Save my bitcoins in a cold wallet

[virasog]

If the thief does not know exactly how much Bitcoin you own (and here privacy is essential), you can leave a small amount of $1000 using wallet seed and your full balance by adding a passphrase. It may be useful in some cases such as kidnapping or threats.

That will effectively create two different wallets, but I don't think we can create two different wallets with the same seed phrase and separate them with a passphrase???

When we create a wallet, Electrum will generate a seed phrase, and if we do not add the passphrase to it, it generates a wallet. Now, after the creation of that wallet, we cannot create another wallet with the same seed phrases and add the passphrase. So now, if there is any kidnapping threat, how can that help?

[UmerIdrees]

If the thief does not know exactly how much Bitcoin you own (and here privacy is essential), you can leave a small amount of $1000 using wallet seed and your full balance by adding a passphrase. It may be useful in some cases such as kidnapping or threats.

That will effectively create two different wallets, but I don't think we can create two different wallets with the same seed phrase and separate them with a passphrase???

When we create a wallet, Electrum will generate a seed phrase, and if we do not add the passphrase to it, it generates a wallet. Now, after the creation of that wallet, we cannot create another wallet with the same seed phrases and add the passphrase. So now, if there is any kidnapping threat, how can that help?

I guess you can still get different wallets having the same seed phrases but different passphrases, and Electrum allows this. Let me tell you how this works.

First, create a wallet with a seed and do not enter a passphrase. So this is the wallet that you can give the seed phrase to anyone if ever you're forced to do so. Now, the other wallet you can get is when you restore that wallet, the electurm ask for the passphrase, and here, when you give the passphrase, it becomes another hidden wallet.

[satscraper]

You should know that your software won't give you feedback that the passphrase you entered is wrong or misspelled. Anything you enter is a valid passphrase. It's just a question of if that's the one where your coins are.

This is true, and to avoid problems caused by the wrong or misspelled passphrase, it is advisable to use wallets that can reveal the master key fingerprint, which uniquely identifies that key. This identifier should be written down and kept somewhere visible. If something is wrong with the passphrase you entered, you can easily notice the mismatch and take the necessary steps to correct it.

[Pmalek]

That will effectively create two different wallets, but I don't think we can create two different wallets with the same seed phrase and separate them with a passphrase???

Each passphrase creates a new wallet, yes. But you can generate an unlimited number of different passphrase-protected wallets and deposit any amount of bitcoins you want in them.

Here is an example.
Your standard wallet generated only from your seed contains 0.01 BTC in total.
Passphrase wallet #1 contains 0.5 BTC.
Passphrase wallet #2 contains 1 BTC.
Passphrase wallet #3 contains 5 BTC.
...
...
This can go on forever.

If someone gets your seed, they will only be able to access the standard wallet. They need passphrases to the other wallets to take your most valuable stashes.

This is true, and to avoid problems caused by the wrong or misspelled passphrase, it is advisable to use wallets that can reveal the master key fingerprint, which uniquely identifies that key. This identifier should be written down and kept somewhere visible. If something is wrong with the passphrase you entered, you can easily notice the mismatch and take the necessary steps to correct it.

The key fingerprint is a neat addition and identifier indeed. It's a short string and easy to back up. Like you said, it's unique to that particular wallet. Alternatively, you can write down the first address from your wallet because that one will be unique as well. The non-passphrase and passphrase-protected wallets won't share the same addresses. The fingerprint is shorter, though.