Idea to keep seed phrase

English General Discussions
1

Hi,

i had an idea how to keep my seed phrase save. Written down or stamped into metal might be safe from digital theft. But it could still be stolen in reallife. Or could be lost.

I have a special very long password with special chars wich i use only in very rare cases, but i can remember it well.

So my idea:

  1. Save seedphrade to seed.txt
  2. Encrypt file: openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -pbkdf2 -iter 100000 -in seed.txt -out encrypted_seed.txt -k DEIN_PASSWORT
  3. Put encrypted file into NFT (on-chain of course) and put it in my wallet
  4. Have a adahandle in my wallet to find it agin

What do you think? Any flaws with that, besides that anyone could try to bruteforce the file, but wich such a long pw and iterations it should be safe for the next decade?

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2

To be honest with you, the fact that the seedphrase is only physical available reduces the attackers surface by so much.

I wouldnt really wanna have my seedphrase anywhere in the digital world, eventhough its encrypted.

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This command will provide bidirectional encryption (AES) more conveniently than openssl: aespipe(1) - Linux man page

If you’re worried about the password being intercepted on an Internet-connected system, you can use one of these:

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I would never enter my seed phrase into any electronic device except for an airgapped hardware wallet or other airgapped device. I am always under the assumption that any device which can be connected to the Internet is subject to remote viewing and keyloggers.

Nor would I have the seed phrase on paper or metal in an unencrypted state.

Finally, I would never have all of the encrypted seed words in the same location.

Given those guidelines I think it makes the community stronger when each of us comes up with our own methods of keeping the seed words safe.

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Many people forget their old trusty typewriter! Type it out and make a couple copies and put one in your safe or safety deposit box…or both. If one is destroyed the other won’t be. Maybe make several copies and place them somewhere safe and let at least one person you know where to find them incase you become incompacitated (or worse)…I’d rather my kids get them than the crypto evaporating in cyberspace. Just my 2cw. :wink:

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I see two problems with the approach:

  1. Your seed phrase is there to recover your wallet in the event where you can not access it anymore for which ever reason. If I understand your method correctly, you need access to your wallet to be able to get to the file that will help you restore your wallet… That’s a bit of a catch-22.
  2. You simply moved the problem of securing your key phase to the problem of securing the password for the key phrase. With this method you have a long complex password to decrypt a public file, which you somehow have to remember or store somewhere, for instance in a cold storage or engrave it on a metal disk… You could of course take this complex password in a txt file, encrypt it with another password, put it in an NFT on chain… This approach adds a hurdle for sure, but it does not add a level of security.

My preferred method is still paper in a safe, or a cold storage device (preferably also in a safe). And be sure to have multiple copies in different location. If the fire that takes down your PC also takes down your safe… you just lost your house, your PC and your ADAs.

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Not really. It’s on the public blockchain. You can view it with any explorer.

But that is very true.

I also won’t do it and just go with multiple physical, non-digital copies stored reasonably safe and secure. … where “reasonably” depends on how you assess the trustworthiness of the people in your household, the risk of a break-in, the risk of the burglars even knowing what cryptocurrencies and seed phrases are, if you trust banks enough to put it in a safe deposit box there, …