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Crypto Security How-to's

How to Secure your BitClout Account Seed Phrase

BitClout is a new social network that uses a unique seed phrase as your account login. Learn how to back up your BitClout seed securely and protect your account.


TL;DR

BitClout is a new social network that uses a seed phrase as your account login and and your cryptocurrency wallet. If you lose the seed phrase, you will lose all your coins and the ability to login to your account ever again.

When you create a BitClout account, your seed phrase is pre-generated for you by BitClout. However, you can replace it with your own custom seed phrase.

You will need to back up your seed phrase straight away. Since the seed phrase represents not only your account but also the balances in your BitClout Wallet, you will need to robustly and securely store it.

In addition to the usual techniques of backing up a seed phrase, you can securely store your seed phrase in a Digital Vault.

Welcome to BitClout Security

BitClout is a new social network, built entirely on the blockchain, that enables you to speculate on people and their posts. The BitClout blockchain uses its own native cryptocurrency, called BitClout, which is used to operate the platform and purchase creator coins. Bitcoin, BitClout, and Creator coins are all stored in the BitClout wallet.

To secure your account, which represents your own reputation, your balance of BitClout coins, and the collection of all creator coins that you have invested in, a seed phrase is used. Unlike crypto wallets that often "hide" the seed phrase in their apps to make the experience of using the wallet "simpler", BitClout makes you use the seed phrase to directly log in to the platform, and in fact to log out.

Seed phrase required to logout

Your seed phrase represents not only the credentials to your account, but also becomes the only way to manage your reputation and to manage your balances. You must back up your seed phrase to use BitClout and you must protect your seed phrase otherwise a 3rd party will be able to access your account.

BitClout gives you two ways to specify a seed phrase based on the BIP39 standard:

  1. Default - Pre-generated seed phrase that appears when you first log in.
  2. Advanced - Create your own custom BIP39 seed phrase. By using alternate techniques to generate your seed phrase you can better control your security risk.

Let's see how you can set up your security robustly:

Log in with your seed phrase

How to back up your BitClout Seed Phrase?

When you first create or retrieve your BitClout account, you are immediately presented with your seed phrase and asked to store it. As with crypto wallets, the default is to write it down on paper, be warned this is not a good long-term approach due to the risks associated with paper backups.

Instead here are some seed phrase backup options to explore:

  1. Back up to Digital Vault.
  2. Crypto Steel.
  3. Encrypted local drive or USB.
  4. Cloud storage.
  5. Brain Wallet.
  6. Paper.
For a more in-depth explanation, see our article on "How to back up a seed phrase".

Create a custom BitClout Seed Phrase

Creating a Custom BitClout Seed Phrase

The more advanced option, when you first create a BitClout account is to generate your own BIP39 seed phrase. Why would you generate a seed phrase externally? Because relying on software to generate a seed phrase means relying on someone else's interpretation and implementation of security concepts such as entropy and randomness that are critical to establishing non-replicable or non-derivable seed phrases. Using techniques that are completely offline like dice, will always give you a more robust security posture than relying on an electronic or software-based approach.

Here are some common ways in which seed phrases can be generated.

  1. Seed Generation with Vault12
  2. Calculator
  3. Dice
  4. Crypto Wallets
  5. Hardware Wallets

For more in-depth details see our article on "How to generate a seed phrase".

Backing up your BitClout Seed in a Digital Vault

A Digital Vault has the advantage of being focused on a singular purpose - that of securely storing digital assets for long-term use. While there are many types of digital vaults available for cryptocurrency storage, it is better to use something that is independent of anyone's blockchain and can store any type of digital asset.

Here we will use Vault12 to demonstrate how a BitClout Seed Phrase can be backed up and how digital assets can also be stored in a Vault.

Step 1: Create and configure a Digital Vault

Step 2: Add your BitClout Seed phrase - this can be done in multiple ways - (a) Enter a Note in the format of a seed phrase or (b) you can enter a Note in free format text - see steps below:

Open your Vault and click on "Add an Asset".

1. Choose "Add Asset" to secure your BitClout seed phrase

2. Choose "Note" to paste in BitClout seed phrase

3. Paste BitClout seed phrase from BitClout

4. Click to save asset

5. Await Guardian confirmations

6. Your BitClout seed phrase is now securely stored in your digital vault

Retrieving your BitClout Seed phrase from your Vault

To gain access to your BitClout seed phrase, select the asset in your Vault and take the unlock option.

1. Select BitClout seed phrase in Vault

2. Press "unlock Asset" to begin process

3. Await confirmation from Guardians

4. Once confirmed, your BitClout seed phrase is available to view

5. Display BitClout seed phrase

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Crypto Security How-to's

How to Secure your BitClout Account Seed Phrase

BitClout is a new social network that uses a unique seed phrase as your account login. Learn how to back up your BitClout seed securely and protect your account.

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Wasim Ahmad

Wasim is a serial entrepreneur and an advisor in the fields of AI, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and encryption solutions. At Vault12, he led the private and public fundraising efforts and focuses today on expanding the Vault12 ecosystem. His crypto experience began with AlphaPoint, where he worked with the founding team to launch the world's first crypto trading exchanges. Previously he was a founding member of Voltage Security, a spinout from Stanford University, that launched Identity-Based Encryption (IBE), a breakthrough in Public Key Cryptography, and pioneered the use of sophisticated data encryption to protect sensitive data across the world's payment systems. Wasim serves on the board of non-profit, StartOut, and is a Seedcamp and WeWork Labs global mentor.

Wasim graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and French from the University of Sussex.

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Vault12

Vault12 is the pioneer in crypto inheritance and backup. The company was founded in 2015 to provide a way to enable everyday crypto customers to add a legacy contact to their cry[to wallets. The Vault12 Guard solution is blockchain-independent, runs on any mobile device with biometric security, and is available in Apple and Google app stores.

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You will lose your Bitcoin and other crypto when you die...

You will lose your Bitcoin and other crypto when you die...

...unless you set up Crypto Inheritance Management today.

It's simple—if you don't worry about it, nobody else will—not your software or hardware wallet vendors, not your exchanges, not your wealth managers. So you have to think about how to protect the generational wealth you have created and reduce the risks around passing that wealth on to your family and heirs. What are the challenges with crypto inheritance?

  • Crypto Wallets are difficult to use and do not offer crypto inheritance management. In fact, most of them tell you to write down your seed phrase on a piece of paper which is practically useless.
  • Some people back up their wallet seed phrases or private keys on paper, local devices like hardware wallets or USBs, or in the cloud - all of these options have severe drawbacks from hacking, to accidental loss, to loss of cloud services. No one wants that to happen to their crypto generational wealth.
  • Software wallets operate on specific blockchains, yet your crypto assets span multiple blockchains, for inheritance to work, you must be able to manage inheritance across every blockchain - now and forever.
Vault12 is the pioneer in crypto inheritance management, watch our explainer video or Inheritance demo today.
Screenshot of Vault12 Guard apps - Add an Asset screen

Crypto Inheritance Management: Get ready today

Vault12 is the pioneer in Crypto Inheritance Management that delivers an easy-to-use and secure method for assigning a legacy contact to your crypto wallets. This enables you to pass on your wallet seed phrases and private keys — including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) — to future generations. Designed for everyday people, and strong enough for Crypto OGs.

This innovative, decentralized system uses a hybrid approach of software fused with the secure element of phone devices (The Secure Enclave for iOS devices, and Strongbox for Google devices). Vault12 Guard enables users to appoint a person or mobile device as a Guardian. The designated Guardian is entrusted to protect the user's comprehensive collection of wallet seed phrases and private keys, safely stored within a decentralized digital Vault. No information is stored on cloud servers, or Vault12 servers and nothing is stored on local devices making it less of a target.

The Decentralized approach reduces points of failure and removes the necessity for regularly revising wallet inventories or modifying instructions for your lawyers, often leading to privacy breaches. It is the best way to preserve crypto generational wealth.

Screenshot of Vault12 Guard app - Adding data into the Vault

Take the first step and back up your crypto wallets.

Designed to be used alongside traditional hardware and software crypto wallets, Vault12 Guard helps cryptocurrency owners back up their wallet seed phrases and private keys (assets) without storing anything in the cloud or any single location. This increases protection and decreases the risks of loss. Making sure you have an up to date back up is the first step in crypto inheritance management.

The Vault12 Guard app enables secure decentralized backups and provides inheritance for all your seed phrases and private keys across any blockchain, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC-20, and other crypto wallets.

Note: For anyone unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies, Vault12 refers to wallet seed phrases and private keys as assets, crypto assets, and digital assets. The Vault12 Guard app includes a software wallet that works alongside your digital Vault. The primary purpose of this is to guard your Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) wallet seed phrases, private keys, and other essential data, now and for future generations.

Add a legacy contact for your crypto.