back up method, and you should still use multiple secured paper back ups.

Maybe it can be just for fun, but in that case another possible vector of attack comes to my mind - and that is that such a person under the influence of some drug or hypnosis actually reveals a secret to the attacker. The human brain is an extremely complex device, but I definitely agree that we should not rely on its memory when it comes to very sensitive data.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Hope you keep your first name and family name in memory. I know people whose first name length  is comparable with length of the  SEED phrase and they perfectly remeber it.

And how many times in their life do you think they've said their name out loud in person or over the phone, written it down on a form/paperwork/application/document/school work/college work/university work/etc., typed it in to a website/email/sign up/log in/etc. How many times is someone doing the same thing with their seed phrase? The two are not comparable.

In this case, nothing would help, even the iron rod with embossed SEED.

Everyone should have a back up method which does not depend on them knowing anything or even being present. How else are you going to pass your bitcoin on when you die? The easiest solution is to simply tell a family member.

Not for fun but as backup of my paper backup, even better, my paper backup ( for now on) is backup of my memory.

As I said, if you want to remember your seed phrase go ahead, provided you also have a paper back up. I work with people on a daily basis with neurological impairment from a variety of reasons, many of them young and fit individuals who have suddenly and without warning suffered a life changing event.