how do I keep my private key safe?

[Cantsay]

I think one of the safest ways is to remember them by heart. But there is a risk that you will forget them. I think the optimal decision will be to memorize some words and write other ones down so that even if someone will see them, they won't know what words are lacking.

Trust the mind to do that kind of job is a very risky thing and as one gets old the mind forget alot of thing so if it happens that you forgot just one of the words then you have lost your wallet.

Simply engraving them in a steel plate will definitely save from all this trouble of having to memorize secret phrases. At a point in time I was using some kind of a puzzle whereby I'll take the first six words and swap them with the last six words or just swap the two middle words so that even if it comes in contact with a scammer they won't be able to decipher the puzzle but later I found out the risk involved since I'm depending on my memory, what if I fail to remember the puzzle what then will I do? That was how I stopped using that puzzle method but we still have some that are using it up till now and have never faced any issue with it.

[Sweetbtc]

No solution is 100% perfect, writing the phrase on a metal plate and then burying it in the back garden can also be lost due to natural disasters or earthquakes like what happened in Turkey.

You can also use paper to keep your private keys safe and Can protect as much as possible, you can write it down on a piece of paper in a diary and store it in different places, thus you can keep your private keys safe from hackers.  Rather, the best way is to write it on a piece of paper and keep it in different places so that even if it is lost in one place, it is available to you in another place.

Hardware wallet is the only safe storage for your crypto

Hardware is considered to be the most secure, but you can also protect your other Wallet, Rather, try to keep your soft Wallet offline and bring it online only when needed. And don't connect everywhere.Many people connect their soft Wallet everywhere and lose all their assets in the same temptation.

[hosseinimr93]

You can also use paper to keep your private keys safe and Can protect as much as possible, you can write it down on a piece of paper in a diary and store it in different places,

In the case of writing your private key on a piece of paper, there's a big possibility that you miswrite it. Instead, you can generate a HD wallet and write your seed phrase.
The seed phrase consists of meaningful words and writing that is much easier than writing a private key.

[leonair]

I think one of the safest ways is to remember them by heart. But there is a risk that you will forget them. I think the optimal decision will be to memorize some words and write other ones down so that even if someone will see them, they won't know what words are lacking.

Encryption is best way to keep safe your private key like if you follow database data encryption system then you will see the general system is if you write a normal world (Bitcointalk) and if you encrypted this words then it will (cjuepjoubml) which is totally broken Words. It should be kept in such a way that no one but you can understand that word. Another problem is that when you die, your future generations will not understand.  In this case your stored bitcoins or other cryptos will become worthless as no one can use it.

Hardware wallet is the only safe storage for your crypto

Non Custodial wallet and hardware wallet is totally different things. Non Custodial wallet will provide you a provate key but hardware wallet is a physical device. Op ask for a way to safe private key. So praising hardware wallets is pointless here.

[Mr.sprin]

I have wondered for long, if there is  anyway to recover my private keys when they get lost or when I don't remember them. Someone advised me to use Gmail and store them as mails then I taught again, what if my Gmail gets hacked. Is this actually the best way to store them or is there any other ways I can store or Keep them safe?

if you are negligent in saving your private key then you will regret it for life, you should save your private key on paper and keep it neat and secret so that other people don't know about it, don't save your private key on your cell phone or anything that can connect to the network is not secure can be hacked by others.

[MoonOfLife]

I have wondered for long, if there is  anyway to recover my private keys when they get lost or when I don't remember them. Someone advised me to use Gmail and store them as mails then I taught again, what if my Gmail gets hacked. Is this actually the best way to store them or is there any other ways I can store or Keep them safe?

You should know that everything in this world is relative, not absolute, that means there is no absolute safety method, but the storage on Gmail is really too risky. I don't know which method is most effective, but I'm saving all my seed phrases in the form of a diary and backing up them into many copies, stored in different places, and giving it to relatives.

[coinerer]

I think one of the safest ways is to remember them by heart. But there is a risk that you will forget them. I think the optimal decision will be to memorize some words and write other ones down so that even if someone will see them, they won't know what words are lacking.

Encryption is best way to keep safe your private key like if you follow database data encryption system then you will see the general system is if you write a normal world (Bitcointalk) and if you encrypted this words then it will (cjuepjoubml) which is totally broken Words. It should be kept in such a way that no one but you can understand that word. Another problem is that when you die, your future generations will not understand.  In this case your stored bitcoins or other cryptos will become worthless as no one can use it.

yes if op store his private key in online then encryption model will be a good way to keep safe his private key. But op has to be very smart in this case.  And after encrypting your private key, he should remember it well. But on the other hand he can store his private keys on a pen drive or HDD.  Or write it on a paper note and hide it secretly.  In this way, the privacy of the private key can be protected. But in all cases there is some risk as it cannot be memorized.  It has to be stored somewhere and it may end up in someone else's control for some reason

[alik111]

I think you storing private keys in Gmail is not a good idea at all. You should use hardware wallets or you can save your private keys or phrase in offline by writing in a diary or in a paper. And don't store your private keys offline because it can be hacked anytime.

[huu78]

i recomend paper wallet,Paper wallets involve printing out your private keys and storing them in a safe place, such as a bank vault or a fireproof safe. This method is free and doesn't require any technical expertise, but it does have some security risks, such as the possibility of the paper being lost, damaged, or stolen.

[serjent05]

I think one of the safest ways is to remember them by heart. But there is a risk that you will forget them. I think the optimal decision will be to memorize some words and write other ones down so that even if someone will see them, they won't know what words are lacking.

As you stated there is a risk to foget them, so it is one of the safest way to keep a private key.  In my opinion, that is one of the worst methods in terms of recovery if it happens that you forgot the seed phrases of your Bitcoin wallet.  And I think the most optimal dividing the private key and keep them in separate storage or file this way, your private key won't be exposed if one of the storage got breached.

i recomend paper wallet,Paper wallets involve printing out your private keys and storing them in a safe place, such as a bank vault or a fireproof safe. This method is free and doesn't require any technical expertise, but it does have some security risks, such as the possibility of the paper being lost, damaged, or stolen.

Also, better to laminate the paper wallet to prolong the ink duration. Protect the ink from fading because a blank paper wallet is no difference than losing a private key/seed phrases

[Crypto Library]

I think one of the safest ways is to remember them by heart. But there is a risk that you will forget them. I think the optimal decision will be to memorize some words and write other ones down so that even if someone will see them, they won't know what words are lacking.

Encryption is best way to keep safe your private key like if you follow database data encryption system then you will see the general system is if you write a normal world (Bitcointalk) and if you encrypted this words then it will (cjuepjoubml) which is totally broken Words. It should be kept in such a way that no one but you can understand that word. Another problem is that when you die, your future generations will not understand.  In this case your stored bitcoins or other cryptos will become worthless as no one can use it.

yes if op store his private key in online then encryption model will be a good way to keep safe his private key. But op has to be very smart in this case.  And after encrypting your private key, he should remember it well. But on the other hand he can store his private keys on a pen drive or HDD.  Or write it on a paper note and hide it secretly.  In this way, the privacy of the private key can be protected. But in all cases there is some risk as it cannot be memorized.  It has to be stored somewhere and it may end up in someone else's control for some reason

It will become a big problem when a manually memorizes the encryption word because it is very normal to forget those. But it can be a solution that he will always use a certain format to keep all private keys safe by doing encryption.
In this case for solving this problem, It can be also a good solution for that person to use encryptions tools, there are lots of encryption-decryption tools available on the internet. I like this tool, here you can encrypt with a custom key, and also when decrypting, use that custom key or code to decrypt. - https://www.devglan.com/online-tools/text-encryption-decryption

[QueenVera]

I think one of the safest ways is to remember them by heart. But there is a risk that you will forget them. I think the optimal decision will be to memorize some words and write other ones down so that even if someone will see them, they won't know what words are lacking.

That's not the safest way as you can lose everything by just forgetting the entire private key or the ones you decided to memorized and this means you can access your coins anymore. Even though you think you have perfect memory, don't forget you can get into an accident anytime and who knows what that'll do your brain, it could damage it completely or you won't be able to remain somethings.

Writing down your private key on a piece of paper and keeping it in a safe in your house is what I'll consider the most easiest and secure method. Even though you get rob there's less chances that the robbers will know the value of what is written on the piece of paper in the safe. To be more secure, you can write them in separate papers and hide them in different locations.

[Ryu_Ar1]

Previously I used Sheets and locked it to store some things I thought were important like private keys or seed phrases but long before I got to know this forum. I am now following some of the suggestions given by some experienced people here by copying them in a personal book that I hold. I think you should try the same thing because this is also quite important, especially for online storage, it's clear that the risk is quite large in hacking, because we won't know if someone is watching our movements and trying to enter the access we have.