you know how you're always told to write your seed phrase down on a piece of paper and keep it somewhere safe or get a hardware wallet but how do you actually keep your seed phrase safe even if you do get a hardware wallet what really matters is your seed phrase anyway which is supposed to be written down on a nice little paper card few people ever really talk about the options for seed storage or the obvious problems of paper as the storage material for your crypto fortunes people have been extremely creative with seed phrase Storage
Solutions but there are two security criteria and trade-offs to think about when making a decision in regards to data loss and data theft for instance where to use story or seed phrase and who other than yourself could have potential access to it is the storage medium you've chosen for your seed phrase resilient against the elements well we've looked it up and here are a few ways that you can use to potentially store your seed phrase more safely solid steel this type of storage is probably one you've heard of and understandably so as many people have
noticed the glaring shortcomings of paper as a storage medium as a result there is no shortage of solid steel seed storage options out there ranging from tens to hundreds of dollars fireproof acid proof bulletproof shock proof you name it they've got approved for it if this is a tad pricey you can take the same idea for a solid steel storage and do a DIY approach there are tutorials out there of how you can make your own metal seed phrase storage device which can be cheaper plus could end up being a fun weekend project you also
get the added benefit of privacy Remember The Ledger data hack sensitive customer data was leaked to Bad actors and with just a low-key DIY solution you could avoid that stone paper now this is a relatively budget-friendly and low complexity option Stone paper is a pretty Niche product on the market and it comes with the benefit of being more physically resilient being greaseproof waterproof and tear and fire resistant to some extent tamper-proof bags this is another other simple security measure keeping your seed phrase on exposed pieces of paper or somewhere where others can access means You're
vulnerable to having your keys compromised and copied without your knowledge tamper evident bags make it impossible for your seed phrase to be seen by prying eyes at least not without making it obvious to you that someone has been snooping these are the type of security bags used for banking hospitals and the education sector to make sure that no one has seen or modified the contents of the bag a simpler budget-friendly alternative is simply to use shipping pliers or even sealed envelopes which are among the most common tamper evidence Storage Solutions you can find safe deposit
Locker or home safe another obvious solution would be placing your seed phrase not somewhere exposed but in a safe or vault which should ideally be permanently installed and hidden this is probably more secure than those who opt to hide them and easily accessible but inconspicuous places like in books or kitchen containers of coffee flour or sugar if you're using a security scheme like shamir's secret sharing whereby a seed is split up into multiple shares of which you need a certain number to access your crypto one option is also to place one of the key shares
into a safe deposit Locker which is offered by Banks or private providers as well though if you only have one seed phrase you might not want your only copy sitting remotely in a bank safe deposit where it could fall prey to a rogue Bank employee or even be legally confiscated by authorities as it presents a single point of failure using a past phrase this isn't exactly a storage method but is an additional security measure that can be used alongside physical storage to keep your funds safe in the event your seed phrase falls into the hands
of others some wallets like trezor or Ledger allow the option of adding an additional passphrase which acts like a 13th or 25th word extension to your seed phrase this is different from say the password you type to unlock your metamask with this feature you could create multiple or even decoy wallets with just one seed phrase but different passphrases however we'd only recommend this for advanced users as losing your passphrase will result in losing your funds even if you have your seed phrase so it is essential that your backup plan also includes any passphrases or seed
extensions that you may use brain wallet the last option is to Simply memorize your seed phrase this could be one of the riskiest options is our brain and memory is not invulnerable to time injury or disease it's worth noting that all options have their own set of benefits and trade-offs custody Solutions are highly personalized and any of the options provided can be modified or used in various combinations with each other so pick and choose which suits your individual needs most bonus safety tip you're less likely to be a Target if nobody knows you own crypto
so maybe keep those stories of your wild meme coin gains to yourself and remember make sure that whatever you decide on that it's not so complex that you end up protecting your keys from yourself and if you're like me at this point you might be thinking damn how on Earth can regular people be expected to do this well there's something called account abstraction which could allow us to do away with pesky seed phrases completely giving crypto a chance to scale to billions of users you can check out our video on that right here [Music]
