Best Way to Carry Your Seed When Traveling Or Moving Abroad?

[jerry0]

So I'm from the US.  But i travel quite a bit and am outside the US majority of the time.  My seed is stored online.   I do have my hardware wallet nano ledger s with me though.  Now I didn't want to bring my seed with me when traveling because well imagine something happens at customs and my bags get searched... well what if customs search through my stuff and then see a paper with my seed.  And of course there is a chance they know what it is and can write it down etc.  I heard many examples of those workers stealing from luggage, so imagine a search and then they see piece of paper and its words and they know what crypto is.  But that is rare of course.  




But when i travel abroad, I don't want to have my seed in the apartment as I don't think that is safe.  Where im located, there is lot of breakins... thats how it is here.  Thief would take electronics and wallet etc.  Doesn't matter what neighborhood you are in... its like this here and very common.  So people that say move... well most places are like this.  Even places that has security.  And because of this, i left my seed back in the US.  I mean look even in those rich places in california, you have breakins etc.




Now what I'm curious is for those of you who travel or move... how do you bring your seed with you?  Obviously if you are moving to somewhere else in the same state, well you can drive there with it so no big deal.  But what if you are traveling from say florida to los angeles?  Or florida all the way to canada or europe?  I mean having the seed with you written on a piece of paper when traveling when flying got to make you all nervous right?

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[jerry0]

Now i think a good solution is leave your seed in a safe deposit box... but do it at two different banks.  Thus your seed would have half the seed in one bank, and half in another. 




But what happens when you leave the state and move to another state or another country?  Well obviously you are going to bring your seed with you since you won't go to that bank anymore.  I mean you going to have you seed written a few times broken in pieces and in your wallet during your entire trip?




So I always felt like storing your seed online was a safe way as long as you encrypt it.  Thus imagine you type your seed in a program like lastpass or keepass... then upload it to the cloud like dropbox or google drive.  So in order to access it... you need your google or dropbox email password.... then you need your lastpass/keepass password in order to access it.  So that way, you don't have to worry about anything physical happening... since you store it digitally.



But of course you risk getting hacked as I read so many cases of people putting their seed online in like facebook or wordpad and not encrypt it.  And of course just typing it in their email and saving it as a word document where there is no protection against it if your email get hacked.  But if you encrypt it the way i described... would that be safe?  That way... you dont need to worry about breakins, fires, natural disasters happening etc?



I gotta wonder how some of you travel or move when you do this especially if you are leaving your state or country where you need to fly.

[aesma]

What do you mean by storing your seed online ? You're getting my pulse racing ! To me that's where a seed should never be. It should be in a safe, physical place.

For traveling, I could see several options. For example having the words in several chunks, one bit in your wallet (the one with the fiat I mean), one bit as an encrypted file on your smartphone, one bit on an encrypted file on a USB key.

But to be honest a hardware wallet is enough for me, I don't really envision the need to have my seed always with me.

[hatshepsut93]

The most secure method is to commit your seed to your own memory, this way it can only be stored if you are forced to reveal it under some threat. But this method is also dangerous, because human memory is so unreliable.

You could hide you seed inside the pages of a book - unless you're on some watchlist, border officials aren't going to look too much into your stuff. Theoretically, anyone who will carefully search your stuff will find this seed, but on practice this should be good enough.

[Wexnident]

Well, you could try doing it like those spy flick movies if you really really want to be secured. Write a diary maybe, put random stuff BUT put the first letters as your seed. Up to you how to actually do it, it may be a bunch of random numbers in a book, a diary as I said, or something else, just remember that the first letters should be your seed and remember when it ends. A simpler version would be like what you said, split it into two, but bring it with you, no need to store it at different banks. You can create multiple versions of codes that have your seed hidden so that when one goes poof, you at least have backup AND you at least have the certainty that no one would identify that your seed was leaked since it's hidden in a code only you should know.

[Max_Headroom]

Well, you could try doing it like those spy flick movies if you really really want to be secured.

  true don't go like sic-fi Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

[Tolosi]

One way is to store hidden text in an image file.

This hidden text can be encrypted before storing in the picture. Ten keep several pictures on an USB.

[dansus021]

all the member on here is saying good advice

but for me keep it simple write down in piece paper and put it  on your wallet the custom will not check for that and second one u can use https://cryptomining-blog.com/4801-cryptosteel-the-ultimate-cold-wallet/

Wallet made by steel that fire proof 

[manfredmann]

Save in a removable storage device like USB or even bynuaing cellphones and make sure to make some back up like physical hand written to a paper and keep it in the wallet. We know the probable problems that could occur and that might be losing the seed phrase and this is why a back up must be needed in order to access fund even one of the seed phrase kept losses. Make sure to transfer into another wallet if bitcoin seedphrase loses.

[malevolent]

My seed is stored online.

For your sake I hope that at least it's in an encrypted file or it is itself encrypted. If you get malware on the device used to access your seed you could lose your funds.

I do have my hardware wallet nano ledger s with me though.  Now I didn't want to bring my seed with me when traveling because well imagine something happens at customs and my bags get searched...

Then don't bring the seed with you, or at least not unless it's somehow encrypted.

[BigBoy89]

I will tell you what I'm using, you will decide is it good for you.

Custom seed - I picked up a public domain book and my feed is the X word from page Y, X+1 & Y+1, etc. Thus my seed is always online, always accessible through the internet and yet always hidden.

No need of encryption or anything, it's saved only in my head.

[malevolent]

No need of encryption or anything, it's saved only in my head.

So it's a custom scheme at picking words for a brainwallet that you have come up with. I would advise others against such ideas with no dead man's switch if they have anyone they'd like to inherit their coins in the event of death. It also sounds predictable enough that someone with a lot of time on their hands may eventually stumble on your brainwallet.

[pooya87]

My seed is stored online.

You should consider this seed already compromised and move your funds to cold storage ASAP.

I do have my hardware wallet nano ledger s with me though.  Now I didn't want to bring my seed with me when traveling because well imagine something happens at customs and my bags get searched...

You don't need to carry both the seed and the hardware wallet, there is just no point in it. Seed in this case is only used for the recovery in case the hardware wallet was lost or damaged,...
As for the customs searching your bags, they do that and I have heard they can confiscate your hardware wallet.

But when i travel abroad, I don't want to have my seed in the apartment as I don't think that is safe. 

Use a strong encryption on it then.

Custom seed - I picked up a public domain book and my feed is the X word from page Y, X+1 & Y+1, etc. Thus my seed is always online, always accessible through the internet and yet always hidden.

Now that you've made your setup public, anyone familiar with you in person and enough incentive will be able to figure it out and find your seed and steal your coins.

[boyptc]

The most secure method is to commit your seed to your own memory, this way it can only be stored if you are forced to reveal it under some threat. But this method is also dangerous, because human memory is so unreliable.

Truly dangerous. Just like for me, my memory is no longer sharp, and barely remember things such as words and private keys individually. I've watched a series that have a protagonist to have the best memory and being intelligent.

If one can trust his memory and mind, this is an amazing method. But again, for people like me, could lead to burning those coins.

I would avoid putting it on cloud storage. The traditional method is still the best for me like writing it down but with a twist, not with a paper. Like metal or embroidered into your socks or handkerchief or cloth. What do you think of that?

[Krislaw]

Did you just you store your seeds online? That's very risky because of hacking. Best ways is to write them down and store them in a very safe place. What you can do is to get a USB drive for just the purpose of storing the seeds but not can't be 100% relied on. Another thing is to use an hardware wallet or steel plates. I'd say it's risky taking your seeds around with you.

[Wind_FURY]

OP, set up a separate "travelling wallet", and memorize your seed words. It's easy. If you're too lazy, then save it in a keychain-USB drive, and encrypt it.

[Walterhank]

It is a better choice if you save it at home even during traveling, or could hand it over to someone you trust. If you do need to store with yourself then find out a way to store your keys in a way that can only be understood by you. Guess you will have to figure it out by yourself.

[squatter]

So I'm from the US.  But i travel quite a bit and am outside the US majority of the time.  My seed is stored online.   I do have my hardware wallet nano ledger s with me though.  Now I didn't want to bring my seed with me when traveling because well imagine something happens at customs and my bags get searched... well what if customs search through my stuff and then see a paper with my seed.  And of course there is a chance they know what it is and can write it down etc.  I heard many examples of those workers stealing from luggage, so imagine a search and then they see piece of paper and its words and they know what crypto is.  But that is rare of course.  

But when i travel abroad, I don't want to have my seed in the apartment as I don't think that is safe.  Where im located, there is lot of breakins... thats how it is here.  Thief would take electronics and wallet etc.  Doesn't matter what neighborhood you are in... its like this here and very common.  So people that say move... well most places are like this.  Even places that has security.  And because of this, i left my seed back in the US.  I mean look even in those rich places in california, you have breakins etc.

You should be using encryption, particularly if you store a copy of your seed online. That way, theft of your seed won't automatically result in loss of your bitcoins.

You could type your seed in a plain text document, then encrypt it with password protection. You could also physically store your seed words in a way -- or in multiple parts -- where only you would be able to recognize and reconstruct them. If you leave them written down as a 12-word seed, there's a decent chance someone will recognize them as such.

Now what I'm curious is for those of you who travel or move... how do you bring your seed with you?  Obviously if you are moving to somewhere else in the same state, well you can drive there with it so no big deal.  But what if you are traveling from say florida to los angeles?  Or florida all the way to canada or europe?  I mean having the seed with you written on a piece of paper when traveling when flying got to make you all nervous right?

Having multiple encrypted digital copies solves all issues. Just make sure to a create a system where you'll never forget or lose your encryption key.

[LogitechMouse]

The most secure method is to commit your seed to your own memory, this way it can only be stored if you are forced to reveal it under some threat. But this method is also dangerous, because human memory is so unreliable.

I'm thinking this to be the most reliable way of carrying your seed when you are travelling but I realized that I don't have a sharp memory already and I can forget the seeds in an instant or after a few days.

Its really hard to pick which is the most reliable way to carry your seed when travelling because it will depend on you. Some might wrote it in a paper and kept it so no one will know it. Some are just memorizing it etc. On my part, putting in a encrypted flash drive is the one that I'm using and I'm using 2 flash drives to make it more secured.

P.S. I just thought that making a sentence using the seed would help too what do you think .

[Josefjix]

You can create a PGP public address and encrypt the keys  to yourself and decrypt them afterwards since it can only be decrypted by you I think that is another way to be safe out there.