How to back up your recovery phrase safely
Your recovery phrase is the only backup of a self-custody wallet. If it is lost, your funds are gone; if someone else sees it, they can take them. These habits protect it for years, not just on the day you write it down.
What the recovery phrase does
A recovery phrase, also called a seed phrase, is a list of words, usually 12 or 24, that can recreate every private key in your wallet. Anyone who has the words can restore your wallet on their own device and move your funds, without your phone, PIN or fingerprint.
That is why it must be protected against two things at once: loss and discovery.
Write it on paper, or stamp it in metal
Paper is the simplest good backup. Write the words by hand, numbered and in order, in clear block letters, and check each one against the screen. In the standard English word list, the first four letters identify each word, which helps if your handwriting later becomes hard to read.
Paper can burn, fade or get wet. For larger amounts, a metal backup, with the words stamped or engraved on steel, survives fire and flood far better.
Never store it digitally
A recovery phrase should never exist on a device or account connected to the internet. Phones and computers can be infected with malware, and online accounts can be breached or leaked.
- No photos or screenshots
- No notes apps, documents, emails or chat messages to yourself
- No cloud drives, online backups or password vaults
- Never on the clipboard, and never typed into a website
Where to keep your copies
Keep at least two complete copies in different secure places, for example one at home and one with a trusted family member or in a safe deposit box. That way, a single fire, flood or burglary doesn’t cost you everything.
Don’t label the paper as a crypto wallet, and don’t store it next to your phone or in your wallet case. A stranger who finds it shouldn’t immediately know what it is.
Splitting the phrase: think twice
Cutting the phrase in two and storing the halves in different places sounds safer, but it has two downsides. If either half is lost, you can’t restore the wallet, and anyone who finds one half already knows half of your words.
Complete copies in two secure places are usually the more practical choice. If you want a real split, use a method designed for it, in which no single part reveals any words, and practise restoring with it before you rely on it.
Test your backup and plan for inheritance
A backup you have never tested is a guess. While the balance is still small, restore the wallet from your written words on a second phone, or after reinstalling the app, and check that the same addresses appear.
Also think about who would need access if something happened to you. Tell a trusted person that the backup exists and where it is kept, and leave written instructions on how to restore it. Keep the words themselves out of a will, since a will can be read by many people.
Your recovery phrase in Waletifi
Waletifi creates one standard 24-word phrase that is valid both as a BIP39 phrase and as a TON phrase, so it restores in other standard wallets if you ever need it to. The screens that show the phrase block screenshots, and the phrase is never put on the clipboard or sent to our servers. Support will never ask for it.
