[Tips] Ways to Protect Recovery Phrase - Mnemonic

[aysg76]

Given that this thread is in the Beginners and Help forum, the whole topic could be condensed as follows:

Write it down on paper, make at least two copies, and store them safely and separately.

That's it.

That's right because most of the newbies here don't have any idea about using different ways to store their seed safely and in that case the perfect advice is to store them safely on piece of paper only without any online storage involvement.They should note it down once they have setup their wallet and no pictures should be taken or saved as notes in the mobile phone which could be reason for loss of funds.Having proper backup in two or more places is important because if one place is compromised you can have it from other sources.

You cam trust someone close to you in case something happens to you they can use your funds but keep in mind trust is the vital factor that plays major role in keeping your funds safe.

Splitting your seed phrase or obfuscating it with swapped words or order is always a bad idea. It very rarely increases your security in a meaningful way, and more often simply leads to problems recovering your coins in the future. If you want to have a 2-factor back up, then use passphrases or multisig.

Mixing up the words maybe confusing for the person himself and he needs to sort the words in order to use his funds or transfer them but in the case of splitting it becomes more difficult as you have to collect the words and if any of the 12 or 24 words is not in correct order or not available with you then funds are lost permanently.So why go with such complex methods when you some simple and traditional way can save you from lot of troubles.

Memorizing your seed phrase is a terrible idea and should be practiced by no one.

I remember there was one such thread on the forum where member was using unique way of memorising the seed phrase like with images of Queen Elizabeth, elephant and relevant example but it sounds too complex and bad idea to many including me as human mind is strong and can have storage but there are some limitations and we should not experiment with them in such risky way.So avoid this is really bad way of keeping it safe as it this could direct lead to fund loss.

Other than writing on paper, the only other item on that list which is acceptable is a metal back up. However, this is by no means necessary since paper is a perfectly adequate back up, and metal back ups require far more time and effort than writing on paper. There is no need to get hung up on making a metal back up instead of just making paper back ups and converting to metal at a later time.

You can try different methods other than paper definitely but it's time consuming and you need to have proper metal that can survive extensive condition of heat also so that in any case of calamity or fire it could survive the damage with seed backup safely printed on it.Members could take a look at these threads:

Securing Your Seed Phrase with Washers

n0nce's Steel Washer Backup jig (customisable)

There are many such ways in which you can protect your funds but see they all are offline ways because storing them in online storage like cloud,drives or even having them stored on your device as soft copy is prone to hacks and stealing of your funds so be safe not to use them and keep your funds safe because it's your responsibility.

[hatshepsut93]

Going to the effort of stamping my seed phrase on washers, and then covering them up with some tamper evident seal, and locking them in a fireproof safe in my basement which is bolted to my foundations, all becomes pointless if I then also store my seed phrase in a text file on my daily use computer. When we have a back up method which is both one of the most secure and also by far the easiest - write it down on paper - then why suggest anything else to newbies?

It doesn't completely negate a good back up, it rises risks against certain threats while lowering risks against other threats. In your example the person would have a drastically higher chance of losing their coins to malware, but the steel plate seed will give them a good chance of saving their seed from a house fire.

The best way around this is to use multi-sig. I can leave individual seed phrases with multiple friends or relatives knowing that they cannot access the coins within.

With multisig you can lose your coins if your friends start losing their keys. IMO this is even worse than a bank, because banks specialize at storing things, but regular people easily lose and forget things.

I disagree with this advice. Don't store your seed phrase in the cloud, period.

This can be the last resort in certain situations. Like being in a warzone or in a place affected by some natural disaster. When all your physical backups can be lost at any second, even the ones you store in other places.

[joker_josue]

I disagree with this advice. Don't store your seed phrase in the cloud, period.

This can be the last resort in certain situations. Like being in a warzone or in a place affected by some natural disaster. When all your physical backups can be lost at any second, even the ones you store in other places.

That's true. But using novem to store this information requires great care and the highest possible level of protection.

If you get to use this, in addition to the various measures already mentioned by other users, it will be to have this information inside a file in which its name has nothing to do with the cryptos and the content of the file has much more information than just the keys.

For example, writing the words in the middle of a 200 page book. It's not easy and much less recommended, but here's this suggestion.

[tranthidung]

Given that this thread is in the Beginners and Help forum, the whole topic could be condensed as follows:

Write it down on paper, make at least two copies, and store them safely and separately.

That's it.

I agree with you. Keep it simple for newbies. They just make several copies and keep them safe and in secret place.

It's not good if they start with complicated process and don't actually know what they are doing. In the end, it would be a nightmare if they lose in a complicated procedure to recover their wallet.

So, to start off, they should use a simple method, backup on paper, test validity / usability of their backup, try to recover their wallet with backup. If the recovery works, they can start using wallet.

The step to test validity/ usability of backup is very important because if you make some mistake when backing up your wallet, it won't work in case you need it definitely. So in the end, it is like you don't have any backup at all.

After being proficient with a cycle from create, backup, recover wallets on paper, they can try other methods.

[o_e_l_e_o]

With multisig you can lose your coins if your friends start losing their keys. IMO this is even worse than a bank, because banks specialize at storing things, but regular people easily lose and forget things.

Which is the whole point of multi-sig - to build redundancy in to the system so it doesn't matter if one or two friends start losing the keys. If you really don't trust your friends, then go for something like a 4-of-8, meaning 50% of them can lose the keys and you can still recover your wallet. But if your friends can't be trusted to safely hold on to a piece of paper, then maybe you should be looking for other friends/relatives/locations to store your keys with.

This can be the last resort in certain situations. Like being in a warzone or in a place affected by some natural disaster. When all your physical backups can be lost at any second, even the ones you store in other places.

If you have absolutely no other options, then it's marginally better than just committing your seed phrase to memory, which is obviously the worst possible method. But I wouldn't go recommending in a thread aimed at newbies who don't understand the distinction.