Backing up your seed phrase: paper, metal and the right place

Your seed phraseGlossarySeed phrase (recovery phrase)A sequence of usually 12 or 24 words from which your wallet derives all its private keys. Anyone who knows the words has full access to your bitcoin – so they belong in an offline backup and never in anyone else’s hands.In the glossary →× lets you restore your wallet on a new device. It is usually 12 or 24 words from a fixed list of 2,048 words, defined in the BIP 39GlossaryBIP 39 (standard for seed words)The widely used standard that turns random data into 12 to 24 words from a fixed list of 2,048 words. Your wallet calculates all its keys from these words – BIP 39 is behind most seed phrases.In the glossary →× standard.^[1] Your phone and hardware wallet can be replaced; these words cannot. How they relate to your keys is explained in Keys, addresses & seed phrases. Storing them well is easier than it sounds – we’ll show you every step.

Two risks: loss and theft

• Anyone who knows the words doesn’t need your device. They restore the wallet elsewhere and move your funds.
• If you lose the words, there is no safety net. If the device then breaks too, there is no support and no ‘forgot password’.

So your backup has to do both: stay safe from loss (robust material, more than one copy) and safe from theft (few copies, well hidden).

The most important rule: never digital

TrezorProvider · Hardware walletTrezor SafeHardware wallets by SatoshiLabs from the Czech Republic – Safe 3, Safe 5 and Safe 7, each also as a Bitcoin-only edition.Hardware manufacturer – no financial licence required · reviewed Sept 2026Price: Safe 3: $59 · Safe 5: $129 · Safe 7: $249 (same amounts in euros, as of Sept 2026)On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 1 – Hardware wallets compared →Our profile →AdVisit Trezor* (paid link, opens in a new window)on trezor.ioOnly buy hardware wallets from the manufacturer or an authorised reseller.*Paid link: if you sign up or buy through it, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same. How we make money →× advises never storing the backup digitally: digital copies can be made without you noticing.^[2] Screenshots and notes on your phone are among the typical beginner mistakes.^[3] That means:

• No photo, no screenshot. Photo galleries often sync to the cloud automatically.
• No notes app, text file or email to yourself. Malware finds them easily, and so does anyone who takes over your account.
• No password manager, no ‘encrypted’ file, no printout. For any of these you would have to type the words into an internet-connected device.

Never enter the words on a website, in a form or in a chat either. Any email, message or page asking you to ‘confirm’ your backup is a scam; no legitimate company asks for it – and neither do we.^[4] The words only ever go into your own wallet, and only when you start a recovery or backup check yourself. More in Spotting & avoiding scams.

Paper: for getting started

For your first wallet and small amounts, paper is enough if you work carefully:

• A dedicated backup card or sturdy sheet, not the back of a shopping list.
• Number plus the whole word, in block capitals, with a permanent, archival-quality pen. The order is crucial.
• Check twice against what the wallet shows.
• No label such as ‘Bitcoin’ or ‘seed’.
• Practise recovery once while only a little is in the wallet: Testing recovery.

Paper burns, gets soggy, fades and easily ends up in the recycling. The Bitcoin Design Guide gives a rough guide: paper at home for amounts under a month’s salary, metal for more, and extra copies in other places for large amounts.^[5]

Metal: built for decades

A good metal backupGlossaryMetal backupA backup of your seed phrase on steel or titanium – punched, engraved or made with letter tiles. Unlike paper, it survives fire and water. Independent tests show that simple stainless steel plates are robust and often the cheapest.On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 4 – Inheritance & emergency plan →In the glossary →× survives what paper can’t. Independent guidance comes from the security expert Jameson Lopp: he has tested 75 products (as of September 2026).^[6] His stress test:^[7]

≈ 1,090 °C

Heat: ten minutes, then into water

about 2,000 °F, like a house fire put out with water

12 h

Corrosion: bath in hydrochloric acid

20 tons

Pressure: hydraulic press

simulates a building collapse

What follows from this:

1. Simple beats expensive. Every extra part is a potential point of failure; Lopp sees the best value for money in single steel platesTermMetal backupA backup of your seed phrase on steel or titanium – punched, engraved or made with letter tiles.In the glossary →AdManufacturers with a paid linkProviders from our comparisonCryptosteelMetal backup · United Kingdom (made in Poland)Visit Cryptosteel* (paid link, opens in a new window)BlockplateMetal backupNo partnership · Profile →All 4 compared – including non-partners →*Paid link: if you sign up or buy through it, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same. How we make money →× with a grid into which you punch dots.^[6] One such plate (BlockplateProvider · Metal backupBlockplateStainless steel plate for your seed backup: letters are punched in as dots – grade A in all three of Lopp’s stress tests.Accessory manufacturer – no financial licence required · reviewed Sept 2026Price: approx. $79 (shop price currently not verifiable, as of Sept 2026)Our profile →Official website ↗×) survived heat, acid and the press without any loss of data.^[8] Two of the best devices in his 2019 test round were among the cheapest.^[7]
2. Steel, not aluminium. Several aluminium devices failed the heat test. Lopp criticises them for being less robust in the most common disaster of all, a fire.^[7]
3. The manufacturer must not know your words. Avoid products where the provider could learn your keys, for example because it generates them itself or stamps them for you.^[6]

Which design suits you?

A well-known example of the tile design is the capsule from CryptosteelProvider · Metal backupCryptosteelStainless steel metal backups with individual letter tiles: Cassette, Capsule and the newer Seed24 range.Accessory manufacturer – no financial licence required · reviewed Sept 2026Price: Cassette Solo $149, same figures in euros (as of Sept 2026)Our profile →AdVisit Cryptosteel* (paid link, opens in a new window)on cryptosteel.com*Paid link: if you sign up or buy through it, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same. How we make money →×. It survived heat and acid undamaged. The 20-ton press, however, bent it so that the cap could no longer be opened; tiles could be lost while getting them out.^[9] In Lopp’s overview it therefore gets A- instead of A. The top grade A goes to, among others, the dot-grid plates Blockplate and Seedplate and two DIY variants; we have no partnership with their makers.^[6]

How to transfer the words to steel

1. Choose a quiet place

   Work alone, with no camera and no phone next to you. For plates you punch, you need a solid surface and ideally ear protection.

2. Practise first

   Punch a few test letters on a practice area or a second plate. Mistakes on the real backup can often only be fixed with a new plate.

3. Four letters are enough

   The first four letters identify each BIP 39 word uniquely, which is why some plates only have room for four characters per word.^[1] The numbering still has to be right.

4. Cross-check

   Read the metal line by line against the paper. If your hardware walletTermHardware walletA small dedicated device that keeps your private keys offline and signs transactions internally.On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 1 – Hardware wallets compared →In the glossary →AdManufacturers with a paid linkProviders from our comparisonBitBox02Hardware wallet · SwitzerlandVisit BitBox* (paid link, opens in a new window)Trezor SafeHardware wallet · Czech RepublicVisit Trezor* (paid link, opens in a new window)Blockstream JadeHardware wallet · Canada/USAVisit Blockstream Jade* (paid link, opens in a new window)All 6 compared – including non-partners →Only buy hardware wallets from the manufacturer or an authorised reseller.*Paid link: if you sign up or buy through it, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same. How we make money →× offers a backup check, enter the words there directly from the metal.

5. Store separately

   Never right next to the hardware wallet, and not in the same place as the second copy.

Where to keep your backup

First consider what you need to protect against: fire and water, burglary, nosy flatmates and, in extreme cases, extortion.^[2] For extra copies, the Bitcoin Design Guide mentions a second home, trusted people or a bank safe deposit box.^[5]

Our rule of thumb: at least two copies in two separate places. If your home burns down, the second copy is somewhere else. But every additional copy is one more place where someone can find it.

Think about your privacy too. Jameson Lopp lists several hundred known cases in which owners of bitcoin and other crypto assets were physically threatened or attacked (wrench attacksGlossaryWrench attack ($5 wrench attack)An attack using violence or threats instead of technology: criminals force Bitcoin owners to unlock their wallet or transfer bitcoin. The best protection is discretion – if nobody knows you own bitcoin, you are less likely to become a target.On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 2 – Spotting scams →In the glossary →×).^[10] If you don’t talk publicly about your bitcoin, you are less likely to become a target.^[2]

Also make sure your relatives know in an emergency that you hold bitcoin and where the documents are – without revealing the words themselves. Inheritance & emergency plan shows how.

Distribute, don’t cut in half

Splitting the 24 words into two halves is not a good idea: if one half is lost, the backup is worthless. And anyone who finds one half already knows half of your secret. If you want to distribute your backup, use methods designed for it:

• Shamir backup (SLIP-39): the wallet creates several shares, of which a set number is enough, for example two of three. Anyone holding fewer shares than required learns nothing about your secret. The shares use their own word list and are not compatible with BIP 39.^[11] You can only restore them with a wallet that supports Shamir backup.
• PassphraseGlossaryPassphrase (the ‘25th word’)An extra word of your choice added to your seed phrase. The same words then produce a completely different wallet. This protects you if someone finds your words – but if you forget the passphrase, access is lost for good.In the glossary →×: an extra word you choose yourself. Without it, the seed phrase is useless to whoever finds it – but if you forget it, you lose access too. More in The passphrase.
• MultisigGlossaryMultisig (multi-signature)A wallet in which several keys jointly control the bitcoin – for example 2 of 3. If one key is lost or stolen, the bitcoin stays safe. In return, setting it up and backing it up is considerably more demanding.On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 4 – Inheritance & emergency plan →In the glossary →×: several keys on different devices, of which, for example, two of three approve a payment. Robust, but elaborate. More in Multisig simply explained.

To begin with, you don’t need any of this. A well-secured seed phrase in two places is enough.