Something to pounder for crypto enthusiast regarding LA wildfire

[lovesmayfamilis]

This fire and this red, blazing spectacle look like an apocalypse. I think that those stars who had their houses there had dozens of insurance policies, but never imagined that such a disaster could reach such proportions. I want to believe that everyone who had any crypto assets was able to save their seed phrases, since everything physical, as shown in the news, was burned to the ground for many. Of course, we should always think that no one is protected from the elements, and the more we are aware of all the rules for the safety of storing our keys, the fewer regrets we can have in the event of some unexpected incident.

[Agbamoni]

Not only having steel plate as your back up, I would consider to have something that you can always carry whenever you go, like this bracelet. Let's say there's a wildfire happened on your house, are you gonna enter your house and find your steel plate? I'm sure the firefighter and other people will push you to go back.

But, if you wear this bracelet everyday, you don't have to worry if someday something bad happen on the place where you hide your seed phrase.

Can we all agree that there is no perfect way to save our seed phrase? Unexpected things can happen anytime and might make us unaware.

We should be praying that nothing happens for us to be caught in a situation where we can get access to our seed phrase. Every method we use in storing our seed phrase has one or more flaws. The wrist bracelet you shared is a good method. Of course, it will save you when in the situation of the LA wildfire. On the other hand, it is very risky to walk around with it everywhere, as there are those who may find out that what you are wearing is your seed phrase. They may one day forcefully want to take it or rob you of it. If that is not the case, you may take it off and keep it someplace one faithful day and forget about it. The biggest disadvantage of it is the fact that anyone who has access to it will have access to your wallet instantly.

[EL MOHA]

Not only having steel plate as your back up, I would consider to have something that you can always carry whenever you go, like this bracelet. Let's say there's a wildfire happened on your house, are you gonna enter your house and find your steel plate? I'm sure the firefighter and other people will push you to go back.

But, if you wear this bracelet everyday, you don't have to worry if someday something bad happen on the place where you hide your seed phrase.

In as much as we all are utilizing many options of save guarding our seed phrase there is never a perfect one, yes we all agree that one of back storage is to have it carved on metals like stainless steal and then the next thing is how to actually safe them, for me if a large disaster like this happens it will definitely rumble the place where the seed phrase has actually been hidden and you wouldn’t find them again, but is the idea of walking around with bracelets also the right way? Personally I will say it is not because any thing can happen to you and the bracelet needed to be taken off thereby exposing it. For me secrecy is one big part of safeguarding the seed phrase.

As such with fear of natural disasters like this I will say safeguard one metal back up in your place and another backups in different locations many kilometers away from each backups. This to me seems the safest of all options

[Lucius]

This fire and this red, blazing spectacle look like an apocalypse. I think that those stars who had their houses there had dozens of insurance policies, but never imagined that such a disaster could reach such proportions.
~snip~

I have no doubt that all these rich and celebrities will build even more and expensive homes again - although I hope they think about making homes from much more resistant materials on fire, not exclusively of wood. I also hope that they will realize that in the key positions they should be capable people, not incompetent characters who wander the world while the city is burning, and still reduce the budget for firefighters every year.

Maybe some backups are really burned, but I think many people still keep their valuables in banks' safes.

[pawanjain]

Man, that wildfire tearing through the fancy LA neighborhoods shows how nowhere's safe from natural disasters these days.  Makes you think - what if your house burns down with your hardware wallet inside? All those bitcoins, poof.  Even rich folks arent immune.  

So you gotta have backups, my friends.  Store copies of your private keys or backup seeds somewhere else just in case and  nothing wrong with putting your crypto eggs in a few different baskets.  Spread it out.  Cause you never know when your place might go up in flames.  Then youll be wishing you had those backups.  Dont learn the hard way if you can avoid it.  

Be smart and stay safe.  Protect your investment.

But when you come to think of it, if you know that there's a fire nearby and your place is starting to burn down as well then why not take the hardware wallet with you ?
I know we will be in a sate of panic at that moment but out of everything else, it's hardware wallet that we need to secure.
It won't take more than 2 minutes to get that hardware wallet and put it in your pocket.

Besides that, even I think that the backup should be kept in a solid secure place.
Metal engraved seed phrase is probably a good backup method, what do you think ?

[Stalker22]

Yeah, you are right, metal plates with seeds are a good idea, but they might be hard to find if your house is destroyed. Like I said before, thats why its a good idea to store seeds in multiple places. A fireproof safe is a good option, but it might not be enough to protect everything.

But when you come to think of it, if you know that there's a fire nearby and your place is starting to burn down as well then why not take the hardware wallet with you ?
I know we will be in a sate of panic at that moment but out of everything else, it's hardware wallet that we need to secure.
It won't take more than 2 minutes to get that hardware wallet and put it in your pocket.
~

Thats a good point but have you seen how many cars were left on the street or in driveways in the path of fires that were completely burned out? It didnt make sense to me at first glance because I thought people would use their cars for evacuation.

[hyudien]

For sure we have heard and seen the Los Angeles wild fire that has ravage and damage a lot of properties, including historical landmarks and houses of famous celebrities. But it can me thinking though, what if this affluent neighborhood has a lot of Bitcoin investors even early birds who have tons of BTC in their hardware wallets sitting in their homes?

Or for those who had backup their private keys on metal seed storage? This could be a perfect example if they can really withstand extreme temperature. You can read reviews here: (https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/)

So maybe it's time to rethink and revisit our ways of backing up our mnemonic phrases and private keys.

I also suspect that this great fire must have been experienced by some bitcoin investors who lost their wallet keys. Because when a disaster occurs, all that comes to mind is how to save yourself, no matter how much wealth, houses, luxury cars, everything will be burned down. Even if they manage to save the bitcoin wallet key, of course they will sell their ownership to meet their current living needs.

[Saint-loup]

Not only having steel plate as your back up, I would consider to have something that you can always carry whenever you go, like this bracelet. Let's say there's a wildfire happened on your house, are you gonna enter your house and find your steel plate? I'm sure the firefighter and other people will push you to go back.

But, if you wear this bracelet everyday, you don't have to worry if someday something bad happen on the place where you hide your seed phrase.

That's a good idea if you are a woman or a man who likes wearing bracelets because you always know how and where is your back up seed and if you are aware of something suspicious with your funds or at your home, you can immediately send your funds to another wallet without having to go and access to a vault in a bank or elsewhere. But how will you engrave your seed words onto it? You will need to give them to a jeweler for that. Don't you think it's a bit dangerous? And are your sure the bracelet will never ring at airport, museum or bank security gates? Security agents wouldn't see your words if you need to take it off? What's your strategy against that precisely?

[Jawhead999]

The idea is that it should survive
the temperature of the fire for a duration of time and so allow you to retrieve it
after the danger has past.

What if the police ask you to leave your house for many hours or days and not allow you to enter your house as soon as the fire is out? the police or someone might found your steel plate earlier and access your wallet.

On the other hand, it is very risky to walk around with it everywhere, as there are those who may find out that what you are wearing is your seed phrase. They may one day forcefully want to take it or rob you of it.

Is there anyone can know if your bracelet contain seed phrase? I believe no, people simply don't care.

What's sure you must not wear gold bracelet, just use bracelet that look cheap which usually bought for a dollar.

But how will you engrave your seed words onto it? You will need to give them to a jeweler for that. Don't you think it's a bit dangerous? And are your sure the bracelet will never ring at airport, museum or bank security gates? Security agents wouldn't see your words if you need to take it off? What's your strategy against that precisely?

You can engraving by yourself like this one https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Pk0WrGLlWKk

There's a chance the bracelet will ringing at airport, but this is just one of many way to secretly carrying your seed phrase to anywhere, you can use pen or other thing that you can carry/wear for 24/7

[pawanjain]

Yeah, you are right, metal plates with seeds are a good idea, but they might be hard to find if your house is destroyed. Like I said before, thats why its a good idea to store seeds in multiple places. A fireproof safe is a good option, but it might not be enough to protect everything.

But when you come to think of it, if you know that there's a fire nearby and your place is starting to burn down as well then why not take the hardware wallet with you ?
I know we will be in a sate of panic at that moment but out of everything else, it's hardware wallet that we need to secure.
It won't take more than 2 minutes to get that hardware wallet and put it in your pocket.
~

Thats a good point but have you seen how many cars were left on the street or in driveways in the path of fires that were completely burned out? It didnt make sense to me at first glance because I thought people would use their cars for evacuation.

One reason I can think of why people decided not to use their cars for evacuation is because the car can catch fire.
What if you are driving through fire and the car catches fire and blasts out taking your life.
May be the car owners were rescued by air ambulance or something else.

[Zoomic]

This disaster in Los Angeles has indeed put a different kind of consciousness in the minds of bitcoiners. Someone already created a thread arguing that memorizing seedphrase is the best option especially in times of natural disaster. You an view the thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5526181.msg64944985#msg64944985

Anyone who can memorise his seedphrase should go ahead to do so, but that is not a perfect option though. Natural disasters are something that takes people unawares and sometimes we have no control over it. For that reason, everyone needs to prepare for unforeseen occurrences like this and one way I recommend is by storing the seedphrase in different geographical locations that are very safe and secured. Some people can keep their seedphrase with a trusted third party, but if we don't have any trusted party, keeping them in different safe locations by ourselves will be useful in times of natural disasters.

[mirakal]

With or without these natural disasters, it's best to secure our bitcoin storage the best way we can. By storing it offline and putting our private keys in multiple secured locations, that will help us prevent from losing our bitcoin.

Also, by using a hardware wallet and keeping the recovery phrases in a fireproof and waterproof materials, that will secure the safety of our bitcoin seed phrases and will remain accessible despite of fire, flood or any natural disasters.

[Mpamaegbu]

But it can me thinking though, what if this affluent neighborhood has a lot of Bitcoin investors even early birds who have tons of BTC in their hardware wallets sitting in their homes?

We can bet, of course, there will be Bitcoin hodlers among those whose properties were gutted down by that wildfire. Soon, we will get to read articles to that effect and how their hardware wallets and what not were destroyed.  Again, this can also be a test case or boost for hardware wallets if it comes out that wallets that were affected didn't get destroyed by that fire. We can imagine what a positive outcome on them can do to sales.

So maybe it's time to rethink and revisit our ways of backing up our mnemonic phrases and private keys.

This is why I don't stress too much on backing my seedphrases. I just do the normal writing down on paper thing to keep it simple. I know that there's no system that's an absolute that it can't be faulted.

[Akbarkoe]

For sure we have heard and seen the Los Angeles wild fire that has ravage and damage a lot of properties, including historical landmarks and houses of famous celebrities. But it can me thinking though, what if this affluent neighborhood has a lot of Bitcoin investors even early birds who have tons of BTC in their hardware wallets sitting in their homes?

Or for those who had backup their private keys on metal seed storage? This could be a perfect example if they can really withstand extreme temperature. You can read reviews here: (https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/)

So maybe it's time to rethink and revisit our ways of backing up our mnemonic phrases and private keys.

Yep you are right, I think a big risk occurs if we do not have a lot of storage for our wallet phrases, that big fire will easily devour that it is either and it could not Has Bitcoin.

I think the safe is not burning in the incident, but it is found or not to be a question, keeping the wallet phrase in the safe is quite good but to what extent we can re -re -if the housing is made evenly by fire, I think there will be a few people looking for luck at times like That.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

With or without these natural disasters, it's best to secure our bitcoin storage the best way we can. By storing it offline and putting our private keys in multiple secured locations, that will help us prevent from losing our bitcoin.

Also, by using a hardware wallet and keeping the recovery phrases in a fireproof and waterproof materials, that will secure the safety of our bitcoin seed phrases and will remain accessible despite of fire, flood or any natural disasters.

In my country, it all started in floods, everyone was caught by surprised as it really damage a lot of properties in the mid 2000's as a huge tropical rain hit our country and then it goes everywhere. And now we have what we call "act of God" in our insurances, because of this natural disasters.

However, there's no way that you can insured your hardware wallets isn't it. And the only way is to secure our seed phrases is to back up in multiple places so that in case of htis natural act of God, you can still retrieved your seeds. So this thing happening around us is another scenario that we have to take into consideration.

[NotATether]

You can store your seed phrase with washers, metal, or good old fashioned paper, but the most important thing is to keep them private and have backups in different locations. The topic of the risk of losing one’s seed phrase to natural disaster was discussed last year and I think the responses on that thread is very valid here: Keeping or recovering seed phrases during or after a natural disaster

Washers and metal seeds will protect your mnemonic phrase from fire, but it will not help you against all of the losing that is occuring in your area. People are not even being allowed to get to their own homes to retrieve stuff. Meanwhile, robbers are free to operate as they wish. So perhaps if such a thing might happen, then it might be a better idea to create a new wallet and sweep your coins there.

[mamesso]

They have done their best and chosen the safest place to store their Bitcoins, but who would have thought this would happen. Natural disasters are unpredictable, everyone must have seen the video of the great fire that occurred in Los Angeles, the people there were very panicked by the disaster. I am sure, all they had in mind was saving themselves and that is very common, safety is much more important than property.
The best way to store Bitcoin has been done, now after this major disaster depends on each individual's risk tolerance.

[Helena Yu]

For some people they will say centralized exchanges is the solution.

Well, you know, even you lost your password, you can retrieve use your email, but if you don't have access to your email or you lost your 2FA verification, you can claim your account by give you KYC and answer few personal questions.

So perhaps if such a thing might happen, then it might be a better idea to create a new wallet and sweep your coins there.

How? if you can sweep your coins, it means you have access to your wallet. The question in this case is, how you can access your wallet in the first place?

[moneystery]

from what i see everyone has their own view on this, some say that putting it on a metal plate can be secure, or putting it on a metal bracelet is also safe, or putting the seed phrase in several different places as a backup, etc, so with that i can say that there is no perfect way to secure the seed phrase, what we do is just to secure it, depending on what we choose it still has shortcomings or events that may happen outside of what we expect.

[Oluwa-btc]

Man, I didn't thought of that. But there is a huge possibility that those affected ones saved first their private keys or wherever it is written or carved. I've watched several interviews and content near into that area and I've heard many of them say about Bitcoin so, there's really the chance that many of them are investors, early and new. And I hope that most of them saved their precious mnemonic phrases if ever they've foreseen that their neighborhood was going to be affected by that wildfire.

You're actually correct but coupled with the ongoing security consciousness of digital hardware's;Bitcoin wallets,private keys and all of that,people have been able to manage and secure their content.
The whole incident was a total mixture of disappointment and anguish,And this calls for a warning signal or awareness module for safety.It's no doubt that 60% of the affected victims are Bitcoin investors, Inasmuch as such incidents are unpredictable, all-round safety should be acknowledged and practiced.