What are the worst and finest places to hide a seed phrase, such as under the mattress, in the seams of baggage, or even rolled into a cigar? A seed word, which is the key to unlocking and retrieving cryptocurrency, must be safe and secure.

It might be time for a crypto security spring clean, especially now that prices are low and the crypto tourists have left. A seed phrase, also known as a recovery phrase, is where security begins.

There is no disputing that a bear market is gripping Bitcoin and the whole crypto industry. Since Do Kwon’s Terra experiment failed, the most reliable exchanges have been choked by a crypto-virus, prompting many proponents of self-sovereignty to chant, “not your keys, not your coins.”

A day goes by without another “trusted” crypto lender freezing consumer withdrawals. Numerous centralized lending systems have met the same demise, promising tragic results for users in 2022. These include Singapore’s Vauld, Thailand’s Zipmex, 200,000 customers, and the famed Celsius exchange.

These events are timely reminders to take care of one’s keys and ensure they are stored safely. Therefore, there has never been a better opportunity to increase the security of one’s crypto assets than now, when prices are low and confidence in centralized exchanges has reached an all-time low.

Can I get my collateral back?

Yes. If you decide to take a host offline for good, we will start the process of retrieving our encrypted data. Once our data is returned your staked USDC will be unlocked and available for withdraw.https://t.co/I2ciCrU2NY#cryptocurrency #Fleet pic.twitter.com/lRqorShRYi

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Words of wisdom save lives.

A seed phrase is a list of 12 or 24 words that constitute a mnemonic phrase. It is also referred to as a secret key. These keys are metaphorically stored in a cold wallet or hardware wallet, making it easy to send or “sign” money.

Alex Gladstein, a principal strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation and a human rights activist, says a seed phrase can save lives if appropriately handled. For instance, it’s not a big deal if a thief steals a hardware wallet but not the seed phrase because you may use it with a new wallet. The 12 or 24 words can be used anywhere in the globe to access Bitcoin (BTC) or cryptocurrency funds if a government or malicious actor forces you to flee.

The first error to avoid is that. Peter Schiff, a gold bug and skeptic of Bitcoin, mistakenly mistook his seed phrase for his pin code. Here are some more instances of wrong places to keep a seed phrase.

Unveil secrets

The pair who owned the billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin listed on Bitfinex and stored their seed word on a cloud storage account won the top reward. Ilya Lichtenstein, a cybersecurity expert, and Heather Morgan, a cybercriminal, kept their seed phrase on a cloud storage account. As a result, at the time of publishing, the FBI just needed to guess their iCloud password to access more than $4 billion in Bitcoin. The takeaway from this is to avoid storing your seed phrase online. That includes your Evernote notes, a draught email, or even a tweet with little engagement:

Text prediction is unhelpful when safeguarding personal money, although occasionally helpful for difficult spelling or emojis. Similar to this, never enter a seed word into a phone. Why? Because smartphone text prediction could genuinely guess a seed phrase, as one Redditor discovered.

Where is the craziest place to keep a seed word? was answered by a Bitcoin enthusiast with “Fridge,” without specifying whether the seed phrase should be kept inside or on the refrigerator. Although it would seem appropriate, a fridge is not the best place to store cryptocurrency in a “cold” state. A fan of nonfungible tokens (NFT) has already written a seed phrase on the refrigerator:

The worst place to keep a seed phrase is in a negative memory. A seed word should be fully committed to memory, unlike dates of famous battles, vehicle keys, or friends’ names from different stages of life.

Memorizing “pages, lines, and sentences from cherished novels” is among the most inventive yet memory-straining techniques. For example, one Bitcoiner chose to save the seed phrase on pages 100 to 112 of a Harry Potter book. Who knows which of the eight or more Harry Potter books it will be? Thankfully, there are currently clever techniques for memorizing a seed phrase. MTC, a Bitcoin instructor who developed the Sat’s Leger savings mechanism, devised a method to learn a seed phrase through patterns in under 10 seconds.

Also, read – Top 3 most secure crypto wallets worth looking

Being prudent

But what are the opinions of the specialists on seed phrases? According to Chris Brooks, the CEO, and founder of the bitcoin asset recovery company Crypto Asset Recovery, human error may destroy money. Instead of being concerned about hackers or con artists, people should be more concerned about putting their seed phrases or private keys in paper wallets that could accidentally be thrown away. Brooks clarified:

“Moving to a new apartment and forgetting your crypto password while doing so is a lot more likely scenario than being hacked.”

The Brooks family, who founded Crypto Asset Recovery, ran a “seasonal company,” relying on the crypto crackers to help cryptocurrency enthusiasts who have forgotten their passwords or misplaced their seed phrases during bull markets like those in 2017 2021. They admitted that they occasionally received up to 150 daily consumer calls in 2021. Keep it simple is their main piece of advice for managing seed phrases:

“So, in general, our security advice is relatively straightforward. Purchase a $30 safe from Amazon, or you could make a little wooden box marked as a location for secure documents and keep your seed phrases inside of that.

They advise placing anything significant within that box. In this manner, “you won’t toss it out while conducting spring cleaning or moving houses. You won’t shred the paper or do anything similar. Those of a physical bent, however, might be more motivated to store their seed words in some even more inventive storage “boxes” because it’s crypto. Onthebrinkie, a proponent of bitcoin, 3D printed an adult toy that can be used to conceal a seed phrase or an OpenDime, which functions like a USB key for bitcoin. The motivating thought is that while a burglar might steal the wooden box with the crucial papers, they would never steal a sex toy.