Protecting your seed! Brainstorming thread

[dill]

A lot of bitcoin software has moved to a system where words are written down as a method of backing up your wallet keys. This thread is for brainstorming methods of providing ultra secure (even if to a crazy/silly degree) storage methods for seeds yet easy to retrieve and without depending on a third party like a bank.

Some tips:
You probably should not copy the methods in this thread but can use them as inspiration
Are your keys in multiple locations that can't be destroyed at the same time?
Are they exposed to anything that could damage it over time?
Are they hard to find, even if accidental?

Perhaps this thread will inspire some methods for safely protecting your seed! I'm hoping for some crazy and fun ideas.


I guess I'll start:

2 copies:
1. Written on the bottom of a door with black marker while it's removed from the hinges.
2. Laminated child artwork with another sheet so it hides the seed in between the two sheets.

Biggest risk would be on death a coworker cleans out the locker and notices something odd about the artwork?

[QuantumAGI]

In addition you could record your seed as a series of questions which only you know the answers to. Don't choose yes/no questions though... Not sure this will help much though as these would probably be vulnerable to exhaustive offline searches unless the questions are of a cryptic enough nature - i.e. cryptic clues. A secure vault would be required I think.

Here is something for your list:

- Create a web server for the sole purpose of serving up cryptic clues. No interface. It will only monitor the block chain.
- The server will be triggered to send the questions to your e-mail address when some chosen activity occurs on the block chain.

[dill]

1. Written on paper hidden inside old socks
2. Buried inside a weatherproof container in the back yard

[LiteCoinGuy]

"In addition you could record your seed as a series of questions which only you know the answers to."

i guess that is always a wise choice. dont write only 12 words on a piece of paper. even if someone will find that seed he should have a hard time to guess what it actually is.

and a second important advice:

always have a backup somewhere!


"Laminated child artwork with another sheet so it hides the seed in between the two sheets."

not bad

[M++]

Write the seed on one of yours favorite book, 1 word every X page.

Take your favorite number between 1 and X (X = number of words in your seed). Change the word of this number to something else.

Remember your favorite number word (please ).

Don't forget to put in a second source this seed. I like book. I think nobody will look inside a old book, nobody want to steal it. Even so, they need to know why there is word handmark in this book. And even if they know, they still need to understand the way you protected it.

You can do more complicated, for few bitcoin should be enough.

I believe for a lot amount of bitcoin, less than 100, and your are not know at the bitcoin jesus for example, you should make it simple.
Too complicated is they best way to lose it yourself.

When i was on blockchain.info i had 2 strongpassword, and 1email for 2FA with strongpassword too, it was such a stress to remember so much password.

[Ledge]

I wrote my seed down on a piece of paper and then I took the 12 words and clumped them into blocks of 3 words. I then thought of an image which these three words described, so in total I had 4 images to remember. It lead to some weird images but it was actually not that hard to remember.

After I was certain that I would remember my seed, I stuck the piece of paper in a wooden box deep in my attic. My attic is the definition of chaos, and no burglar would ever think about going there because they would literally risk their life... If I pass away my family will empty the attic and I know that they will look in every single box and eventually find the paper. It also has a neat instruction of what it is and how to get the money out since they don't know squat about bitcoin

EDIT: There's also a pretty neat way to store your private key (not seed, but maybe that would work too) in a Rubik's cube! Here's the program: https://github.com/Random101/BitCube

[QuantumAGI]

"i guess that is always a wise choice. dont write only 12 words on a piece of paper. even if someone will find that seed he should have a hard time to guess what it actually is."

Ideally each question should have at least 10 - 100 equally likely and unrelated answers. That way an attacker would have to try 100¹² or 10²⁴ or a trillion trillion combinations. Examples:
- First name of best friend it primary school (only use if less than 1 in 100 people have this name)
- Last name of best friend in primary school (only use if less than 1 in 100 people have this name)
- First name of best friend in high school (only use if less than 1 in 100 people have this name)
- Last name of best friend in high school (only use if less than 1 in 100 people have this name)
- etc.

Of course there are dangers. Ideally, depending on the nature of the questions, it must not be possible to connect your identity to the piece of paper so it should be buried on neutral ground and remember to wear gloves.

[LiteCoinGuy]

this gets a little bit too complicated

there is a danger that you will lose your coins because of this. personally i split funds and i feel comfortable with this. for example:

1/3% Hardware Wallet
1/3% Paper Wallet
1/3% Xapo Vault Service

but OP could also put one copy of the seed in a bank vault (but not only 12 words!)

[palexander]

http://www.cryptosteel.com



or if that wasn't what you are looking for, maybe this:

[dill]

Every word has an associated number:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/ma ... nglish.txt

Instead of writing down the words you write down the number associated with each word. You now have 12 numbers to store somewhere. Open a bible to a new section about half way through and circle the verse numbers to correspond to your words. If the first word was 412, you circle a 4, then a 1, then a 2 in order and go page to page until the digit you need comes up again. It has to be in order. To signify a new group of numbers you underline the last digit of the previous word.

[dill]

http://www.cryptosteel.com

Where do you hide it though?

[dill]

Write the seed on one of yours favorite book, 1 word every X page.

Take your favorite number between 1 and X (X = number of words in your seed). Change the word of this number to something else.

Remember your favorite number word (please ).

Or put your words on every 5th page or something. All the pages in between are filled with random words from https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/ma ... nglish.txt

[palexander]

http://www.cryptosteel.com

Where do you hide it though?

Midnight gardening, wherever you wish I guess. Keep it with an attorney, keep it at a family member's house, etc.

[dill]

1. Laminated and placed inside air vent
2. Inside car user manual with the order altered in a simple way