My experience with memorizing seed phrases

[BitDane]

Interesting thing about memory, it's easier for me to repeat them in the sequence that I was always repeating (seed 1 -> seed 2 -> seed 3 -> seed 4) than to repeat only one seed that isn't the first. Also I can't repeat the words starting from non-first word or in an order that isn't original. So to me it's more like keeping in memory one big 48-word seed than having 4 seeds of 12 words each.

This is because our brain can easily recognize patterns.  The way the seedphrase is memorized and practiced, our brain conceive it as a pattern so when we try to make it in random, the pattern in our brain is broken thus we have hard time remembering the next word.

So in summary, I think memorizing a seed is easier than most people think, and there's no need to come up with songs or rhymes or other stuff, they can probably even make things worse. But in general memory is not reliable, even in long term, so this shouldn't be viewed as a reliable backup. It's just a nice extra layer of backup that doesn't require any complicated setup, and its strongest upside is that it's always with you (until your memory fails).

I agree, if our brain develop a pattern on the seed pharse it is much easier to remember because it all needs is the initial string and the next will automatically follow.  But obviously people brain has limit.  Memorizing is good for those who have high retentivity but bad to those who are not.  There are also cases where the brains deteriorates and start forgetting things.  This is disastrous to those who rely on their memories for important things.  So to be sure about not forgetting things, a more reliable back up is needed.

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[Yatsan]

It can be put in memory indeed by memorizing. I do get the idea which is to avoid writing it up on a piece of paper and minimizing the risk of other people getting access into it but still, I'd suggest having a physical copy of it even in code, just to be sure 'coz human mind is limited and there will always be that risk of forgetting things out of some uncontrollable reason. Another factor I guess is that, not all investors here are logging out their wallet in their device which makes sense to say that not all investors are accessing their funds with the use of seed phrase. Given that it won't or is not in a daily routine, then that supports the idea of eventually forgetting.

[hatshepsut93]

Wow I never knew one could memorize the entire 4 wallet seeds. That's impressive. But then again, the effort you have put into this is incredible. I wouldn't manage to rehearse the seed words every day for several years. The only downside - you now know the seed, you keep it in your brain so in case you will be say kidnapped and tortured ($5 wrench attack) there's a possibility you'll give it out to the bad guys.

If a kidnapping happens, the attackers will likely get what they want anyway. Plus they have to know what to look for, and keeping seed in memory is pretty uncommon.

The best way to deal with kidnapping is to keep low profile and have good physical security. There is no storage method that is immune from such attack.

[dzungmobile]

I stopped doing it daily a long time ago, especially when I stopped looking at Bitcoin price and Bitcoin news all the time. These days I can go weeks without reciting my seed, and I still remember it, but this is dangerous, because if I'll go a few months without refershing my memory, I'll probably forget big chunks of it. That's why memorizing should be viewed as an optional bonus and not a part of overall seed storage.

Your thinking about risk is true.

Our memory will become less effective if we stop practicing for a while. As normal people, with normal brains, we are not like genius guys so we will lose our memory if we don't touch it after a few weeks or months.

It must be warned with accidents like I discussed as well.

Another Bitcointalk member uses his brain to remember seeds.

• Bitcoiners with Alzheimer's. How do you work it out?

[Smack That Ace]

()

This is something I frequently talk about, memorizing of seed phrases to my mind is the best deal out there but there are a lot of people who disagree with me and say that many people can't remember 12 words seed phrase or they'll forget it. But if one memorizes those words every day for months, he will succeed. I think it offers the ultimate security in sense of you don't need to write down seed phrases somewhere and you don't have to worry about where to save it or who will find it, it's sealed in your brain. But I feel a little bit strange about your case. If you try to simultaneously remember 4 seeds of 12 words, you'll fail. Over 2-4 years, you will succeed but just why do you need 4 wallet? Narrow your focus, it's better for you, you can't handle that much.

Memorizing phrases with our brain is really convenient for us because we will have access to our bitcoins anytime and anywhere when we need them, and we don't have to think about finding a safe place to store phrases. But to say that it is the method that brings maximum safety is not necessarily correct. You have not considered the cases when the unexpected happens to you, many accidents cause you to lose your memory temporarily, and that is the limit when it comes to using your brain to remember. There is no single method that is absolutely safe, and that is why there are many methods or products created to provide an alternative. I have no problem using my brain to memorize phrases, but we still make another backup for ourselves.

[Mpamaegbu]

but eventually I started slipping and forgetting to do it, especially if I was busy with something.

It was obvious you had enough idle time then and that was why you could attempt it. Otherwise, I would think it's a fruitless venture trying to memorize seed phrases. I hardly take note of what constitutes my seed phrases once I've them written out on paper. I'm not that paranoid about stuff like that because I believe one can't be too careful in life. I've seen those who guarded theirs meticulously but still misplaced them or got hacked.

What we need is time to create out chance in memorizing seed phrase maybe it could be more easier for a single man or lady with no family load or problems surrounding them.

Now, you speak from experience! You didn't lie on this. Family distractions are even enough to  discourage one from going into another unsolicited brain tasking adventure in the first place when paper work can easily save the day.

[boyptc]

IIRC, someone has already suggested this in the forum and that was like a year or two ago. I can't really remember but I have seen it here.

I wouldn't do it and that's why I admire those that have a great brain and memory that can do such but still, do some backups as you'll never know what will happen tomorrow if you'll get knocked or what but hopefully, nothing fatal will happen to those people that does this.

As I get older, my memory is becoming weaker so this option is a no for me but those that can really do it, don't forget to strengthen your memory through eating foods that benefits your brain with.

[Adbitco]

What we need is time to create out chance in memorizing seed phrase maybe it could be more easier for a single man or lady with no family load or problems surrounding them.

Now, you speak from experience! You didn't lie on this. Family distractions are even enough to  discourage one from going into another unsolicited brain tasking adventure in the first place when paper work can easily save the day.

Although there are some people who had family but can still devote out time to memorize seed phrase, meaning if they're not that attached with their families or possibly they live elsewhere without having pressure from their children they can still do that but isn't that encouraging for one to memorize anything up there because whatever that affects the brain all the stress may turned out to be worthless.

[LastKiss]

~snip~

So in summary, I think memorizing a seed is easier than most people think, and there's no need to come up with songs or rhymes or other stuff, they can probably even make things worse. But in general memory is not reliable, even in long term, so this shouldn't be viewed as a reliable backup. It's just a nice extra layer of backup that doesn't require any complicated setup, and its strongest upside is that it's always with you (until your memory fails).

Never thought to memorize seed phrases wallet since it's really random so it's hard for me to remember, usually, I save my wallet seed phrases on a flash disk or saving as an image and I put them somewhere safe. Since my memory is not good when trying to memorize random and I rarely use my wallet since I hold it for the long term I will easily forget my seed phrases in the future.

[Mpamaegbu]

~snipped~

Although there are some people who had family but can still devote out time to memorize seed phrase, meaning if they're not that attached with their families or possibly they live elsewhere without having pressure from their children they can still do that but isn't that encouraging for one to memorize anything up there because whatever that affects the brain all the stress may turned out to be worthless.

I know we're just making discussions around family life, away from the kernel of discussion, I had to put that hypothetical area of your comment in bold to highlight something. The point of my concern there is this – married people with children still get burdened by parental responsibility whether their children are physically present with them or not. Only those who aren't responsible see their absence from their children as relief. Family life isn't piece meal. However, I still reason with the perspective you've shared.

[sokani]

So in summary, I think memorizing a seed is easier than most people think, and there's no need to come up with songs or rhymes or other stuff, they can probably even make things worse. But in general memory is not reliable, even in long term, so this shouldn't be viewed as a reliable backup. It's just a nice extra layer of backup that doesn't require any complicated setup, and its strongest upside is that it's always with you (until your memory fails).

I totally agree with what Charles-Tim said, one shouldn't rely on the human brain to store our seed phrase but rather it should be used as a back up method. You would agree with me that not everyone have the same comprehensive and retentive abilities like you, some persons are slow in assimilation and retention. Moreover, there are instances where the memory may fail someone like the the case of amnesia (loss of memory), so I wouldn't advise anyone to memorize his/her seed phrase.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

It's just a nice extra layer of backup that doesn't require any complicated setup, and its strongest upside is that it's always with you (until your memory fails).

Thank you very much, but I would still prefer to stick to the traditional way of storing my seed phrase than try to memorize it, I have a pretty good memory that if I decide to memorize my seed phrase, I definitely can, but the problem is, I have too many wallets, and even though I could possibly memorize all of their seed phrases which would take a long time anyway, keeping in memory, the seed which belongs to which wallet can become really hard, most especially, when I eventually stopped looking at the piece of paper and set my memory to other important stuffs, so for this reason, I would never bother myself trying to memorize my seed phrase, I will just keep writing them down.

[Franctoshi]

Nice try, This must have been a very difficult stuff to start at the beginning and you must have faced challenges missing up the seed phrases with other at some point. But 1-2 years period is a very long time for me to capture it all, if I'm able to pay attention to this every day for 6 months, I think I will get it done.
I will try this very approach in order to see if will be able to get it stored right in my memory. I have tried several times in the past to see if memorizing my seed phrase will be something possible but have felt reluntant at some point due to my head is filled reasoning a lot of stuffs.But this post has really inspired me to give it a try once again.

[The Cryptovator]

Since childhood, I have struggled with memorization, whether it be poems or any other information. Instead of relying on memory, I often grasp the theme and answer questions based on my own understanding. Consequently, memorizing a wallet seed phrase is undoubtedly challenging for me, though not entirely impossible. However, I am uncertain of the amount of time it would require, as my memory does not readily retain information.

[panganib999]

First things first, I have pretty average memory, I don't forget important things too often, but I also can't instantly memorize things to the tiniest details like some gifted people can.

Around 5 years ago I decided to memorize my wallet seeds to have one extra backup method. My main backups are pieces of paper + a flash drive with wallet files.

I memorized all 4 wallet seeds (12 words each) that I have very quickly by rehearsing them from memory and checking with the written down seeds every day. For a long time, maybe 1-2 years I kept discipline and repeated the seeds every day, but eventually I started slipping and forgetting to do it, especially if I was busy with something. This affected my memory, and sometimes I forgot or wasn't sure about parts of a seed (2-4 words) so I had to look at it again and repeat it more often.

Interesting thing about memory, it's easier for me to repeat them in the sequence that I was always repeating (seed 1 -> seed 2 -> seed 3 -> seed 4) than to repeat only one seed that isn't the first. Also I can't repeat the words starting from non-first word or in an order that isn't original. So to me it's more like keeping in memory one big 48-word seed than having 4 seeds of 12 words each.

So in summary, I think memorizing a seed is easier than most people think, and there's no need to come up with songs or rhymes or other stuff, they can probably even make things worse. But in general memory is not reliable, even in long term, so this shouldn't be viewed as a reliable backup. It's just a nice extra layer of backup that doesn't require any complicated setup, and its strongest upside is that it's always with you (until your memory fails).

Neuroplasticity basically. If you keep firing up the same nerve connection (which in this case is memorizing the same 4 seed phrases again and again over extended periods of time), you'd find that it gets easier every time. Plus there are patterns and tricks you should employ whenever you are memorizing something. You just did one of them. Congratulations! I personally wouldn't bother doing that because I have a lot of electronics in my person every second of my waking life. Electronics that I can use to put notes at and ensure that even if I forget it, as long as I have it with me I'm not gonna lose my assets. I feel like that's a much better plan and more foolproof too, but hey, no shame in memorizing stuff, that's even applaudable if I do say so myself.

[AmoreJaz]

Nice try, This must have been a very difficult stuff to start at the beginning and you must have faced challenges missing up the seed phrases with other at some point. But 1-2 years period is a very long time for me to capture it all, if I'm able to pay attention to this every day for 6 months, I think I will get it done.
I will try this very approach in order to see if will be able to get it stored right in my memory. I have tried several times in the past to see if memorizing my seed phrase will be something possible but have felt reluntant at some point due to my head is filled reasoning a lot of stuffs.But this post has really inspired me to give it a try once again.

it is quite risky if you will rely on your memory to story your seed phrases. though we can do that but with all the other things that we have in mind, there's possibility that we will miss one or two words from those phrases. so before you regret that you can't totally store your seed phrases at longer period of time, better find another route to store your those seed phrases. nothing wrong if we admit that we can't assure ourselves that we can secure our seed phrases just by using our memory.

[JoyMarsha]

Your crypto assets seed phrase is something that will be stored on file for a very long time. is not something you can memorize repeatedly without growing weary of it or losing it since the seed phrase is not something that someone will use constantly, such as typing it as a password before using his wallet address.

As time proceeds in successfully memorizing your seed phrase, there will be a time you will have no zeal to keep memorizing it all the time as before because you are doing that all the time

Pen and paper is still classic. It’s up to us how safe we can keep it. If we gonna stress about it’s safety all the time then I am sure we going to make mistake, forget it over the time, lose it with simple mistake and what not.

The best way to protect your seed phrase is not only classic but also time-tested. Because of this, it was suggested that we write it down on a piece of paper rather than memorizing it.

[Fatunad]

()

This is something I frequently talk about, memorizing of seed phrases to my mind is the best deal out there but there are a lot of people who disagree with me and say that many people can't remember 12 words seed phrase or they'll forget it. But if one memorizes those words every day for months, he will succeed. I think it offers the ultimate security in sense of you don't need to write down seed phrases somewhere and you don't have to worry about where to save it or who will find it, it's sealed in your brain. But I feel a little bit strange about your case. If you try to simultaneously remember 4 seeds of 12 words, you'll fail. Over 2-4 years, you will succeed but just why do you need 4 wallet? Narrow your focus, it's better for you, you can't handle that much.

Memorizing phrases with our brain is really convenient for us because we will have access to our bitcoins anytime and anywhere when we need them, and we don't have to think about finding a safe place to store phrases. But to say that it is the method that brings maximum safety is not necessarily correct. You have not considered the cases when the unexpected happens to you, many accidents cause you to lose your memory temporarily, and that is the limit when it comes to using your brain to remember. There is no single method that is absolutely safe, and that is why there are many methods or products created to provide an alternative. I have no problem using my brain to memorize phrases, but we still make another backup for ourselves.

Yes, its good to make it memorize and at the same time you are really that saving up those phrases on a paper or some cold storages on which you could assure that complete security. If you do consider on solely memorizing it then i could say that it is really that more prone for your wallet to be forgotten. Why? not all people does have that kind of memory which they could really be able to 100% remember all of those words.
Come to mind that we are keeping these coins for longer years to come, not all the time you would be able to remember on the time that you would be needing to access into it. So i dont really that recommend at all but if you are really that confident that you could remember those phrases or someone does have that photographic memory then its up to you which you could really take this kind of option.
If you do find and feel off that this is more secure then go ahead and do it but i would say that having multiple back up plans is much more preferred than on single one.

[tread93]

First things first, I have pretty average memory, I don't forget important things too often, but I also can't instantly memorize things to the tiniest details like some gifted people can.

Around 5 years ago I decided to memorize my wallet seeds to have one extra backup method. My main backups are pieces of paper + a flash drive with wallet files.

I memorized all 4 wallet seeds (12 words each) that I have very quickly by rehearsing them from memory and checking with the written down seeds every day. For a long time, maybe 1-2 years I kept discipline and repeated the seeds every day, but eventually I started slipping and forgetting to do it, especially if I was busy with something. This affected my memory, and sometimes I forgot or wasn't sure about parts of a seed (2-4 words) so I had to look at it again and repeat it more often.

Interesting thing about memory, it's easier for me to repeat them in the sequence that I was always repeating (seed 1 -> seed 2 -> seed 3 -> seed 4) than to repeat only one seed that isn't the first. Also I can't repeat the words starting from non-first word or in an order that isn't original. So to me it's more like keeping in memory one big 48-word seed than having 4 seeds of 12 words each.

So in summary, I think memorizing a seed is easier than most people think, and there's no need to come up with songs or rhymes or other stuff, they can probably even make things worse. But in general memory is not reliable, even in long term, so this shouldn't be viewed as a reliable backup. It's just a nice extra layer of backup that doesn't require any complicated setup, and its strongest upside is that it's always with you (until your memory fails).

I think this is great that you had it memorized just in case of emergency but beware! I just saw the other day in some headline that scientists have found a way to read someones mind by reading their brain waves (this was placing a subject in their own little head gear connected with chords to a giant computer or something). I didn't look to far into this or read too much but at the rate that tech is expanding and getting so advanced so rapidly I don't think its farfetched to think that 10-20 years from now they have a device that can read your mind wirelessly. It sounds so nuts but honestly maybe something like that isn't far off. Could tech that could be intrusive to ones thoughts, memories, and brain one day exist? Maybe. Does that sound freaky? Yes, yes it does. Honestly though I do think that it is smart to have it memorized. Now if one day they do have that tech we just gotta come up with a thoughts and memory brain shield helmet or something, man that sounds so whack lmao

[BALIK]

First things first, I have pretty average memory, I don't forget important things too often, but I also can't instantly memorize things to the tiniest details like some gifted people can.

Around 5 years ago I decided to memorize my wallet seeds to have one extra backup method. My main backups are pieces of paper + a flash drive with wallet files.

I memorized all 4 wallet seeds (12 words each) that I have very quickly by rehearsing them from memory and checking with the written down seeds every day. For a long time, maybe 1-2 years I kept discipline and repeated the seeds every day, but eventually I started slipping and forgetting to do it, especially if I was busy with something. This affected my memory, and sometimes I forgot or wasn't sure about parts of a seed (2-4 words) so I had to look at it again and repeat it more often.

Interesting thing about memory, it's easier for me to repeat them in the sequence that I was always repeating (seed 1 -> seed 2 -> seed 3 -> seed 4) than to repeat only one seed that isn't the first. Also I can't repeat the words starting from non-first word or in an order that isn't original. So to me it's more like keeping in memory one big 48-word seed than having 4 seeds of 12 words each.

So in summary, I think memorizing a seed is easier than most people think, and there's no need to come up with songs or rhymes or other stuff, they can probably even make things worse. But in general memory is not reliable, even in long term, so this shouldn't be viewed as a reliable backup. It's just a nice extra layer of backup that doesn't require any complicated setup, and its strongest upside is that it's always with you (until your memory fails).

I think this is great that you had it memorized just in case of emergency but beware! I just saw the other day in some headline that scientists have found a way to read someones mind by reading their brain waves (this was placing a subject in their own little head gear connected with chords to a giant computer or something). I didn't look to far into this or read too much but at the rate that tech is expanding and getting so advanced so rapidly I don't think its farfetched to think that 10-20 years from now they have a device that can read your mind wirelessly. It sounds so nuts but honestly maybe something like that isn't far off. Could tech that could be intrusive to ones thoughts, memories, and brain one day exist? Maybe. Does that sound freaky? Yes, yes it does. Honestly though I do think that it is smart to have it memorized. Now if one day they do have that tech we just gotta come up with a thoughts and memory brain shield helmet or something, man that sounds so whack lmao

Even if that technology is successfully developed, I don't think it will be widely used, that would violate the principle of humanities in science. If we can build that machine, it will only be used in the military or to interrogate prisoners, it will only be used in certain fields. So forget it, those are far-fetched things. But I also find it quite risky to use my brain to store seed phrases and not have any other backups. Nothing is entirely safe without risk, so no matter how you store it, we should have 2 or 3 backup plans.