How to properly store seed phrase during inspection?

[NeuroticFish]

Is there a possible way that can be avoided?

1. Why do you need the seed go with you? There are many ways of thought an maybe, just maybe, you don't need the seed go with you. Imho this would be best.
2. If there's a backup seed still there at home, maybe storing it encrypted / password protected on 1-2 USB sticks would do the job.
3. The seed is a text, hence it can be disguised in plain sight, like (already said) underlining words in a book, or even having 2 pieces of paper with different parts of the seed (people can mistake them for 12-words seed and they are together a 24-words seed).
4. Go to https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039/english.txt and convert your list of words into a list of corresponding numbers.

[1714632295]

1714632295

[1714632295]

1714632295

[1714632295]

1714632295

[1714632295]

1714632295

[Apocollapse]

I wonder why someone need to carry his own seed phrase to everywhere he go? does there's a chance he will use huge amount during travelling? I don't think so, because you must have enough cash in hands and not put all of your money in Bitcoin. If you're really want to transact with Bitcoin (considering you're travelling to country that accept Bitcoin like El Salvador and Central African Republic) you can install non custodial wallet on your phone and only carry small amount on there.

[harapan]

I read about a guy who was a tattoo artist. 

He had twelve mistresses and satisfied each of those twelve girls.  Over time, he bought himself 5 bitcoins and the question arose before him - how to store the seed phrase? 

He had an idea.  On the butt of each of his mistresses, he tattooed one of the words of the seed phrase.  He believed that this was a very reliable way to store seeds, but this turned out not to be the case.  All of his 12 mistresses once met, began to communicate with each other and conspired to rob him.  They have long guessed that the English word tattooed on their buttocks is the key to great wealth. 

The most difficult thing for them was to solve the sequence of these 12 words, but in the end they solved this riddle. 

They eventually withdrew his bitcoins to their bitcoin addresses and stopped communicating with the guy. 

As a result, this guy was very disappointed in this way of storing seed phrases.

How can he even do such a thing even the dumpest human will crack that code down, cracking the codes will never be difficult.

He has himself to be blamed is it that he has so much money to loose giving to the orphanage would have been better option.

Why would someone carry his seed phrase around just like that, that is not good idea, those twelve words can even carried in once head, loss of memory will only cause one to forget but for safety reasons write it down.

[DdmrDdmr]

I don’t know if anyone has found any information on the aftermaths of the seed being displayed in the manner it was. Fortunately, the handwriting is pretty awful, making it not straight forward at all to depict the actual 24 words on the list (don’t tell me no one has given it a go with the BIP39 list alongside).
 
What seems surprising is that the video is actually circulating freely around the internet. I’d have thought that Nevada police recorded videos are not accessible to browse unless deliberately released for the public interest, and this particular case doesn’t seem to be of the kind.

One side effect to ponder is that, regarless of the funds themselves, the seed will give whomever access to browse through all the historical TXs related to the wallet, which although semi-anonymous, can lead to revealing information one would not want to be revealed.


Note:
Funny article heading I stumbled across whilst trying to find additional information on the event:
https://pcomnews.xyz/police-camera-leaks-suspects-sperm-sentence-during-vehicle-inspection/

Some internet posts that copy article from third-party sources sometimes make some comical minor adjustments, which change the meaning altogether …

[Yawa2020]

How can he even do such a thing even the dumpest human will crack that code down, cracking the codes will never be difficult.

He has himself to be blamed is it that he has so much money to loose giving to the orphanage would have been better option.

Why would someone carry his seed phrase around just like that, that is not good idea, those twelve words can even carried in once head, loss of memory will only cause one to forget but for safety reasons write it down.

Moving around with seed phrase is absolutely wrong unless in certain circumstances like changing of location or something of similar. But saying those twelve words can easily be stored in once head is not as simple and easy as it sounds. Learning it off hand is never an issue but the chance of interchange is very high not even talking about of memory loss. Written with caution is somehow better.

[Queentoshi]

It is about a suspect that police searched his car and body camera revealed the suspect's seed phrase to the whole world.

Walking around with something as important as that is an error first of all, secondly, I feel a good job was not done trying to keep the seed phrase safe. During inspection, the police person doing the inspection is not a machine and should simply understand you if you demand that he searches wherever you have dropped your seed phrase in the vehicle ensuring that his body cam doesn't capture it. You are not refusing the inspection, just letting them know the importance of what you have and how they can put your legal investment at risk exposing your seed phrase to the body cam, they can inspect that side with their eyes, not a body cam.

[len01]

It will be easier if you don't get the seed phrase out of the house and instead store them in a box or keep them in your bedroom cupboard, it's that simple.
but if you really want to move house and are forced to take that seed phrase with you, it's better to save it in your cellphone's photo gallery and when you get to your destination you can rewrite it on new paper.
actually things like that for me are very simple but some people sometimes carelessly carry seed phrases wherever they go.

but if it happens to me while on the road and there is an inspection by the police, I hide it first in the dashboard of the car which is very difficult for the police to reach.

[kryptqnick]

Why was the video released? I understand why body cams should be there and record inspections, but isn't it just so it can be reviewed upon request if there are allegations of misconduct or if something bad happens? Why was the video published online at all? Obviously, the seed is enough to take the money out, and now anyone could have done it. It's been 8 months, though, as the cam says the date is April 22. So there must have been a follow-up, as surely someone typed in the words and took the money? I can't see information about such stuff, though. If the money was stolen, and it was the police who published the bodycam video, I'd say the officers should be held accountable for leading to a loss of funds.
As for prevention of such situations, I think it's safer to store a seed in a mix of other text, so that you know it's a seed, but others can't.

[Hispo]

What about creating a second seed/wallet before the travel and getting an address for it, then proceed to create a transaction with the money from the first seed to the second one you just created.

this transaction would be intended not to be broadcast until you reach your destination, this way, in case your seed gets revealed, it would be the second one which is empty, so you can choose not to broadcast the transaction, leaving your funds safe at home.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

The video does indeed show the date of the recording to be the 22/04/2022. Not sure when the video was first released, buy what the crypto media have picked up on corresponds to a fragment of a nearly 54 minute long video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aJ--1-DFgQ

The above link is a month old, and has 1,2M views since then. I haven’t checked if there are prior releases though, but it’s likely that the video was leaked months after the recording, limiting the damage from the tenancy point of view, though not the privacy one. What's more, the full video, I believe, identifies the dude, and I think I caught wind of him giving a home address.

There are a couple of reddit threads that state that the person they searched was a former-fbi agent, and currently worked in cyber security:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/zo9i21/lesson_learned_cop_pulls_over_former_fbi_agent/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/zo7nq1/cops_pull_over_former_fbi_now_cyber_security_self/

The details may be in the video, but I can’t be bothered to go through it all. He does say he works as a contractor, has what looks like a law enforcement badge and a bunch of other stuff. Watching the video in full may corroborate what the above two links state.

[Oceat]

This is a lesson to all bitcoiners traveling with their seed phrase because, some bitcoiners are now joining police or army force which they know how all those seeds phrase look like in someone document or system. I used to save my seed phrase in a place nobody can discover and, even though you discover the place, it will be difficult for you to know is a seed phrase I store there because, I have learnt from other people mistakes not to expose my seed phrase to anybody.

This will be a lesson to someone in the future to not bring your seed phrase with you or simply do not make it obvious that you have a seed phrase with you in times like the unexpected inspection. There are times this kind of thing or other things will bound to happen so it's best to leave or hide your precious seed phrase to somewhere that no one could intervene except you or the person you trusted with the seed phrase.

Although, we don't know what happen to the wallet or is there something left on it this is a very valuable lesson to everyone.

[coupable]

This is a lesson to all bitcoiners traveling with their seed phrase because, some bitcoiners are now joining police or army force which they know how all those seeds phrase look like in someone document or system. I used to save my seed phrase in a place nobody can discover and, even though you discover the place, it will be difficult for you to know is a seed phrase I store there because, I have learnt from other people mistakes not to expose my seed phrase to anybody.

It's a matter of privacy. While the adoption increases, events of lost seeds and lyked passwords. And as the use is popular, do not expect to find everyone preferring Bitcoin because it gives more privacy, but only because it can be used instead of money and provides an available investment. These same people are the ones who save large amounts of crypto on trading platforms and do not have the courage to be responsible for their money in private wallets.

[Oshosondy]

To let the seed phrase remain in words, using a very strong passphrase would be the best I could think about, encrypting the seed phrase can also be good, but I will prefer to just extend the word with a strong passphrase which its backup will not be in the same place with the seed phrase.

I wonder why someone need to carry his own seed phrase to everywhere he go? does there's a chance he will use huge amount during travelling? I don't think so, because you must have enough cash in hands and not put all of your money in Bitcoin.

What if the person is relocating like I said on the OP? There are situations that you may have your seed phrase with you while traveling, but relocating is the only reason tht came to my mind as of now.

If you're really want to transact with Bitcoin (considering you're travelling to country that accept Bitcoin like El Salvador and Central African Republic) you can install non custodial wallet on your phone and only carry small amount on there.

This is a good option, hardware wallet and cold wallet is not even meant for the purpose of carrying it about, just a wallet on a mobile phone with small amount of coins would be better.

[Hamphser]

Don't make it look like a seed phrase. People these days are aware of what seed phrases are look like.

Although this experience is one of the few and sorry for that guy that has to experience it but, I'm sure that many are learning from his experience.

Maybe have a sequence and jumble the combination but I think that someone who doesn't have a strong memory might forget it. At least make a pattern that you are the only one that knows it.

when you are really that too careless or confident about those phrases to be stored on something which is really that too exposed then you do have that kind of risk which it is really that
normal and its true that this would really be a lesson learned for those people  who do really see this kind of situation to be possible for your keys to be exposed.
When you are really that actively making some travels or transfers then it is really just right on storing up your keys on something which isnt really on your side always like
on having on your own home or would be stored up on places which cant be easily exposed.Its true that it would really be that wise on making some shuffle of words
and combinations on your phrases.As long it cant really be read up by someone easily then it would really be considered to be safe.You are obliged and the ones responsible
for these stuffs.

[suzanne5223]

Don't make it look like a seed phrase. People these days are aware of what seed phrases are look like.

Although this experience is one of the few and sorry for that guy that has to experience it but, I'm sure that many are learning from his experience.

Yes, cryptocurrency enthusiasts will learn a lesson from what happened to the guy whose police stopped and search his vehicle. However, writing a seed phrase and not making it look like a seed phrase is not a good idea because it will only take an experienced cryptocurrency enthusiast 2 seconds to figure out the phrase was a crypto wallet seed phrase. Just like the second cop in the recorded video did.
I think the best thing we can do is come up with a secret code for writing seed phrases which is what I do, in my seed phrase I rewrite everything in the language that only I understand.  An example, C-O-D-E = Y-B-O-Z

Maybe have a sequence and jumble the combination but I think that someone who doesn't have a strong memory might forget it. At least make a pattern that you are the only one that knows it.

This will be better, and this is why it's better to have a safe deposit box or vault.

[Darker45]

There are probably a number of ways not to make it obvious. I guess it's not anymore safe nowadays to just merely list words. Worse, in the case of what happened in Nevada, it was also indicated that the funds are kept in a Ledger wallet.

This is also what I actually did with my seed phrase. There was a PIN and a password along with it, making it clear it was a seed phrase. Perhaps we could write a letter instead or perhaps a poem or whatever that uses the words in order. Or perhaps it is not really wise to keep it in your wallet. It's probably better to roll it really thin and hide it inside a small pocket of one of your clothes in your bag or even inside the hem of a shirt.

[m2017]

Of course, it is absolutely not a reasonable idea to carry seed phrase with you. I don't know this guy's motives, but he was definitely unfortunate enough to meet law enforcement. But if there is a need to transport the seed phrase, then, as you can see, transporting it in plain text and without any changes is fraught with the security of your funds.

As already mentioned above, you don't need to do like the hero of this video. Keep seed phrase only in a safe place and don't touch unless absolutely necessary. If you need to transport the seed phrase, then you can use various methods to make it difficult to access information. In order not to repeat the suggestions of other users, I can recommend, for example, installing an encrypted Linux OS on a USB flash drive and saving the seed phrase (or immediately enter the seed phrase into the electrum so that it is not in clear form and, if necessary, you can receive / send btc). Of course, it is not permissible to connect to the Internet using this OS. Or take security measures to avoid leakage of this information.

This is not the safest method for a number of reasons (for example, due to the likelihood of a flash drive failing), but in some situations you can use it.

[NotATether]

Put your seed phrase(s) inside a small opaque bag, small enough so that it can't contain any guns or knives or anything like that. Maybe even an old and otherwise empty wallet will do the trick (and why the hell would police insist on searching there?).

[hopenotlate]

- cut -
There are a couple of reddit threads that state that the person they searched was a former-fbi agent, and currently worked in cyber security:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/zo9i21/lesson_learned_cop_pulls_over_former_fbi_agent/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/zo7nq1/cops_pull_over_former_fbi_now_cyber_security_self/

The details may be in the video, but I can’t be bothered to go through it all. He does say he works as a contractor, has what looks like a law enforcement badge and a bunch of other stuff. Watching the video in full may corroborate what the above two links state.

In my opinion it is high unlikely a former FBI agent moreover expert and currently engaged in the cyber security sector can act in this unprepared way of storing their private keys even if actually there is some clues that can induce in thinking so and he self declare to be a hacker if I understand correctly.
Weird story imo.

[yhiaali3]

Something really strange, at first I wonder why the police publish this video on social media? Isn't this a violation of the law?

The second surprising thing is why this person carries his initial phrase with him in the car. This is a very dangerous behavior, because even if the police do not search his car, he may be exposed to theft, an accident, or anything else that causes him to lose his initial phrase and lose his money.
Unless he's moving out of his house permanently, why would he carry his initial phrase in the car and not simply leave it somewhere safe at home?

Of course I am sad about what happened with the man, his initial phrase spread on the Internet and all his money may be lost, but his negligence and lack of proper security measures is the reason.