The Ultimate Seed Phrase Security: MEMORIZATION

[K_vin]

My point is with experience someone can memorize and maybe be able to recall since they have been long in the game, maybe they can just have fun but suggesting it to a total novice entering the space newly might be too detrimental no matter how much brain power he/she has

This is not true, it does not matter how long one has been a bitcoiner, memorizing your seed phrase is never recommended for anyone, except you want to lock yourself out of your funds.

this is a wallet that contains assets that one wishes to hold for as long as possible, storing the phrases on USB, mail,paper etc any other means should be encouraged

Never store your seed phrase in your email or anywhere online. It is only recommended to store your seed phrase offline, i.e. engraving it on a stainless steel or writing it down on paper.

 Am not even recommending it, all am saying is even if anyone is to attempt it for whatever reason atleast not a newbie

[Ever-young]

Am not even recommending it, all am saying is even if anyone is to attempt it for whatever reason atleast not a newbie

Be you newbie or what ever that you are in crypto or in learning about things in general it’s never safe to even try the memorizing of phrase as a safe means, it’s never advisable and will never be considered safe method. If you can memorize your phrase that good for you and that shows how retentive you can be but there should be other means of backup to use and secure the phrase incase you forget some of the words or how it’s being placed that backup will always be the safe heaven to recovery of your wallet.

[MusaMohamed]

I wanna add, since you proposed it, that most of the time people worry about the wrong things.
They pay $100 for a reputable physical medium backup, but they store it in unsafe places.
They pay for a trusted cloud storage to store their seed phrases there, but they don't pay money to buy a hardware device or an old laptop to use for air-gapped transactions.

They forgot a key point.
It's your private key, it's your bitcoin; it's not your private key, it's not your bitcoin.

If they have ever heard/ read this saying, understand its message and remember it deeply in their mind, they will know that with Bitcoin, to be safe, they must be their own custodians with open source non custodial wallets.
By understand the message, the warning, and remember it for their practice, they will never use third party service, either a physical vault or a cloud storage to store their bitcoin or private key or mnemonic seed. They are going to custodians if they use those services, that is very risky.

[cryptoWODL]

My point is with experience someone can memorize and maybe be able to recall since they have been long in the game, maybe they can just have fun but suggesting it to a total novice entering the space newly might be too detrimental no matter how much brain power he/she has,

You may be very experienced, but memorizing the wallet seed phrase may not be easy for everyone, moreover it can be foolish and this method is not safe for everyone. Because some wallets contain 12 and 24 seed phrases. So if we try to memorize or remember them, it may be normal at any time we can forget, as a result there may be a possibility of further losses, meaning the risk of losing the assets in our wallet will be highest.

storing the phrases on USB, mail,paper etc any other means should be encouraged and maybe after that you can decide to memorize it just for fun knowing fully well that the phrases are saved, both words and sequence..

Save seed phrases online or in email is not safe for us at all, so we should leave this thought. But if we write it on paper or store it in different places and store it on a Steel Or metal it will be the best decision for us. You should note these to properly store the wallet seed phrase.

How To Protect Your Seed Phrase
Ultimate guide to storing your bitcoin seed phrase backups

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Save seed phrases online or in email is not safe for us at all, so we should leave this thought. But if we write it on paper or store it in different places and store it on a Steel Or metal it will be the best decision for us. You should note these to properly store the wallet seed phrase.

How To Protect Your Seed Phrase
Ultimate guide to storing your bitcoin seed phrase backups

Save your seed phrase offline and if possible, with metal
Securing Your Seed Phrase with Washers
Stainless steel Bitcoin Recovery Seed Plate
n0nce's Steel Washer Backup jig (customisable)
Metal Bitcoin storage reviews.

[X-ray]

wait until you rarely interact with your wallet thus never try to remember your seed phrase and suddenly you don't remember your mnemonic doesn't matter how hard you try to recalling it.

it's the worst idea so far, you can just encrypt a storage device, and encrypt the seed phrase, make sure to back up onto 2 other devices and you're already fine.

no need risking your money trying to achieve that level of security but ultimately fail anyway and have a huge risk of losing your money due to human error.

[edy_58]

Am not even recommending it, all am saying is even if anyone is to attempt it for whatever reason atleast not a newbie

Be you newbie or what ever that you are in crypto or in learning about things in general it’s never safe to even try the memorizing of phrase as a safe means, it’s never advisable and will never be considered safe method. If you can memorize your phrase that good for you and that shows how retentive you can be but there should be other means of backup to use and secure the phrase incase you forget some of the words or how it’s being placed that backup will always be the safe heaven to recovery of your wallet.

You are right, anyone is certainly never safe by trying to memorize phrases to keep their assets because there are many things that we will face in this life, of course it is difficult to remember the phrase, especially if we don't open it often and when we can no longer access the wallet that we have, of course this will be very sad because we have lost the assets that we have, of course there are other safer ways and have been done by many people who can keep their assets safe.

[DeathAngel]

Memorisation is the perfect seed storage method in an ideal world but you can easily forget a word or two & then you are in deep trouble. I much prefer to stamp my seed on metal & hide two copies in a very good & discrete place. Whatever works for you as an individual is good though, no one method is perfect for everybody. Just keep that seed safe.

[Findingnemo]

Are you referring to storing your private keys (or perhaps your back up seed words) in a encrypted USB stick or something else? Of course if that is the ONLY location of your backup, you might have to have more than 1 USB stick perhaps with the same backup password in more than one location?.. but surely one back up is better than ONLY memory... but ONLY one back up has its vulnerabilities  too.. and surely some folks might not encrypt their USB stick, too...so that would be a potential vulnerability, too.

I am just comparing memorizing seeds vs simply storing the seeds in an offline stick, I feel the later is the best among these two. Ofcouse the seeds should be backed up properly at least in three different locations for the ease of recovering and to tackle the internet risk factor we should move to an offline airgapped device once we started accumulating a decent chunk of cryptos also people make mistakes of importing a wallet into an offline device which is wrong cause once the wallet seed exposed to a device which is connected to internet we can never be sure that it's 100% secure.

[apogio]

I much prefer to stamp my seed on metal & hide two copies in a very good & discrete place.

As much as I like DIY solutions, I 've found that stamping is not a convenient method, at least for me. Out of curiousity, when you refer to stamping, do you mean stamping letters, or stamping dots in ready to use backup templates?
I like these capsules for backups, for their convenience and compactness.

[knowngunman]

That is why I said, memorizing these phrases isn’t an easy task, but with time, it gets easier and you’d be happy you dedicated that much time and effort to memorize your phrases. I still have a lot of things I memorized few years back during my University days, and up till today, I still remember and can still recite them vividly like it was just yesterday, although there are some that I may have forgotten but that’s only because I only memorized them to pass a particular test and after the test I didn’t feel I had further need for them. But with phrases as important as your pass phrases, you’ll remember them all the days of your life because you know the importance of those phrases which will make it impossible for you to forget.

Is it that hard to memorise? I really don't have problem when it comes to memorization and I don't think it's a big task for anyone who's interested. The problem with memorization is how long can you retain it in your brain? I remember memorising a speech of about five pages within 48 hours and I delivered it without missing a letter. This happened on regular intervals and I never disappoint but guess what, I can't remember a single thing from from the speech anymore. I'm just trying to tell you how possible it is to forget what you've memorised in the long run.

Stamping your phrases on a piece of metal may appear to be just an awesome way of storing your phrases, but tell me, where exactly are you gonna store that piece of steel or metal plate, in your bedroom? Burying it underground? Or locking it up in a safe? All these could still be breached, except you have a better place you can store it, somewhere that can keep it out of reach of thieves or natural disasters.

There's no method that is absolutely risk free including the memorization. Natural disasters can be a setback when it comes to physical storage. Likewise, hacking and other online theft strategies can be a threat to digital storage. Memorization is the most easy way to lose your seed phrase because there is absolutely no way for you to recover it once forgotten. The only way to retain your seed in your brain is by constant rehearsal which is making it gradually expose and vulnerable.

[Synchronice]

In the current world, where cybersecurity threats and natural disasters and theft are prevalent, the best form of security is doing things the traditional way: memorizing a seed phrase. When you memorize your phrase, you are also free from all the risks that you have with the physical and digital storage. Though it takes time and commitment, But still, you are secure knowing your seed phrase is safe and can be used at any time needed. Therefore, attempt memorizing your seed phrase today; you should start memorizing it today if you haven’t. You’ll be glad you did it for your digital assets.

Finally, I found someone who agrees with the idea of memorization being superior. Memorization is the best method in the world in terms of safety and independence. When you memorize your seeds, you no longer depend on other devices, you no longer have to keep them safely secured and you no longer need to worry about if someone finds your seed phrase metal plates.

My opinion about memorization is that you should not use anything longer than 12 words seed phrase. Once you create a 12 words seed phrase, then you write it down on metal plates and keep them safe for a few months but during these months, you'll spend 30 minutes or one hour into memorizing your seeds. I believe that in one month, you'll know it so well that you'll no longer need to save metal plates, so you can destroy them. But keep in mind that you'll have to always remind yourself what are your 12 words seed phrases every day, so it will be sealed into your brain.
P.S. That's just my approach and I really believe that it's safe. Everyone should check their cognitive abilities and be sure before they do this.

[Patikno]

Memorisation is the perfect seed storage method in an ideal world but you can easily forget a word or two & then you are in deep trouble. I much prefer to stamp my seed on metal & hide two copies in a very good & discrete place. Whatever works for you as an individual is good though, no one method is perfect for everybody. Just keep that seed safe.

I totally agree with your opinion that memorization is not easy and it can forget one word or even more than one word, and this is very dangerous and there are many more risks such as experiencing memory loss or other problems that interfere with memory. Basically, everyone has their own way to secure the seed phrase, and it has its own risks. So in essence, we must be able to determine a good way to store seed phrases, if you feel that offline storage is safe, then you should think about the risks and try to do more security and be preventive. And it should be noted that the risk that most affects offline seed phrase storage is a disaster, such as fire disaster or wildfire, flood, extreme weather that causes tornadoes, and others.

[0t3p0t]

There is no doubt that brain is powerful but it has weaknesses. As we gets old our memory is getting slower, we should also take accidents into consideration because we don't know exactly when it will happen and how severe it will be whether it compromises our memory or not. So meaning our memory isn't future proof we still need to right down our keys and put it to where we think it is safe or we we memorize and then we write it cause why not right?

[Futurexxx]

Disadvantages of memorizing your seed phrase are:

• memory can disappoints (forgetfulness)
• accident that can erase past memory
• inability to pass the coins as inheritance

Digital storage is not advisable nor recommended. Physical storage is the best but there is nothing bad to memorize your seed phrase which might be the last resort.

You just nail it here mate, thinking you can save your secret phase in your head by memorisation is the easiest way to lose your money, because in no distance time, you are going to forget, sometime you are going to miss the right placement for a word when try to utilize it, if am not wrong, their is no better way of saving your secret phase than writing it down on a piece of paper  and keeping it in a safe place where only you have access to.
I know that some people might argue that 🔥 fire or any natural disasters can make an investor lose his or her secret phase if it is written in a piece of paper, yes it's true, but it's best to do your best in what is within your control than what's out of your control.

[LogitechMouse]

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you should start memorizing it today if you haven’t. You’ll be glad you did it for your digital assets.

As somebody who's often forget something, this will not work for me that's for sure.

Well, just like what others said here, they don't like the idea of memorizing your seed phrase. What will you do if you just solely memorized the seed phrase and then one day, you forgot it? Of course, there will be a time where will just forget something for some reasons. What will you do if that happens? I'm not saying that this will not work for all though, but if you want to store your seed phrase, memorizing it ALONE would not help you make your assets more secured. There will be a time in our lives where we will forget even more as we grow older, and that would be a problem.

Overall, I don't like this idea. I would rather write my seed phrase and keep it somewhere safe. At least in that way, that might be less safe compared to memorizing, but like what I said, I'm a type of person where I forgets things very easily. It might work for a few ones though, but I doubt that it would be a good long-term way of securing your assets.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

As somebody who's often forget something, this will not work for me that's for sure.

Well, just like what others said here, they don't like the idea of memorizing your seed phrase. What will you do if you just solely memorized the seed phrase and then one day, you forgot it? Of course, there will be a time where will just forget something for some reasons. What will you do if that happens?

Your brain and memory can be used as a preventive backup solution, not as the only or main backup solution. Many things that can suddenly happen to your body, brain and memory that are all uncontrollable so if you use brain and memory as only or main backup solution, you will have big problem and lose your bitcoin when those unwanted accidents comes

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.

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

[Hatchy]

As somebody who's often forget something, this will not work for me that's for sure.

It's definitely not going to be a good idea. The other day. I was stressed out after a hefty day at work. I got home just for me to find out that I could no longer remember the password for one of my banking accounts. This is something I use more often than before. I kept trying until my bank told me that I was temporarily blocked for 24hrs.. after a long night of rest, I was able to remember the password I used. You see, the brain sometimes can easily forget things. Memorizing something as crucial as our seedphrase is very risky and we should avoid such practice.

[Lucius]

As much as I like DIY solutions, I 've found that stamping is not a convenient method, at least for me. Out of curiousity, when you refer to stamping, do you mean stamping letters, or stamping dots in ready to use backup templates?
I like these capsules for backups, for their convenience and compactness.

If you have the right tool, I don't see why that would be a problem - you just line up the letter and hit it with a hammer. Given that only the first 4 letters of each word are enough, a 12-word seed takes 10 to 15 minutes, which again depends on how skillful and careful someone is at the same time.

I like this one - but they went a bit overboard with the price, and considering that every more experienced user these days also uses a passphrase, the package should definitely include another plate with all possible characters.

[OgNasty]

I literally wouldn't trust myself to remember my seed phrase with any amount of BTC on the line.  I know I wouldn't remember it.  Sometimes I have to think long and hard to make sure I remember my password to unlock my wallet as it is.  Maybe I just have a terrible memory compared to others and know this about myself, but it seems insane to try and "remember" your seed phrase.  Truth be told, I don't even have a seed phrase to remember, so I guess I'm way behind the times.