The Importance of Remembering & Protecting Your Seed Phrase.
Once there was a man, Rain Lõhmus, who bought 250,000 ETH (worth about $1.18 billion today). The man is still alive, but his fortune is gone! And, this happened for a very simple mistake — forgetfulness! Lõhmus forgot the seed phrase.
In 2014, when Ethereum was still an experiment, Rain Lõhmus (co-founder of LHV Bank) secured 250,000 ETH at roughly $0.30 per token in a 42-day presale. He stored his massive allocation in a Blockchain wallet that remained untouched for years. Alas! Lõhmus forgot the wallet seed phrases associated with the wallet and lost his digital wealth forever.
Lõhmus is not alone! There have been hundreds of horror stories of owners forgetting or losing keys to their data wallet and crypto wallet.
We’ve created this guide to educate you about the undeniable importance of seed phrases. Here, you’ll learn what exactly a seed phrase is, its benefits, risks, and practical tips to protect seed phrases.
What is a Wallet Seed Phrase?
A wallet seed phrase is the password to your crypto wallet or data wallet. But it’s more than a numeric or alphanumeric password to your email or bank account.
It’s a series of 12–24 simple random words generated by your data wallet when you first set it up. For example: “dull,” “beauty,” “lake,” “press,” “laptop,” or just any other word. The wallet generates the phrases, or sometimes, you can customize it (select the words of your choice).
The idea behind your recovery phrases is to make it easier to note down correctly with less to no chance of human error. Most importantly, a long series of seed words makes it almost impossible to crack it, making it a crucial security measure to protect your self-custodied digital assets.
Forget your password, and you’ll never be able to access the wallet. Because, unlike your email password, there’s no way to recover these seed phrases. So, it’s incredibly important that you remember the phrases for your wallet.
Important piece of advice: Note down your recovery phrase on paper or your personal diary for safekeeping. Don’t write it onto your digital notes because they are vulnerable to hardware breakdown or data loss (like losing a Google Doc or Google Sheet)
Why is the wallet seed phrase so important?
When it comes to the digital world, ownership and protection of your data largely depend on the keys that guard it. A seed phrase acts as the master password to your digital assets. Whoever gets hold of your seed phrase can unlock everything you own, and you can’t access it ever again if you lose or forget it.
While opting for self-custody, be prepared to protect your digital currency or other data yourself. Unlike in conventional systems that let you reset or retrieve forgotten passwords, there is no “reset” button for a lost wallet seed phrase. And once it is lost, forgotten, stolen, or unavailable, access to your assets is lost forever. This may sound intimidating, but that’s exactly what makes self-custody solutions like data wallets so powerful — you own your data fully. No middlemen! No third-party risks!
The seed phrase acts as the bridge between human memory and secure encryption. It transforms complex security into something that can be written down, stored safely, and used when needed. For this reason, you should take protecting your seed phrase as seriously as your physical vault key.
How Does a Wallet Seed Phrase Work?
For every wallet, you get a unique seed phrase. Here’s how the entire process works:
Create your wallet: You sign up with the data wallet.
Seed generation: The wallet generates a large, random wallet seed phrase.
Key derivation: The wallet generates your private keys based on the seed phrase.
Creating the public addresses: These addresses are derived from the private keys.
You only need to remember just one thing — your seed phrase. From this single thing, the wallet can recreate all public addresses and access your digital assets.
Benefits of Securing Your Data Wallet with a Seed Phrase
By now, you must be familiar with the critical role of seed phrases in the protection of your digital assets and wallet. More specifically, seed phrases have the following main benefits or uses:
Securing your data wallet: A seed phrase is the master key to your data wallet. It uses advanced cryptographic algorithms to protect your digital currency and data in the wallet against malicious attempts.
Asset recovery: With a seed phrase, you can quickly and easily recover your wallet and its contents. This is even if your device is lost or damaged. So, your digital assets remain accessible and safe.
Easy backup: Seed phrases make it easier to transfer your digital assets to a new device or wallet without lengthy and difficult processes.
Own your data: With a seed phrase, you get full control over your data wallet and digital assets stored in it. This is because the seed phrase is the only key you need to access and manage your wallet independently. You’re the decision-maker when it comes to encrypting and decrypting the data.
How to Safely Store Your Wallet Seed Phrase [Best Practices]
First, never store your seed phrase in an easily accessible location like a drawer or shelf, in your bag, a filing cabinet, or your workplace. Also, avoid writing it on a digital notepad file and taking digital photos of your seed phrase. Instead, choose to store your seed phrase in any of the following places:
Keep it inside the home safe: If you’ve a home safe where you keep all your critical documents and valuable items, you can store your seed phrase there, too. You can store a laminated paper backup or a water- and fire-proof metal backup like a USB or hard drive.
Store at a hidden and unknown location on your property: If there is a secret location (other than a home safe) or a location that may never be guessed on your property, then you can keep the seed phrase or the second copy of the seed phrase in that place. Maybe under the floorbed, attic insulation, or tape it to the underside of heavy furniture.
Never store your seed phrase on the internet: Don’t ever enter your seed phrase into a smartphone, PC, or other device connected to the internet. It’s because these devices are vulnerable to failure and cyberattacks. Also, never click pictures of your seed phrase or store it on cloud storage. Instead, always store your seed phrase offline on a non-digital medium like paper and keep this note in a secret location.
Keep multiple copies of seed phrases: One paper copy and one metal copy to prevent a single point of failure. You can also split the entire phrase into parts and store each part separately for extra security. Attention! Don’t create so many copies as this can increase the chances of unwanted or malicious access. Just two copies (one paper and one metal) are enough.
Never share your seed phrase with anyone: Keep it protected from the reach of anyone else. Also, don’t reveal the backup locations to others to ensure maximum security.
What happens if you lose or forget your wallet seed phrase?
Well, this is a big problem. If you have lost or forgotten your seed phrase, you won’t be able to access your wallet. So, your digital currency and data stored on the wallet will be lost forever.
Unfortunately, there is no way to recover a lost seed phrase. No reset button, no backup service, and no recovery team is there to help.
When you lose your wallet seed phrase…
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