In short
- A good backup must survive fire, water, theft, forgetting and your own absence, while staying secret.
- Two or more copies in separate safe places, on durable material, protect against most single disasters.
- Family need to know that something exists and how to get help, without being handed the words themselves.
What a backup has to survive
Most advice about recovery phrases focuses on keeping them secret. That matters, but there is a second danger that is just as final: losing access yourself. Without the recovery phrase, a broken or lost device can mean the funds are gone for good. A backup has to balance two goals that pull in opposite directions — it must be hard for others to find and easy for the right person to use.
Think through the threats one by one:
- Fire and heat can destroy paper in minutes.
- Water from floods, burst pipes or firefighting can make ink unreadable.
- Loss — moving house, tidying up, a forgotten hiding place.
- Theft or snooping by burglars, visitors, workers or people you live with.
- Fading and damage over years: cheap ink fades, paper tears, handwriting becomes hard to read.
- Your own absence through illness, accident or death, when nobody else knows what exists.
Principles of a durable backup
Keep it offline
A backup should never be a photo, a scan, a cloud file, an e-mail or a note on your phone. Digital copies can be found by malware or by anyone who gets into an account. Write it by hand.
More than one copy, in more than one place
A single copy is a single point of failure. Two or more copies, kept in separate secure locations, mean that one fire or one burglary does not leave you with nothing. Each extra copy is also one more thing to protect, so choose the places with care: somewhere private, dry and not obvious.
Choose durable materials
Paper is a reasonable start if you use good-quality paper and permanent ink, and keep it in a sealed, waterproof bag. Some people engrave or stamp the words onto metal, which survives heat and water far better. Whatever you use, the aim is that the words remain readable after decades and after a disaster.
Make it legible and complete
Write clearly in capital letters, number the words in order, and double-check every word against the original. Note what kind of wallet the phrase belongs to and whether a separate passphrase exists — but not the passphrase itself. A backup that is missing one word, or has words out of order, may be useless.
Check it
Every so often, look at each copy to make sure it is still there and readable. Some people also confirm that a backup is correct by using it to restore the wallet while only a small amount is at stake, so that a mistake is discovered early rather than in an emergency.
Places to avoid
Some hiding places are more obvious than they feel: desk drawers, the back of a framed photo, the box the wallet device came in, or a folder labelled with anything crypto-related. Avoid places that other people clean, sort or throw away, such as kitchen cupboards or piles of paperwork. And avoid keeping every copy in the same building, because a single fire or flood would then destroy all of them at once.
Why splitting the words is risky
A common idea is to cut the phrase in half and store the halves in different places, so that a thief who finds one half has nothing useful. In practice, half a phrase reveals a large part of the secret and makes guessing the rest much easier, and losing either half can lock you out. There are formal schemes designed for splitting a secret safely, but they are complex and need to be understood fully. For most people, complete copies in well-chosen places are safer than home-made splitting.
Planning for family emergencies
If something happens to you, your family may not even know that crypto-assets exist. They are also likely to be targeted by fraudsters claiming to help. A good plan answers three questions without exposing the words:
- What exists? A simple note that crypto-assets exist and roughly what kind.
- Where is the information? Where the backups are kept, or who knows.
- Who should they trust? A named person, solicitor or notary, and a warning that nobody legitimate will ever ask them to share the recovery phrase.
Do not write the recovery phrase itself into a will. In some countries, including England and Wales, a will can become a public document after the person dies. A sealed letter of instructions, kept separately and mentioned to a trusted person or lawyer, is the more common approach. Bank safe deposit boxes can be useful, but access after a death may take time, so think about what your family would need while they wait.
Review once a year
Pick a date — a birthday, the new year — and check that each copy is still in place, readable and secret, and that your instructions for family are still correct.
Do and don't for backups
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Write it by hand and number every word | Keep a photo, scan, cloud file or notes-app copy |
| Keep at least two copies in separate secure places | Rely on a single sheet in a drawer |
| Protect copies against heat and water | Use pencil, cheap ink or thin paper alone |
| Leave family a note on what exists and whom to trust | Write the recovery phrase into a will |
| Check your backups once a year | Cut the phrase in half and hope it works out |
Printable checklist
Protecting a recovery phrase — Secret, readable and recoverable — check all three.
Sources
This guide is general safety education. It is not financial, legal or security advice for your individual situation, and it does not recommend acquiring, holding or disposing of any crypto-asset. If you think you are dealing with fraud, contact your bank and the police.