GUIDE // KEYS + CUSTODY
Backing up your seed phrase
Offline, durable, never photographed. Test the restore before you trust it.
Progress // Step 01 of 05
Saved on this device only
- 01 BY HAND
- 02 SPELLING
- 03 CONFIRM
- 04 STORE
- 05 RESTORE
Read the words on the wallet screen. Write each one, in order, with its number. Do it by hand. Never store the words in any digital form: no photo, screenshot, cloud note, password manager, email, chat or text file. Any digital copy can be copied without you knowing. The figures use “word 01” slots on purpose. Those are not a seed.
BIP39 words are easy to misread. Compare each word to the screen before you leave the page. One wrong letter restores a different wallet, or none. The checksum catches some mistakes and not the ones that land on another valid phrase.
Most wallets ask you to re-enter a few of the words before they will continue. Do that from the paper, not from memory, so you are testing the paper. If the wallet will not accept it, fix the paper while the words are still on the screen.
Paper fails to fire, flood, and being left on a desk. Metal is worth it when the amount is. Either way the backup wants a place a camera does not watch and a guest does not tidy. If you use a passphrase as well, store it separately from the word list. Together they are the whole secret. One copy in one place is one fire away from gone. Many people keep a second copy in a separate secure location. Every extra copy is one more place it can be found, so choose deliberately.
The strong test is a restore. Do it on the same kind of device that holds the keys: a hardware wallet reset and restored from the paper, or a second device of the same kind, or the device’s own “check backup” mode if it has one. For a phone wallet, use a spare phone or the same app after a reset. Never test a hardware wallet’s words by typing them into a phone or computer. Check that the same receive addresses come back. Do it before the wallet holds more than a test. If a passphrase is set, enter that too, or the test proves nothing. A backup you have never restored is a story, not a backup.
No invented stats.