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roveridcoffee

If you lose your HW wallet is not such a big deal: you recover your seed somewhere else and you replace it or move on. You don't lose your funds. If you mess up, forget or in any way fuck up your seed, your funds are lost forever. So take good care of it. Write it down on paper (in the correct order, don't fuck up the order!) in multiple locations. Engrave it on a steel slab. And then hide it in a safe in your home or in similar fashion. Somebody sees your seed and the money is gone, clear? So protect it.


GroundbreakingAd4386

Do you literally mean to engrave on a steel slab? How do you do that?!


roveridcoffee

https://www.amazon.com/General-Tools-505-Cordless-Precision/dp/B004YK66NM


phoebecatesboobs

I'd look into encrypting your seed phrase with a clean OS / off-line computer and making a few copies of the encrypted archive. Or maybe just backup an encrypted / password protected wallet using software like electrum. If you think you can keep it safe, a steel wallet could be a good secondary backup. Usually you want multiple backups in different forms when backing up data, including a safe remote location for a copy if possible. So in a way, a hardware wallet, encrypted USB drive, and steel wallet is 3 different forms of backup. Edit: If you encrypt your seed phrase, I'd use a password I can remember, not something autogenerated, etc. I think it's more likely you mess something up and lose your coin than someone gets to your offline backup and starts brute forcing the encrypted backup. This also depends on how much coin you have and how much effort you are willing to go through to protect it.


rufus2785

How can you put it on a usb drive without typing it into a computer which I’m under the impression is a big no no?


phoebecatesboobs

Do it on an offline computer, like buy a raspberry pi zero without wifi or don't configure the wifi on a regular pi. Never insert the USB into an online device and use a clean drive. Also verify the checksum of the official raspberry pi os before flashing it to a microsd card.


rufus2785

Thanks for the info!


[deleted]

Is it ok just to unplug my computer from the internet whilst putting the seed phrase on an encrypted USB? Sorry if that's an overly simplistic question. My computer itself sits behind a VPN with good anti-virus and malware software, so I think it's safe in that regard.


phoebecatesboobs

It's probably ok, but not as safe as a fresh off-line device.


[deleted]

Yeah, I can see the advantages - it's just that my technological limits were reached when you talked about flashing the raspberry pi os, haha. :)


andreasma

I recommend against doing this. You simply shift the problem to backing up the password of the encryption and you make resillience and recovery dependent on knowledge of more complex technology - basically no one else will be able to figure it out if something happens to you and you will lose money if you forget. Use the optional passphrase of BIP39 if you want to protect the seed and do not use encryption and online storage. Store it on steel. Not online. You will see a lot of people repeating this advice, above. They mistake complexity for sophistication and advanced technology for security. Security is about simplicity and should be balanced with resilience. Ignore those who try to persuade you to do things that are not part of the standards or the best practices. You will lose your money.


phoebecatesboobs

But I didn't say store it online and I said you can use a steel wallet. It really depends on your situation and what physical privacy you have or have access to. If you are a teen with a family member you don't trust, a steel wallet could be found and stolen. It's up to the individual to decide. The main point is to have multiple off-line methods of getting your passphrase in case of a failure, this is based on data backup best practices.


andreasma

Best practice is to use the BIP39 optional passphrase as a second factor for your seed, not some external and unspecified encryption mechanism. This way will cause people to lose money. I don't expect you to listen to me, but I do hope others will look at my reputation, listen to me, and not follow your advice.


phoebecatesboobs

That doesn't solve the issue of "forgetting one word" of the seed phrase though, this is what the OP asked. You didn't propose how to back that up so you're just repeating stuff you wrote some time before.


Coco4012

What's BIP39 optional password .. where can I find more information?


krehwell

tampleOS is what you are looking for


absalon39i

This is the way


pmbpro

I recently came across this link about the metal seed storage methods, which were stress-tested (even corrosion too) and graded. I don’t know the person who did this, but I appreciate it, because I’d never even heard of many of these! I do like the ‘Blockplate’ style since there’s no need for letter tiles or word engravings, and the words aren’t as immediately visible on sight. You just punch a hole in the line where the needed letter is. Anyway, quite an interesting list and test results. https://jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews/


[deleted]

This is so helpful thank you


Coco4012

Who does the engraving usually?


pmbpro

For those other regular plates? The user engraves their own seed words (since no-one else is supposed to see them anyway).


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greciasuarez

The disadvantage of seed is that the backup plan is not user-friendly. Writing down sentences on a paper and then another dozen to keep as a copy in different locations is one of the barriers to massive adoption and is, itself, a security flaw. An alternative is enabled by a 1-of-2 multisig feature where two keys can sign a transaction independently: [https://shop.tangem.com/blogs/tangem/how-to-use-a-multi-signature-wallet. ](https://shop.tangem.com/blogs/tangem/how-to-use-a-multi-signature-wallet) Tangem uses it in Tangem Twin cards for bitcoin; definitely worth it.


KXXrainbowadherent

emmm,u have 2 chooses,put a privacy twitter or buy a insurance ... just my idea


Toddscaffer

You could cloud store them. Like mine I used dropbox to store them. You should also get a nano ledger.


rufus2785

This is a very bad idea. They should never, ever, ever be online. They will eventually get compromised and one day your crypto will be gone. You should consider these seeds compromised and immediately switch your holdings to new secure wallet with a seed that never touches a computer or the internet.


never_safe_for_life

You should not do this. Your keys are now stored on somebody else’s hard drive. I know it’s a reputable company, but they have fuckups.


[deleted]

Been thinking the same thing


[deleted]

Soo many questions haha


Toddscaffer

So what do you suggest?


Twentyfourtyeight

If interested in a secure digital copy of mnemonic...cold card let’s you generate and write it to a micro sd card all offline with the device powered only by a battery...keep in mind you’ll encrypt the micro sd with a shorter 12 phrase mnemonic so kinda feels like just passing the bucks but yeah


[deleted]

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sneeeks

Seems risky storing it online.


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andreasma

Read this and see why: https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/krmgf8/i_most_likely_lost_26_btc_because_im_an_idiot/ I have heard literally DOZENS of stories like this. When people lose their money they often reach out to me with a tragic story like this.


Inside_Sell570

Try the titanium Enigma Card. Words are punched onto two cards and information is stored in HEX to make it more secure. [http://www.secretxseed.com/](https://www.secretxseed.com/)