How would you dispose of a steel plate seed backup?

[PrivacyG]

I don’t know why everyone is suggesting complicated means to destroy the steel plate. Acid is expensive and hard to come by and how will you melt it at 3000C in your home?

All you need to do is take a drill and make a few holes in it and you are done. If the drill breaks it means you got a cheap bit. Buy one of those $5 bits and it will drill thru steel like butter pretty much.

You also don’t need to drill all the way, just enough to destroy what is written on the main surface.

This pretty much.  Even easier if you stamped the letters yourself, just stamp more letters over each of them to make it unreadable.

Melting is too complicated.  Though I would argue it is one of the best methods if you do not want some body to find out you own Bitcoin.  This or you drill it and drive 50 miles away from home and throw it into a bin in the middle of a forest, then go back home.

This is because I am more afraid of getting rid of the plate itself than about destroying the Seed so it becomes unreadable.  If no body knows I hold Bitcoin, I would not want them to see the plate.  Even more so if the plate has been drilled.  It could spark some thoughts about your holdings.  Such as, who would put such effort into drilling the plate, unless they hold a lot of Bitcoin?

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[aoluain]

I don’t know why everyone is suggesting complicated means to destroy the steel plate. Acid is expensive and hard to come by and how will you melt it at 3000C in your home?

All you need to do is take a drill and make a few holes in it and you are done. If the drill breaks it means you got a cheap bit. Buy one of those $5 bits and it will drill thru steel like butter pretty much.

You also don’t need to drill all the way, just enough to destroy what is written on the main surface.

This pretty much.  Even easier if you stamped the letters yourself, just stamp more letters over each of them to make it unreadable.

Melting is too complicated.  Though I would argue it is one of the best methods if you do not want some body to find out you own Bitcoin.  This or you drill it and drive 50 miles away from home and throw it into a bin in the middle of a forest, then go back home.

This is because I am more afraid of getting rid of the plate itself than about destroying the Seed so it becomes unreadable.  If no body knows I hold Bitcoin, I would not want them to see the plate.  Even more so if the plate has been drilled.  It could spark some thoughts about your holdings.  Such as, who would put such effort into drilling the plate, unless they hold a lot of Bitcoin?

If its stainless steel you ideally need Cobalt drill bits otherwise with hardened steel
bits it will become very tedious.

I first thought of just stamping more letters over the words but that can be time consuming too.

The quickest way is to just grind off the letters, stick the plate in a vice and grind away
with a grinding disc or a flapper disk, all done in about 10 minutes.

[bluebit25]

This thread sparked a question in my head. Imagine that you are in a situation where you need to dispose of you wallet seed backup, but it is etched on a steel plate - how would you do it? The easiest answer is likely acid, but not everyone has access to it, and depending on the steel plate, it might be even highly resistant to corrosion. Another option is to damage it mechanically - in many of these steel plate products you are supposed to etch the words, so it should be possible to erase them or render unrecognizable. But it's likely hard to do thoroughly and traces of the words could remain.

Any more ideas?

Mechanically destroying the hard drive seems to be the most optimal option to ensure data cannot be recovered. Using acid is potentially dangerous and requires highly specialized knowledge to avoid accidents. In terms of efficiency, thermal fusing is not always recommended, while mechanization can be time consuming but just as effective.

But I think that everyone should equip themselves with a method to safely destroy your backup to ensure that sensitive data is not stolen. This can take time, especially when you need to process large amounts of data, but the security of your information is a top priority.

[nakamura12]

Transfer all coins to an exchange before transferring it to your new wallet and then you can melt the metal if you have the tools for it. That way, it would look like you bought coins from an exchange to your new wallet and then they won't see the connection of your old wallet with the new one especially if you bought other coins before buying it to bitcoin but I don't think this is good for low amount of coins in my opinion since you will have to pay for the withdrawal fee and such. Try to destroy the letters with grinder.

[Stalker22]

But I think that everyone should equip themselves with a method to safely destroy hard drives to ensure that sensitive data is not stolen. This can take time, especially when you need to process large amounts of data, but the security of your information is a top priority.

Why are you talking about hard drives? OP never mentioned any drives at all.  Yes, hard drives also use metal plates for storage, but thats not the point here.

[goldkingcoiner]

The simplest option is transferring the coins on that wallet seed phrase to a new wallet, this way even if the seed phrase is detected it will be useless to the person in its possession.

It's not totally useless because it contains your transaction history and you might want it not fall into other's hands. Also there could be situations where it's not an option - you want to destroy just a backup, not the wallet. Imagine you have two backups, one at your current location and another at a remote and safe location. Let's say you are moving from your current location to some new one where you wouldn't keep your steel backup with you because the new place is not safe enough. So you'd want to destroy the backup at your current location, while still relying on the backup at your other safe location.

Destroying the hardware itself seems pointless

Your wallet transaction history can be traced regardless of which wallet it is in, because the blockchain itself is a public ledger. If you are that worried about your transaction history, you can always swap your Bitcoin for Monero in a non custodial way and them send them between a couple of other Monero wallets and switch back to Bitcoin and send it to your new wallet. (Although this could make centralized exchanges view your coins with suspicion).

[darkangel11]

Another option is to go to the next car repair and borrow an angle grinder for 5 minutes to clear the metal surface of your steel plate or pay a mechanic a couple of bucks to do it for you..

Most people have sanding paper at home. All you really need is a bit of 60 or 80 paper that will cost you a few cents and a few minutes of your time and you can flatten the etched letters enough that nobody will be able to decipher it.
Some honorable mentions?
Drill a hole through. It's enough to destroy a few random signs and it's over. No need to make the whole thing unreadable, you just need to destroy a part of it.
Destroy it using any other tools, like a table grinder, angle grinder, or a dremel tool.
Burn a hole in it using a welding torch.
Easiest and cheapest way? Start grinding it on a concrete pavement and after about 10 minutes of doing so the plate will be unreadable. No tools needed.

If you have one of those metal seed wallets that consist of removable letters or washers that you stamp your words on, you can reuse them by putting in new words or buying clear washers and stamping them again.

[bluebit25]

But I think that everyone should equip themselves with a method to safely destroy hard drives to ensure that sensitive data is not stolen. This can take time, especially when you need to process large amounts of data, but the security of your information is a top priority.

Why are you talking about hard drives? OP never mentioned any drives at all.  Yes, hard drives also use metal plates for storage, but thats not the point here.

No, here I mean backup, not hard drive. Thank you for reminding me of the wrong word.

[yazher]

Throwing in the river is not the best option because they are using magnet fishing nowadays and also some people are purposely diving to recover some lost items. The best option is going to the blacksmith if you have someone you know or someone who buys gold and silvers, I'm sure they have their own machine to burn that steel plate somehow but this is costly and if the person knows about bitcoins, he may take a picture of it before burning it out. the best option is to do it yourself self and if you don't have access to it then just bury it somewhere that you think won't be found out for the next hundred of years.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

I will go with the second option of mechanical damage that’s using a chisel to put in many random holes in the steel to make it unreadable for any one.

Yes, this is a very valid idea, and I will definitely go with it since some people cannot easily get access to some non-mechanical equipment to use in destroying the plate. They can easily get access to some harder medals, like hammers, and they can beat the plate heavily and destroy every letter on it. 

[tabas]

Transfer all coins to an exchange before transferring it to your new wallet and then you can melt the metal if you have the tools for it.

I won't do this. I'd rather just destroy the entire steel plate and will do that in my room without someone knowing what I am doing. Although it sounds good but if it's your entire holdings that will be sent to the exchange before you proceed to the destruction of the steel plate, you may have hard time in withdrawing that soon when the exchange tries to ask you some additional requirements. So, melting, totally exerting some force until the metal gets into pieces and throwing it in garbages in several locations might do for me.

[2Pizza410000BTC]

This thread sparked a question in my head. Imagine that you are in a situation where you need to dispose of you wallet seed backup, but it is etched on a steel plate - how would you do it? The easiest answer is likely acid, but not everyone has access to it, and depending on the steel plate, it might be even highly resistant to corrosion. Another option is to damage it mechanically - in many of these steel plate products you are supposed to etch the words, so it should be possible to erase them or render unrecognizable. But it's likely hard to do thoroughly and traces of the words could remain.

Any more ideas?

Storing a wallet's seed phrase in your system is very cumbersome. Not everyone will be able to have a wallet password with the method you mentioned here because not everyone will be able to engrave steel metal. But I wrote down the proverbs of my wallet in a notebook I kept in a very safe place in my house. If every person wants to keep his wallet seed phrase safe then he can keep it safe. People's wallet seed phrases are stolen only because of the carelessness of users.

[Marvelman]

The best option is going to the blacksmith ...
the best option is to do it yourself self ...

So which one is the best option? Make up your mind. 

I agree with your second option, though. Exposing your seed phrase to third parties can never be the best option.

[hatshepsut93]

I'm disappointed that almost every other post suggests to just move coins to a new wallet. That's not the solution to what I asked. I specifically asked about a steel plate seed backup, because there could be lots of different situations where you might want to only destroy this specific backup and not moving the coins to a new one.

Imagine that you are traveling abroad and took your steel plate backup with you, and suddenly the situation in the country you are visiting started deteriorating due to war, or coup attempt, or terrorist attack, etc. And there's a lot of security checks all of a sudden and you no longer feel safe carrying your steel plate. But you have another plate in your home country and other backups. So destroying the one you have won't lock you out of your coins. And you can't even securely create a new wallet because you don't have access to an air-gapped PC, only your always-online phone. This is a situation where you'd want to destroy your steel plate.

But even just destroying your physical record of your empty wallet could still be a strong enough reason to want to destroy the seed, so it shouldn't be brushed off by these "just move the coins to a new wallet" replies.

[Essential10]

This thread sparked a question in my head. Imagine that you are in a situation where you need to dispose of you wallet seed backup, but it is etched on a steel plate - how would you do it? The easiest answer is likely acid, but not everyone has access to it, and depending on the steel plate, it might be even highly resistant to corrosion. Another option is to damage it mechanically - in many of these steel plate products you are supposed to etch the words, so it should be possible to erase them or render unrecognizable. But it's likely hard to do thoroughly and traces of the words could remain.

Any more ideas?

The method is nice, it is your personal decision whether you dispose of the seed backup on a steel plate, but many may find it complicated to save the seed phrase of the wallet. I personally am not able to engrave steel metal, seems too complicated to me. If I do have the help of an outsider to do this, such as someone who is an expert in metal engraving, my wallet is completely vulnerable when the seed phrase will go to him if he is involved in crypto currency. Anyway, I saved my wallet seed phrase in a few steps so that it can be easily accessed in any medium. If you forget to save the wallet seed phrase you can easily lose it, and if you are aware of it you can save it anyway with personal effort.

[zabzob]

Imagine that you are traveling abroad and took your steel plate backup with you, and suddenly the situation in the country you are visiting started deteriorating due to war, or coup attempt, or terrorist attack, etc. And there's a lot of security checks all of a sudden and you no longer feel safe carrying your steel plate. But you have another plate in your home country and other backups. So destroying the one you have won't lock you out of your coins. And you can't even securely create a new wallet because you don't have access to an air-gapped PC, only your always-online phone. This is a situation where you'd want to destroy your steel plate.

In that case, not only would it be impossible to securely create a new wallet, but you might not have access to common tools, much less acid, angle grinders or welding equipment. For example, hardware stores and all sorts of other businesses might be closed or out of stock due to looting, emergency hoarding activity etc. Furthermore, the cost of such items could quickly become prohibitive due to runaway inflation of fiat currencies.

Given such obstacles, any workable method for destroying steel backup would have to be tailored to the particularities of the unfolding emergency. For anyone concerned about such a scenario, it might be a good idea to use steel washers instead of a single steel plate for your backup. This way, you would have the option of disposing of each individual washer in a separate location without bothering to erase the information on it. For example, you could toss them one at a time into different parts of a large body of water, or preferably different bodies of water. Or you could discreetly toss the washers into separate waste bins at various locations, so that they end up scattered throughout a landfill or landfills, where it will be all but impossible to retrieve them. If public recycling bins are available, it shouldn't be too difficult to insert the washers into aluminum beverage cans, crumple up the cans so that the washers won't fall out, then toss the cans into the bins. This way you might actually achieve the goal of removing the words from the metal once the cans arrive at the recycling facility, depending on the temperatures used to melt the aluminum (which melts at a lower temperature than steel).

Such an approach may not be as certain as full effacement of the inscribed words, but it would be highly improbable that even a determined adversary would be able to retrieve a sufficient number of the washers to reconstruct the private keys. And the higher the word-count (e.g. a 24-word seed phrase instead of 12), the more difficult such a task would be.

[Beparanf]

Hammer or use any device that will fold the steel plate until it turns to small piece that is capable to be flush down to your toilet. I guess this is the safest place which no one will dare to recover anything plus it’s located beneath your house.

If ever your septic tank will be siphoned, I doubt that this piece of metal is still recognizable and most of the time those junk recovered from the waste material is being recycled.

[Rruchi man]

Any more ideas?

Many ideas have already been shared, and I know someone who was looking for options already must have seen an option they like, but since we are still sharing ideas on it, I like to be creative and share another way you could dispose a steel plate seed backup.

Throw it into the sea or the ocean if you stay close to one, it will take a 1000 years before it will be discovered, and even if it is found at the bottom of the sea, it is totally random, and the people who discover it may never have a clue what it is.

[fuguebtc]

The best option is going to the blacksmith ...
the best option is to do it yourself self ...

So which one is the best option? Make up your mind. 

I agree with your second option, though. Exposing your seed phrase to third parties can never be the best option.

Steel is a material that is quite hard and difficult to break, many people will not be able to destroy it on their own. If you bring it to a blacksmith, you just need to directly supervise him doing it and ask the blacksmith to destroy it quickly. I don't think anything too worrying will happen, not everyone knows about bitcoin and no one with a super memory can instantly remember the seed phrases correctly. If it were me, I would talk to the blacksmith and ask him to show me how to destroy it myself, I'd be willing to pay him a higher price .

[Despairo]

Hammer or use any device that will fold the steel plate until it turns to small piece that is capable to be flush down to your toilet. I guess this is the safest place which no one will dare to recover anything plus it’s located beneath your house.

If ever your septic tank will be siphoned, I doubt that this piece of metal is still recognizable and most of the time those junk recovered from the waste material is being recycled.

It will consume your energy and I don't think you will able to fold the steel plate because it's thick and durable. Instead of destroy it, people might become curious when they hear you smashing the steel plate and probably ask what's you doing.

What about sanitation workers who found jewelry? https://www.mccluskeychevrolet.com/blog/gold-found-in-sewage-pawned-by-sanitation-workers/

You can't be really sure someone will not access your wallet when you didn't know the place where all of your backups.