What would be the best way to get through customs at an airport with your Btc?

[Poker Player]

I think in the best technical way to get through without the agents being able to detect that you have a single satoshi. The most logical would be to memorize the seeds but relying on memory would not leave me 100% at ease. Is there another feasible, safe way?

[OmegaStarScream]

I think in the best technical way to get through without the agents being able to detect that you have a single satoshi. The most logical would be to memorize the seeds but relying on memory would not leave me 100% at ease. Is there another feasible, safe way

I really don't see any problem with paper wallets, hot/cold wallet on a phone, a seedphrase on a USD stick. I'm not sure where you're from, and I never seen this happening, so I really can't imagine them going through your phone apps. Is that even legal? Also, is this even something you have to do? I mean declaring your bitcoin holdings regardless of the amount?

[Poker Player]

I really don't see any problem with paper wallets, hot/cold wallet on a phone, a seedphrase on a USD stick. I'm not sure where you're from, and I never seen this happening, so I really can't imagine them going through your phone apps. Is that even legal? Also, is this even something you have to do? I mean declaring your bitcoin holdings regardless of the amount?

Well, in the EU you must declare everything over 10.000€.

I would say that in general it is not legal for them to go though your apps but I have seen border control programs where it does seem mandatory, or at least they can make it more difficult for you to enter the country or hold you if you don't cooperate.

I was thinking hypothetically.

[Hatchy]

Bitcoin isn't a physical asset, so it's unlikely that anyone can detect your coins. Unless you've committed a crime or shared information about your coins, it's unlikely that authorities would target a regular person who holds Bitcoin. If you use a hardware wallet, they might try to investigate, but it would be illegal and a violation of your rights to ask for such information without a valid reason. The only exception would be if your country has laws that strictly prohibit cryptocurrency.

[Charles-Tim]

Encrypt it on disk or on a memory card. I do not think they will be brothered to check what is on your disk or memory card.

But if you think they can check what is on the disk or small memory card which I do not think they will notice, you can go to BIP39 word list to backup the numbers where the seed phrase words are and write some extra numbers and words which can make them no notice it.

I like to use passphrase. Even if they understand what I wrote down, they will not have any access to my coins while they will not have any evidence but I do not think they can understand the way I will backup the seed phrase.

[LoyceV]

Well, in the EU you must declare everything over 10.000€.

You could argue you're not bringing anything physical. Otherwise hiding it from customs would be illegal.
Bitcoin isn't in your wallet, Bitcoin is on the blockchain. You may have access to it, but that's kinda like having access to your bank account when you're abroad.

[DaveF]

Something like this: https://satscard.com/
Get one of the blank ones and custom print something on one side and use a sticker or similar on the other.

There are a few similar products out there, you would have to figure out which one works for you. But in your wallet it would look just like any other credit / debit card.

https://www.amazon.com/Pounchi-Funny-Stickers-Transportation-Personalizing/dp/B0CVVWVD34/?th=1

-Dave

[Findingnemo]

I really don't see any problem with paper wallets, hot/cold wallet on a phone, a seedphrase on a USD stick. I'm not sure where you're from, and I never seen this happening, so I really can't imagine them going through your phone apps. Is that even legal? Also, is this even something you have to do? I mean declaring your bitcoin holdings regardless of the amount?

Well, in the EU you must declare everything over 10.000€.

I would say that in general it is not legal for them to go though your apps but I have seen border control programs where it does seem mandatory, or at least they can make it more difficult for you to enter the country or hold you if you don't cooperate.

I was thinking hypothetically.

I have been into security checks on a lot of countries and I don't think they never searched anything inside the phone, so I guess it's safe to carry the seeds in digital format like in a separate mobile that's never connected to internet.

Or you can create new wallet and fund the amount you needed then upload the seed in a cloud by this they will not have a clue of it.

We only responsible to disclose we're bringing physical items like gold or cash and no need to disclose about our digital assets.

[pooya87]

Uninstall any bitcoin related apps from your phone, write down your seed phrase inside a book (can be one word per random page but in order) and when you reached your destination you can connect to the internet and install the apps again and restore your wallet using the seed phrase from the book.

[Stalker22]

And what about hardware wallets? I mean, most of the good ones let you set up multiple wallets on the same device, right?  So even if some overzealous customs agent tries to force you to unlock your wallet, you could just show them an empty one. Its like having a secret compartment in your pocket.

Even if your device were confiscated, no one would have a way of knowing that there is a wallet hidden behind a secret passphrase.

[DaveF]

Had another thought, and the amount of BTC would also matter, but what about a trusted friend / relative.
Before the flight send the BTC / other crypto to a trusted person.
Remove all BTC / crypto apps from phone. (you do have a backup right???)
After flight contact trusted person and have them send it to the new address that you just generated with the wallet you just reinstalled.

You would have to trust that person, but there is also a different between beer money and vacation money and life savings money.

From the way you were talking (going through airport) I would think vacation money. And I would hope that you have friends and / or family that you could trust with that amount.

-Dave

[philipma1957]

I really don't see any problem with paper wallets, hot/cold wallet on a phone, a seedphrase on a USD stick. I'm not sure where you're from, and I never seen this happening, so I really can't imagine them going through your phone apps. Is that even legal? Also, is this even something you have to do? I mean declaring your bitcoin holdings regardless of the amount?

Well, in the EU you must declare everything over 10.000€.

I would say that in general it is not legal for them to go though your apps but I have seen border control programs where it does seem mandatory, or at least they can make it more difficult for you to enter the country or hold you if you don't cooperate.

I was thinking hypothetically.

I would use an electrum wallet

I would use a 13 word seed.

it has that option.

I would send multiple emails to multiple email accounts that I control

in each email i would have two or three of the seed words.



alternatively i would put the list of 2000+ words for seeds on this thread.

I would number the seed words 1 to 2000 plus

I would send emails to my emails with the numbers instead of the actual seed words.

either method above is okay for a temporary move.

certainly not perfectly safe.

you could fuck up when you create the emails and  lose the 13 word seed.

[Mia Chloe]

I would use an electrum wallet

I would use a 13 word seed.

it has that option.

I would send multiple emails to multiple email accounts that I control

in each email i would have two or three of the seed words.



alternatively i would put the list of 2000+ words for seeds on this thread.

I would number the seed words 1 to 2000 plus

I would send emails to my emails with the numbers instead of the actual seed words.

either method above is okay for a temporary move.

certainly not perfectly safe.

you could fuck up when you create the emails and  lose the 13 word seed.

This is quite a long and risky process Phil especially if there's quite some fancy amounts on the address.

 I think in a situation like the the old and regular paper wallet is nice enough. You can write those seed on a piece of paper, open up your pc and keep it in there.

Alternatively get a second device, format it don't connect it to the internet, boot in your wallet.

When you get past customs you can create a new wallet and moved your coins to ensure their safety.

[DireWolfM14]

I think in the best technical way to get through without the agents being able to detect that you have a single satoshi. The most logical would be to memorize the seeds but relying on memory would not leave me 100% at ease. Is there another feasible, safe way?

If it's just a small amount you want to take on your travels, you can create a new seed phrase and write it in a notebook with some random work related shit like it's just notes for work.  Use different pages for each of the words mixed into the fake notes in a way that you'll remember them.  For example, the first few pages can just be random gibberish, and then the twelfth word on the tenth page is word number one, the eleventh word on page eleven is word two, so on and so forth.  Adjust according to your preference.

Also, I've traveled with my ColdCard in my small backpack that airlines let me keep under my feet.  It helps that it looks like simple calculator, but you never know if a customs official is going to recognize it or not.  I will say, I've never traveled with it outside the US.

I have traveled over-seas with hot wallets on my phone and laptop and have never had issues with that.  But that's always been less than the limit that requires it to be declared.

[BlackBoss_]

Uninstall any bitcoin related apps from your phone, write down your seed phrase inside a book (can be one word per random page but in order) and when you reached your destination you can connect to the internet and install the apps again and restore your wallet using the seed phrase from the book.

I agree.

Remove/ uninstall all applications for Bitcoin wallets, centralized exchanges from your smart phones, devices and have other ways to backup your wallets is good method to go.

Using brain and memory is one method for worst case but we can not only rely on brain and memory that can be accidentally lost. Another back up method like highlighting it in a book is good and a main back up method to use. Brain and memory can be used as a supportive method only.

How to back up a seed phrase

What about memorizing your backups? Well, I can only think of one situation in which I'd ever consider that - if I'm fleeing from some calamity without much time to prepare and I'm worried about physical attackers accosting me during the journey or at border crossings. That is to say - I only think memorization is a good strategy for temporary emergency use. As a long term storage strategy it creates single points of failure:

You may forget the seed phrase.
You could be injured and unable to recall it.
You could die and your heirs would be unable to access it.
You could have seed phrase coerced out of you.

[Poker Player]

From what I see from several answers, I may not have explained myself well. Going on vacation and carrying less than the legal minimum is not a problem. I was thinking more of moving to another country, and taking the holdings you normally manage with your Hardware Wallet on your laptop or PC.

I mean, carrying 0.01 BTC on your mobile is not a problem but if we are talking about 0.5 BTC that you manage with the HW....

Although I see that this is pretty hypothetical, according to the answers.

I had also thought of taking the seeds written in a book or notebook on several pages, but with invisible ink, so that no way that it will occur to customs agents to search through a book of 300 pages.

[LoyceV]

Had another thought, and the amount of BTC would also matter, but what about a trusted friend / relative.
Before the flight send the BTC / other crypto to a trusted person.
Remove all BTC / crypto apps from phone. (you do have a backup right???)

That goes against everything Bitcoin stands for: self-custody, be your own bank, "trust, don't verify", everything!

After flight contact trusted person and have them send it to the new address that you just generated with the wallet you just reinstalled.

And this is how you lose your money through a man in the middle attack.

I would send multiple emails to multiple email accounts that I control
in each email i would have two or three of the seed words.
~
certainly not perfectly safe.

There are so many ways this can go wrong.

[ranochigo]

The key to hide your seed phrase is actually trying to obfuscate it. To do so, there are tons of options. The simplest can be in the form of colours; you can assign each of the seeds in the BIP39 wordlist to a specific colour in hex, create an image with that sequence, and carry it with you. This is practically undetectable and this works for anything so long as you can have a specific pattern to convert the seed phrase back and forth.

Else, steganography would be a good option as well. Common methods to do so would be to encode it within an image and there is practically no difference visually. However, you can extract the seed from the edited image easily.

[ABCbits]

From what I see from several answers, I may not have explained myself well. Going on vacation and carrying less than the legal minimum is not a problem. I was thinking more of moving to another country, and taking the holdings you normally manage with your Hardware Wallet on your laptop or PC.

I mean, carrying 0.01 BTC on your mobile is not a problem but if we are talking about 0.5 BTC that you manage with the HW....

Although I see that this is pretty hypothetical, according to the answers.

Aside from what other member said. WarpWallet (a variant of BrainWallet which is harder to brute-force) may work, where you remember specific passphrase and email (as salt). Obviously you need to use real WarpWallet and doesn't use common passphrase.

I had also thought of taking the seeds written in a book or notebook on several pages, but with invisible ink, so that no way that it will occur to customs agents to search through a book of 300 pages.

I think most of us only can say "it may work".

[LoyceV]

The simplest can be in the form of colours; you can assign each of the seeds in the BIP39 wordlist to a specific colour in hex

Not bad So "1476. reveal" would become 5C4, the color would be #5C45C4. I wouldn't feel safe with a seed stored in "plain color" on a computer though, and printing it means you can't find back the exact color.