Your Seedphrase

Your seed phrase is a secret list of words that gives you access to your bitcoin. It is like a magic key that unlocks your money. Your seedphrase is your bitcoin. You need to keep it safe.

Bitcoin represents your time and effort. It's your economic energy stored in digital form. But would you trust your long term store of value on a perishable piece of paper? No, you wouldn't. You need to engrave it on something that can survive fire, water, and the test of time.

Our solution is to punch your seedphrase into a stainless steel plate using Braille. Braille is awesome because it is human readable without needing a proprietary template. Also, you will be able to recover your bitcoin even if you were blind! It is also very easy to punch the holes in with a simple center punch tool. No stubbing your finger on hammers or messing around with electrolysis. Read further to learn how to use our Braille template.

How to use the Braille Stainless Steel Plate

First, print out a Braille template, see below. Write the first four letters of each word in Braille on the template using a pen or pencil. You can still recover your seedphrase with just the first four letters because the words used by the BIP-39 standard all have unique first-four-letter combinations. Tape the paper on top of the metal and punch the holes in. Double check before punching and double check after punching. Optionally, you can punch a hole on the top left corner on the backside of the plate to mark where the first word begins.

Click the button below to download a PDF of the templates. Print it, cut it out, mark your seedphrase, and punch it into the plate. The pdf includes 12 words and 24 words formats.

Braille Reference

This Braille template is a reference for all the letters of the English alphabet. The image is from the Wikipedia page on Braille.

Braille Example

This is an example for a 24 word seedphrase. See if you can read it! Don't get too excited because there are no bitcoins stored on this seedphrase.

Recovery

Keep in mind that punching the seedphrase into metal is a way to backup your wallet in case your hardware signing device is lost or damaged. You should be comfortable with the process of recovering your wallet. Practice recovering your wallet into your hardware device before securing your metal backup in a safe place.

Other measures

The following are other measures you can take to secure your seedphrase. Do your own research before using them.

You may want to memorize your seedphrase in addition to punching it in steel (unless you believe in mind readers). You can utilize popular memorization techniques such as the memory palace method to help you remember for the long term. Remember to occasionally recall your seedphrase so as not to forget it.

SeedQR doesn't necessarily make your seedphrase more secure, but it makes signing transactions much more convenient. SeedQR works best with devices that don't keep the seedphrase stored in memory such as the Jade or Seedsigner. Depending on how you set up your hardware device, it may require you to type in the seedphrase each time. With SeedQR, you can quickly recover your wallet with a single scan without having to type in your seedphrase. A paper copy of the SeedQR should suffice since you should have the actual seedphrase punched in metal for the physical security.

Multisig is a system of storing bitcoin where multiple keys must sign the transaction in order to move your bitcoin. For example, 2 of 3 multisig requires any 2 keys out of 3 total keys to sign a transaction message in order for the coins to be spent. There are many different ways to set up a multisig system. You can go the DIY route, or use a trusted, bitcoin-only multisig company. Multisig is known as one of the most secure ways to store your bitcoin so it is something worth looking into if you have significant savings in bitcoin.