Can You Memorize Your Recovery Phrase?

[Saint-loup]

You can safely memorize it unless you are storing a backup somewhere, otherwise it's very dangerous because once you forget it, it's too late and it's very hard to monitor how effeciently and reliably you are reminding it. Because one day you can remind it easily and the next day, you can totally forget it without warnings. If you write it and store it somewhere you might consider is the risk of physical theft nonetheless. If someone breaks into your home, they could potentially find and steal the paper where you've written your recovery seed. That's why it's crucial to find a safe location in order to secure your backup if you finally keep this option.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

Would you try?
What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

Memorizing one's wallet seed phrase is never the best way to storing it, as you never can tell, you may forget it when faced with stress and life challenges. Hence, the best way remains writing it on multiple pieces of paper just like you said you did, and storing it in multiple different locations in your house without writing certain keywords such as "My wallet Seed phrase" or either "My Electrum Seed phrase" or "Trust Wallet Seed Phrase", so as to make it hard for anybody to understand what it means if they happens to come across it, as these are the most common keyboards people always use as title of the piece of paper when writing a wallet seed phrase.

[kotajikikox]

Would you try?

Hahaha no. My mind has already a million things to think about, I don’t need to put any more pressure by memorizing something so important and is basically the key to my life.

What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

Benefits:

• Even if you were robbed, they are not going to have any copy of your seed phrase as it is all in your head.
• It’s very convenient and easier than pulling out a piece of paper when you need it. You also decrease the risk of exposing it to too much people.

Setbacks:

• Obviously you might forget. Just one word will be enough to throw you off of your balance and you might the forget the whole thing entirely.

But if you are very interested in memorizing, I would suggest you do the following:

• use a mnemonic or those silly little abbreviations that make you remember particular words. they are often catchy so it’s not as unforgettable.
• you need a back up still and store it somewhere safe and check it from time to time just to refresh your memory.

[tabas]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

Would you try?
What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

IIRC, there's someone that has suggested that before but it's not advisable and we may forget things too easily when we're going to memorize it. Even the sharpest minds surely won't do this if this is the only key to access your holdings. Just make a lot of back ups and don't make it too obvious that they're your recovery phrases or the seeds that are provided to you by electrum or any wallet that you're going to use. This is highly not advisable if you think that it's gonna be a good way of storing your phrases.

[Orpichukwu]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

Would you try?
What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

Even if you want to memorise your phrase, that will be an added advantage to you as you don't need to look for it all the time when you want to access the wallet, but don't use it because you memorise it in your head and wipe all the backup because that will be the biggest set-up you will ever do to yourself. 
 
If you see your house as not being safe for storing your phrase, then try and locate a secured location, maybe even encrypting an empty flash drive, and keep it in a safe place, maybe up to three locations, and even if someone finds it, they can't get access to what's inside.

[stompix]

Setbacks there are none unless you talk in your sleep and you sleep among strangers maybe?

What about brain injury or illness? I know that chances of that happening are not very high, but they still exist and shit happens so no way I would trust my memory when it comes to my life savings.

That's why I said it has no drawbacks as long as you have a physical copy of that private key!
OP asked how secure is but only after mentioning he has a piece of paper with the seed from his wallet, I still don't see any disadvantages to it.

Besides, if we talk about brain injury, depending on how serious a memory loss is you might even forget where you hid your private key or that bitcoin is all together!

[Franctoshi]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

Would you try?
What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

This is something I haven't been able to try to memorize the few times I have attempted to store my seed phrases in my memory, But it another good way to store your seed phrases because you are in advantage of moving about with it wherever you go without, But isn't a method for one to wholly rely on because we can easily forget it or miss it up some point even though we have people that has a good retentive memory that stores things, and they hardly forget.

[Ryu_Ar1]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

Would you try?
What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

It's still possible if you have a great memory so there's nothing wrong with memorizing. But for me personally even though it's good but I can't do that. First, my laziness is greater so I just try to write it down instead of memorizing it, another reason is that I do not have a good grasp of remembering something which is a problem that is difficult to avoid so I will just try to take the conventional method by just writing it down and storing it in a safe place.

But it is undeniable that memorization can be a good option because apart from storing it in a safe place in terms of writing, you also store it in your brain (memorization) which makes it even safer but something like this must also be accompanied by storage in writing because in the end memorizing Seeds can indeed be done but keeping memorization from forgetting is difficult so there must still be a helper, namely the writing of seeds that are stored and secured in your book.

[GiftedMAN]

I wouldn't try to memorize my seed phrase for anything even though it's possible to do this is because storing it in your memory may sometimes give you the self assurance not to make duplicates of it since you believe you can come up with it at any given time but at some point you may find it difficult to write it in order of the arrangement and since you are unable to keep the duplicates in a good place it becomes a problem for you to recover it. One of the benefits of memorizing your seed phrase is that it helps you to have access to your funds faster if there is a case of hack of accounts but the disadvantages is that in the case of a memory loss, the reverse becomes the case.

[Jako0203]

Too bad for me i dont remember where i saved it

[Sandra_hakeem]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

How am I supposed to know this? It may be possible for me to memorize a whole text book, but that might not be the case to you. It's best that you find the most suitable ways to adapt to the system of being your own security.

Would you try?
What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

Yes... I'll definitely memorize them. Benefits? Well, that's just about you being on the safer side. The big setback is life itself; if anything happens and you lay down lifeless, that's the end!

Besides, if we talk about brain injury, depending on how serious a memory loss is you might even forget where you hid your private key or that bitcoin is all together!

In that case, it's pointless to be self-reliant . You've got kids? Teach the eldest amongst them and, show 'em.

[JiiBs]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

Would you try?
What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

It’s possible, it’s doable but that doesn’t mean it should be done. Even you too can forget or have memory loss sometimes. It’s not what anyone wants or would like to happen to them, not even your worst enemy when they’ve got just so much in their wallet.

About a month ago, I forgot the password to my forum account and it was a nightmare for me since, I didn’t put any recovery procedure in place. This could have easily been a your wallet and it’s not what the risk! This isn’t some words of your choosing, neither does it have any personal association issues it was randomly chosen and just like that, lose one clue and your done for.

When you’ve got the hard copy somewhere safe, your good. If your concerned about your home and how secure it is, perhaps you could have it saved some place else, more like having a duplicate. So, if the things you fear becomes a reality at your home, you could still have an option to recovery some place else.

[EL MOHA]

Memorizing one's wallet seed phrase is never the best way to storing it, as you never can tell, you may forget it when faced with stress and life challenges. Hence, the best way remains writing it on multiple pieces of paper just like you said you did, and storing it in multiple different locations in your house without writing certain keywords such as "My wallet Seed phrase" or either "My Electrum Seed phrase" or "Trust Wallet Seed Phrase", so as to make it hard for anybody to understand what it means if they happens to come across it, as these are the most common keyboards people always use as title of the piece of paper when writing a wallet seed phrase.

I think as am alternative back up it’s not bad because you can easily access it whenever you are not necessarily having to go back to your paper back up all the time. My advice has always been whenever you’re saving your seed phrase on paper make sure to add a passphrase to the seed phrase, this provides it with a second layer such that even if the seed phrase is been compromised the hacker can’t easily recover your wallet, because the wallet will recover another and empty wallet without the seed phrase. There are even people that send dust amounts to the wallet without pass phrase to trick the hacker into think it’s the right wallet.

In that case, it's pointless to be self-reliant . You've got kids? Teach the eldest amongst them and, show 'em.

As long as the wallet holds the coins meant for future purposes, it is better to bring in someone into the knowledge of it no matter the form of storage used.

[Nwada001]

Too bad for me i dont remember where i saved it

You better hurry and make some backups now if you still have the wallet on any device that you have access to before you completely lose whatever you have in that wallet.
 
And if you don't have any means of restoring the wallet, you should consider what ever you have inside lost and start with a new wallet, and this time around, choose your place of storing your backup carefully and in safe areas that you can easily remember.

[Charles-Tim]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

If you have two or three backups already in different locations, you can memorize it. But do not consider your memory as backup. So the seed phrase you memorize is not a backup, but maybe it can be helpful.

That's why I said it has no drawbacks as long as you have a physical copy of that private key!
OP asked how secure is but only after mentioning he has a piece of paper with the seed from his wallet, I still don't see any disadvantages to it.

Although, the disadvantage I see in it is that I do not think someone can have just only one seed phrase. But if it is only one and not more than 12 words, I think if he has like two or three physical and offline backups, memorizing it is not a bad idea.

[Maus0728]

I think everyone can memorize their recovery phrase, the only problem that I have with that is from the fact that I believe that memory is a really unreliable thing to rely on when it comes to something like this, I might remember it for now but I don't really have that kind of use for it and then time goes by and I end up having to recall it and then I do but this time, I can't recall it in the right sequence which means that I might've just locked out myself on my own wallet, that's why there's a questioning of witness when it's all memories, because memories are unreliable evidence that something is done and that you might be putting a different kind of person behind bars because you've got an unreliable memory but I digress, better to be safe and have a written back up rather than just relying on your memories.

[Assface16678]

Just remembered that I have written the recovery seed phrase of my Electrum on a piece of paper somewhere in my place. I'm wondering what could go wrong since my place isn't too secured.  How about trying to memorize it? Is it possible?

Would you try?
What are the benefits? ... and the setbacks.

Well, it will be a good thing if you can actually memorise your seed phrase, but the thing is, the moment you forget it, it's over. I mean, it will be hard to remember it again, so it's better that when you memorise it, you will always remember it or recite it so that it will always be fresh in your mind. Yes, it is possible, and that is safer than storing it in a digital or physical form, such as notes or online notes, because it is prone to losing or someone could access it. I remember that I have read a post or topic in this forum about how he put his seed phrase on a steel plate. I mean, the material he used is somewhat durable, but the thing is, if someone sees that, then it's over, or if it's stolen or lost, then that person couldn't have any means of unlocking its wallet. So in short, the best method to keep your seed phrase safe is to bury it in your mind, so you are the only one who knows that and could have access to it.




 

[batang_bitcoin]

Memorizing it as if it's going to be your entire back up? That's wrong in all forms. Just think of it that even the biggest corporations and with big assets, they are writing it elsewhere and have multiple back ups not just with their database, networks, securities and everything. We are not as big as them but we should practice backing up at all times especially if it's related to our assets which is an important thing to remember. We can remember, we can memorize but never settle for that and make your backups.

[Wexnident]

~

I would never try, and even if I did attempt to, I'd probably forget about it or make a mistake about what I remembered due to how complex it can be. Memorization in the first place is looking for patterns in something, and I don't think seed phrases have such a thing, nor would I ever want it to have a recognizable pattern in the first place.

And again, you shouldn't even try to memorize it! The fact that you need to memorize everything yet one small mistake can make your wallet disappear is already a con itself imo. As for benefits sure you don't need to store them anymore, but you run the risk of forgetting one character and again, ruining your chances of restoring your wallet. In the first place I don't think it's a "con" to store your wallet somewhere, there's tons of methods and ways you can make it secure, just requires effort.

[Z-tight]

So in short, the best method to keep your seed phrase safe is to bury it in your mind, so you are the only one who knows that and could have access to it.

You are wrong, that is one of the worst ways to store your seed phrase and a fast way to lose your coins or lock yourself out of your funds. There is no way you can remember the words for a longer period of time, you're surely going to forget some words or wrongly arrange them, you may also suffer injury or disease that could affect your memory.

The best method is to have a physical backup and store it in a very safe location, adding extra layers of security is also recommended. If you want to commit your seed phrase to memory, it should be after you have done all this, you can now count what you have memorized as an additional backup.