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How to back up a Seed Phrase
There are many ways to back up a seed phrase. This article summarizes for you the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
A seed phrase, or recovery phrase, is a sequence of words that a cryptocurrency wallet uses to access your cryptocurrency holdings. Securely backing up your seed phrase is a very important step, because knowledge of the seed phrase effectively serves as ownership of funds.
Cryptocurrency wallet documentation often offers limited advice about best practices to securely back up your seed phrase. A common recommendation made by wallet providers is to write down your seed phrase on paper and then store it in a safe place — but in itself, this is not sufficient protection.
For example, the official documentation on managing a Coinbase Wallet highlights the importance of securing your seed phrase but lacks detailed guidance, particularly on security options. We offer comprehensive guides on how to protect a Coinbase seed phrase, a Trust Wallet seed phrase, and other crypto seed phrases to keep your digital assets secure.
TL;DR (concentrated takeaways)
Securely backing up your seed phrase is the most important thing you can do to keep your crypto safe.
You must consider 3 things: physical security, data security, and time-driven deterioration.
Backup options include:
- Digital Vault
- Cryptosteel
- Local computer drives
- Cloud storage
- Multi-signature solutions
- "Brain wallets"
- Paper
What criteria make a seed phrase backup secure?
To be secure, a seed phrase backup should strongly satisfy the following 3 criteria:
Physical security
Where will your seed phrase backup be kept? The location where the seed phrase is stored is very important, and a seed phrase written on a physical medium like paper is very hard to secure. When picking a location, consider who has access to it. Your seed phrase backup should be stored in a secure location, accessible by only you. Physical security also implies that you will not lose or forget its location - don't hide it so well that you forget how to find it again. And even if you won't forget where your home vault is located, it might not be as findable as you expect if your house is subject to a rapid natural disaster like a wildfire, tornado, or tsunami. It is hard to contemplate, but your home could be destroyed quickly and unpredictably, with your safe lost in the chaos. Unfortunately, residents of Los Angeles were faced with wildfires, rapid evacuation, and delayed returns to their charred homes in early 2025. There is no definitive count, but certainly some lost their crypto wallet backups in the devastation.
Data security
Data security is usually accomplished via a locked safe or encryption. This serves the purpose of protecting your seed phrase even if bad actors find out where it is. As long as a bad actor does not gain access to the key to your safe or your encryption keys, your seed phrase and your crypto will remain secure.
Passes the "test of time"
The test of time introduces two potential threats: gradual natural decay, and the cumulative risk of eventual destruction via various types of disaster or unexpected changes. Consider the risks that arise over time when formulating a backup plan that will protect your seed phrase. Electronic media degrades over time, writing can fade, and paper can mildew. A paper backup that is not secured in a fireproof, waterproof safe is vulnerable to both natural decay from the elements and destruction via disasters.
1. Back up to Digital Vault
Vault12 is a decentralized Digital Vault that offers a very high level of security in a user-friendly mobile app. To back up your seed phrase in your Digital Vault, simply open your vault, select "Add Asset," and enter your seed phrase. In addition to your seed phrase, you can store any digital asset.
Using Vault12, your seed phrase will be encrypted, then split up into encrypted shards, and distributed to your chosen network of Guardians. Your network of Guardians can be made up of multiple devices under your control, or a network of people that you trust. This forms a mesh network of encrypted storage.
The advantages of backing up your seed phrase with Vault12 are portability, complete privacy, the ability to self-manage your backup, and redundancy - if you lose your device, you do not lose access to your seed phrase.
This solution meets all three criteria for secure backup, learn more.
2. Crypto Steel
A highly secure way to back up your seed phrase is by permanently affixing the words to indestructible stainless steel or titanium metal plates. (Steel is more commonly used.) This approach passes the test of time, and if your house burns to the ground, your seed phrase will survive.
A few companies offer ready-made steel plates, where all you have to do is input your seed phrase onto the steel card by engraving or stamping the card with provided tools, or by sliding tiles into locking slots. If you are handy, you could even make a steel plate backup yourself.
Backing up to a steel plate is great, and avoids many of the risks of backing up to paper - but like any other physical medium, you must prevent unauthorized people from accessing the plate. Keep it in a safe place and consider encrypting the seed phrase before committing to steel.
This method is primarily subject to the risk of physical security.
3. Encrypted local drive / USB
Storing your seed phrase on a locally-stored encrypted drive offers a high level of data security since it ensures that only you have access to your seed phrase, but does not offer a very high level of protection against other risks.
Encrypting data is the digital equivalent of storing data in a physical safe. When you encrypt a local drive that holds your seed phrase, a key or password will be needed to regain access to it (depending on what tool you choose to perform the encryption). Do not store the encrypted drive and the encryption key together, and do not lose the key/password!
This option offers flexibility in the choices available for the physical drive, and the method used to encrypt its contents. Not all encryption is created equal - always make sure that you choose a standards-based and strong encryption protocol.
For example, you could password-protect your encrypted local drive that holds your seed phrase, and back up the drive's encryption password somewhere like Vault12. However, with this kind of backup strategy, when the encrypted drive physical media fails, your safely-secured password that would decrypt that failed drive would not reunite you with your cryptocurrency seed phrase. Be careful with complex backup solutions.
This method holds some risk of each of the three criteria of secure backup. Learn more.
4. Cloud storage
If you choose to store your seed phrase on physical media, it could be secure, but if you don't carry it with you everywhere (which would come with its own risks), you will be out of luck if you need it while away from home. Cloud storage gives you a much more accessible option. However, putting your unencrypted seed phrase on a Cloud drive is absolutely not secure. You must encrypt the seed phrase first - that way, even if someone is able to access the file on the drive, it cannot be used.
The most significant risks related to cloud storage of an encrypted seed phrase are related to the loss or unintended disclosure of the encryption password (data security). Learn more.
5. Multi-Signature solutions
There are various multi-signature, or "multisig" key backup solutions available. Multisig solutions are a challenge because they are both complex and varied in form, operating differently on different blockchains. They can add significant security if carefully implemented, but they introduce risk tradeoffs related to having more moving parts, being more difficult to understand, and delegating trust to other parties. The term "multisig" is applied to many different implementations of solutions that involve multiple keys, and in practice, there are many subvariants of multisig solutions, each with strengths and weaknesses. Thus, multisig is not inherently a "good" or "bad" solution, but a complex and evolving basket of them.
6. Brain Wallet
This is by far the riskiest form of backing up your seed phrase. If you forget your seed phrase, you have to rely on your memory to retrieve it. When relying on human memory, there is a high likelihood over time that even you will be locked out from accessing your seed phrase. The benefit is that the process is completely offline (at least until Elon Musk is able to hack the human brain). Proceed with extreme caution.
If you plan to go down this route, it is a good idea to use a mnenomic of some sort, like a poem or a song where each word in your seed phrase represents the first line of the poem or song. This can help with memorization.
If you have a photographic memory, and you have never forgotten anything in your entire life, you could think of using your brain to backup your seed phrase. To do this, simply memorize your seed phrase. Of course, there is still a risk that you will someday suffer a brain injury, mental illness, or form of dementia that would cause you to lose your memory of your seed phrase.
This method has such a high level of risk from the "test of time" criterion that it must be stated twice - proceed with extreme caution. Learn more.
7. Paper
The most common method of backing up your seed phrase is using paper. The guidance provided with many wallets counsel you to write your seed phrase on a piece of paper, however paper alone is not a secure method. If you really want to use paper, it is necessary to take extra safety precautions. The paper your seed phrase is written on must be stored in a locked safe, at the very least.
This method holds some risk of each of the three criteria of secure backup. Learn more.
How to back up a Seed Phrase
There are many ways to back up a seed phrase. This article summarizes for you the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
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...
...unless you set up Crypto Inheritance Management today.
It's simple — if you don't worry about crypto inheritance, nobody else will — not your software or hardware wallet vendors, not your exchanges, and not your wealth managers. So it's up to you to think about how to protect the generational wealth you have created, and reduce the risks around passing that crypto 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 that range from hacking to accidental loss to disrupted cloud services.
- 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.
Crypto Inheritance Management: Secure, Self-Custody Crypto Inheritance and Backup
Vault12 is the pioneer in Crypto Inheritance Management, offering a simple yet powerful way to designate a legacy contact and pass on your crypto assets—like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) —to future generations. Built for everyday users yet robust enough for the most seasoned crypto enthusiasts, Vault12 Guard ensures your wallet seed phrases and private keys are preserved in a fully self-sovereign manner, across all Blockchains.
At the heart of Vault12 Guard is quantum-resistant cryptography and a decentralized, peer-to-peer network of trusted Guardians. Your critical information is never stored in the cloud, on Vault12 servers, or even on local devices—dramatically reducing the risk of a single point of failure. By fusing a powerful software layer with the Secure Element of iOS devices (Secure Enclave) and Google devices (Strongbox), Vault12 Guard locks down your private keys against present and future threats.
Our innovative approach harnesses social recovery, enabling you to appoint one or more trusted individuals or mobile devices as Guardians. These Guardians collectively safeguard your protected seed phrases in a decentralized digital Vault—so there’s no need for constant lawyer updates or bulky paperwork. Should the unexpected happen, your chosen legacy contact can seamlessly inherit your crypto assets without compromising your privacy or security.
Preserve your digital wealth for generations to come with Vault12 Guard—the simplest, most secure way to manage crypto inheritance and backup.
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 in any single location. This increases protection and decreases the risk of loss.
The first step in crypto Inheritance Management is making sure you have an up-to-date backup.
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, and others, and for any crypto wallet.
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) and Ethereum (ETH) wallet seed phrases, private keys, and other essential data, now and for future generations.
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