Again, How secure is your Seed phrase?

[Patikno]

A friend shared this story with me and I think it's worthy of discussion here to further open our eyes to safeguard our private/seed phrase like our life depend on it. Our life actually depends on it because the purpose of investment is to make things easier for us in the future when we don't longer have strength to do hard work.

It was reported that a man lost about $12m worth of BNB because a cat eats a paper containing his seed phrases.

full story here

I don't know how genuine the story is but let assume it actually happens, what will be your reaction if you happen to be the one?

I still believe many people here have their seed phrase written on a paper which is not entirely wrong but how safe and secure is the paper? We've raised concerns about paper decay, burning etc but least we expect this scenario of animals eating the paper.

To invest is hard but it seems securing the investment is much more harder. Do we have zoologist in the house? Is there any chance of recovering the seed phrases either by killing the animal or any other way?

From the story, it seems strange if the owner just put something so valuable without worrying about anything, if it were me then I would be very careful about it, and always bring it and not leave it alone even for a moment until it was in the safe place. I think this is negligence, and this can be a lesson for anyone to be careful in storing seed phrases, consider it as gold that we should not ignore even for a moment. If that really happened, or assume it happened to me, then I would try my best to take the paper in a safe way from the pet, even though the chances of success are small.

[PrivacyG]

Sometimes out of comfort we postpone some important things we should not, and then for an unfortunate chunk of people something happens and hits them right into their face while proving why comfort should not have been the first thing on their list of priorities.

I do not know if they were careless as some above me say or they simply did not think this could happen, or at least this quickly.  After all, who even thinks of a cat destroying and eating particularly the most valuable piece of paper in their own house?  You would think there is furniture, colorful stuff and what not that attracts their taste buds more than 12 million dollars on a paper would.

Poor guy.

[Samlucky O]

I still believe many people here have their seed phrase written on a paper which is not entirely wrong but how safe and secure is the paper? We've raised concerns about paper decay, burning etc but least we expect this scenario of animals eating the paper.

That is actually right though. I feel it's important that even if we keep our seed on paper, we still need to keep it in other places to secure it as an additional way of securing our funds. Apart from using paper I think there is crypto capsule which helps in arranging the sees phrase accordingly and this help to reduce the risk of losing seed phrase to fire outbreak, flood or erotion, free from eating by rats or cats and lastly to stay away from any natural disasters. So seed should be kept in different places to avoid such incident.

If I am in the position of the guy who cat ate his seed, I would not do anything but I will be angry at my self for allowing such thing to happen when I have the power to secure it.

[promise444c5]

Either the story Is real or not always keep a multiple backups for your seed phrase incase of future unforeseen event .

I am not sure killing the animal will help them recover the wallet.
To be honest, if they think about killing the animal to retrieve the seed phrase, I can only wish that they die before the kill the poor animal.

The story is definitely a lie. No chance of it being real.

What a wish
Well cat do not chew like human and It somehow rare for cats to eat paper but  they can shred it  (I have one and I haven't seen it go after papers   before ). I think it's a fabricated  one plus how tf will someone be so careless with something worth that amount...

[Felicity_Tide]

~snip

Do we have zoologist in the house? Is there any chance of recovering the seed phrases either by killing the animal or any other way?

I also came across this story sometime yesterday. Killing the cat for dissection purpose is clearly a zero effort to recovering what has been lost. Should we blame the cat?, No, because the person who failed to keep his seed phrase in a more secure location is at fault here. Besides, just like some users had pointed out, why did he fail to have multiple backups considering the large amount involved.

This is clearly a case of someone shooting himself in the foot for no reason. He had just one key to $12M. What a big risk, even far greater than the risk of investing in Bitcoin. I think this is another story to serve as a reminder to those who hasn't made such mistake, but it's quite sad that such an amount was used to set an example.

[ThemePen]

Sometimes out of comfort we postpone some important things we should not, and then for an unfortunate chunk of people something happens and hits them right into their face while proving why comfort should not have been the first thing on their list of priorities.

I do not know if they were careless as some above me say or they simply did not think this could happen, or at least this quickly.  After all, who even thinks of a cat destroying and eating particularly the most valuable piece of paper in their own house?  You would think there is furniture, colorful stuff and what not that attracts their taste buds more than 12 million dollars on a paper would.

Poor guy.

Agreed mostly people choose to do easy things instead of important ones and then they regret it when something unexpected happens. What happened to this person is really shocking who would think that cat would ruin and eat very valuable paper worth $12 million? This is very strange and unlucky event that shows how important it is to take care of things and be responsible instead of being lazy and careless. And yes we can not help but feel sorry for person who lost so much.

[Darker45]

One thing's for sure, it's not Pickle that's mistaken. All cats have that tendency. Therefore, the person who owns the cat should've already thought of a way or ways to make sure his millions are well protected.

First off, why leave the paper containing the seed phrase openly on a desk? Second, why keep one copy only? Third, why not buy metal backups that would protect seed phrases against fire, water, and other elements? Finally, it's millions. You don't procrastinate keeping your millions safe.

[dzungmobile]

It was reported that a man lost about $12m worth of BNB because a cat eats a paper containing his seed phrases.

To invest is hard but it seems securing the investment is much more harder. Do we have zoologist in the house? Is there any chance of recovering the seed phrases either by killing the animal or any other way?

Beginners - Keep your rooms clean, keep your backups ready to use & bring away

How secure is your seed phrase depends on how you generate your wallet and it is a more complicated question. Your topic title is not accurately expressing what you want to discuss so let me derailing the topic a little bit.

How Many Bitcoin Seed Phrases Are Only One Repeated Word?
If you use a bad wallet software for generating your wallet seed, your wallet mnemonic seed is not secure.

To avoid topic derailing by bad topic title, you can follow guides on how to write good and relevant topic titles.
Topic title style guide.
Make your topic title, posts more attractive.

[knowngunman]

I am not sure killing the animal will help them recover the wallet.
To be honest, if they think about killing the animal to retrieve the seed phrase, I can only wish that they die before the kill the poor animal.

The story is definitely a lie. No chance of it being real.

This is too emotional by the way, lol

It's not just about killing the animal, it's for forensic purposes. It'll be hard to retrieve the paper without killing the animal unless through operation which I consider more cruel.

This is crazy if true, but I talked many times how paper backups have many downsides compared to stainless steel.
Even if someone is using paper backup I would recommend creating multiple copies in different locations.

Just like you, many others have suggested having multiple back up but come to think about it, won't it increase the chance of one's wallet being vulnerable? I mean having multiple back up also means multiple security because there's chances of someone getting access to one or some of the copies. For someone who's careless as the guy in Op will surely have difficulty in managing multiple back up, they'll eventually lose track of where they keep some.

[apogio]

This is too emotional by the way, lol

It's not just about killing the animal, it's for forensic purposes. It'll be hard to retrieve the paper without killing the animal unless through operation which I consider more cruel.

Yeah but forensic purposes for human stupidity This is unacceptable for me. By the way, if I had $12M in a single backup and any animal ate it, I would just live knowing that I 've lost my fortune.

[BenCodie]

Do we have zoologist in the house? Is there any chance of recovering the seed phrases either by killing the animal or any other way?

Doesn't take a zoologist to know that the seed is long gone not long after the cat at it

Why after I click the site, it show error 404?

I don't have cat, but I found cat could eat paper, this is funny lol https://www.thesprucepets.com/reasons-your-cat-eats-paper-5204208

If someone write their seed phrase on paper, they must protect the paper using something, just like kids movies who send message through the sea, they put the message inside bottle.

I hope eating $12m is enough to satisfy that cats boredom and curiosity for the world for life

What happened to having several backup's of your seed phrase? I would say that the victim failed in a way to protect his seed properly or the story isn't just clear. Anything is possible we all know, but these are little things that we can do on our own to avoid any future problems.

His cat can't be blamed for this as he should have kept it in a more hidden or secured location and also have different back ups to his keys. Aside paper, we can aswell store own keys on metal backups that would be difficult for physical damage to occurs.

Owner is definitely at fault...$12m, no secure location, accessible to a cat (thus accessible to anyone?), no backup. Extremely careless. To treat $12m that way is probably someone with $120m or more. Maybe a Justin Sun publicity stunt lol...or a stunt to make a memecoin out of Pickle the cat...or both, lol.

[knowngunman]

Yeah but forensic purposes for human stupidity This is unacceptable for me. By the way, if I had $12M in a single backup and any animal ate it, I would just live knowing that I 've lost my fortune.

How confident are you that you won't go extraordinary ways to get the paper recovered? Remember, this is $12m and not $12k

Moreover, how will you feel seeing the animal flaunting it's tail around you after making you lose such amount?

I don't support animal cruelty but sincerely, I won't neither be comfortable to see an animal moving freely around me with my $12m. If I don't get rid of it, I would definitely do something crazy eventually. This is not even good to imagine btw.

[apogio]

How confident are you that you won't go extraordinary ways to get the paper recovered? Remember, this is $12m and not $12k

Moreover, how will you feel seeing the animal flaunting it's tail around you after making you lose such amount?

I don't support animal cruelty but sincerely, I won't neither be comfortable to see an animal moving freely around me with my $12m. If I don't get rid of it, I would definitely do something crazy eventually. This is not even good to imagine btw.

I get the idea, but I am too sentimental to hurt any animal. Especially knowing that a cat can't do anything to protect herself against human monstrosity. But again, having lost $12m because of a mistake like this, is too bad to be true. I highly doubt it's true 

[dzungmobile]

How confident are you that you won't go extraordinary ways to get the paper recovered? Remember, this is $12m and not $12k

This can be a terrible and immoral solution to recover the eaten wallet but you are missing a point, and the bottom line is people have similar practice by their instinct and personal traits. Like a careless person will do very similarly, in a way of carelessly with his fund of either $12k or $12M.

Don't think that if you are careless now in practice because you have only $100 or $500, if you get richer and have a bigger fund like $1,000 or $10,000 or $1M, your practice in creating, storing, backing up your wallets will turn to be very differently, in a way of safer and more secure. I really don't think many people will change their personal traits too much after getting rich.

So when you are in this market, let's learn and improve your practice day by day, then if you luckily get richer, you already have good practice in security, and won't lose your coins.

[Hatchy]

How confident are you that you won't go extraordinary ways to get the paper recovered? Remember, this is $12m and not $12k

Moreover, how will you feel seeing the animal flaunting it's tail around you after making you lose such amount?

I don't support animal cruelty but sincerely, I won't neither be comfortable to see an animal moving freely around me with my $12m. If I don't get rid of it, I would definitely do something crazy eventually. This is not even good to imagine btw.

It's funny how so many people on this thread might think that killing the animal might get them back their seedphrase. It literally isn't going to be possible as even by the time of being aware that the animal had eaten your seedphrase,it must have been digested by it's organs or chemicals in its stomach. Thats if the animal didn't tear it to pieces even before it swallows. To me this whole story was cooked up for the social media as usual, so let's not think too much about it.

[sokani]

Can someone be this careless? I know if he had used a metallic steel plate, there was no way a cat would eat it, but c'mon. Even with a piece of paper, for someone that had that much, he should atleast have some sense to have the seed phrase stored in multiple places incase there's an earthquake, flooding or fire outbreak, he can still recover the funds. Honestly, I find the story hard to believe. I feel like this never happened and it's just some media trying to make headline.

[Ever-young]

I still believe many people here have their seed phrase written on a paper which is not entirely wrong but how safe and secure is the paper? We've raised concerns about paper decay, burning etc but least we expect this scenario of animals eating the paper.

Writing down your seed phrase in a piece of paper is not the problem here the problem is based on how you save that paper which you have written your seed phrase, people have used that method and have been using it for long, the carelessness of one shouldn't make such process an unsaved way of storing your seed phrase, some have used the  method and have even made it water proof which is laminating the paper.

[mvdheuvel1983]

What happened to having several backup's of your seed phrase? I would say that the victim failed in a way to protect his seed properly or the story isn't just clear.

This is exactly what I was thinking when reading through the post.
I don't have anything remotely close to $12 million in bitcoin but I have more than one copy of my seed phase. It was reckless of him.
Even if the story is false, this should be a reason for others to have more than one copy of their seed phases and make sure they keep them all in safe and private places.

Let's imagine that the person didn't have duplicate of his speed phrase stored in other places but how can he place such important documents in a place that is accessible to his pet, I think he was very careless for not hiding his important stuffs away from his pet knowing what is involved, he's going to learn a big lesson if he recovers from the shock because the damage cwn not be undone even though he kills the cat. The story may not be entirely true but the message has been passed and people will be more careful with the why they handle their importance documents, things that are private should be kept privately and they shouldn't be kept where it can easily be seen by anyone nor be destroyed by pets.

[Pablo-wood]

Owning as much as $12M worth of BNB while storing the seed phrase on paper is an extreme display of irresponsibility in this story. The cat deserves some credit for that singular act, how on earth will someone with such amount act like a total novice in the crypto game

This fellow can afford metallic backups if this story is true or If the goal is to avoid spending any funds while ensuring long-term security, then having multiple well-protected paper backups is a reasonable approach. even at that, proper precautions are necessary to mitigate risks.

[Lucius]

~snip~
I don't know how genuine the story is but let assume it actually happens, what will be your reaction if you happen to be the one?

Unless a cat/dog is so skilled and capable of opening a safe or some other form of protection, I would never get angry if something like that happened to me, because an animal cannot know how valuable something is. There is no blame on the cat, only on the owner who clearly left the paper within reach of the cat.

I still believe many people here have their seed phrase written on a paper which is not entirely wrong but how safe and secure is the paper? We've raised concerns about paper decay, burning etc but least we expect this scenario of animals eating the paper.

If you protect paper properly, it can last for hundreds of years, but of course you need to keep in mind the quality of the paper and ink, and of course the type of protection. Laminated paper, which is also of good quality and stored in the appropriate way it's not something to worry about too much.

To invest is hard but it seems securing the investment is much more harder. Do we have zoologist in the house? Is there any chance of recovering the seed phrases either by killing the animal or any other way?

The cat did not literally swallow a piece of paper, but very likely tore it into pieces and ate it, and when the paper got into the cat's stomach, it logically began to disintegrate due to the action of stomach acid. If you want to remove something from someone, you don't necessarily have to kill them, you can subject them to surgery, but in this specific case that would be completely pointless.