Recovery Seed FAQs For Hardware Wallet Beginners, As Answered By Crypto Experts

Coin a Phrase?

Plenty of people have heard of cryptocurrency, but not enough people have heard of recovery phrases. Crypto experts say it’s high time that changed. Without a recovery phrase (or seed), your crypto just isn’t as safe as it could be - and we all know that accidents can happen. Here’s how seed phrases protect your assets… and how to use them.

What are recovery seeds?

By following proven usage and storage strategies, you’re using every means at your disposal to defend your digital coins. As a beginner to the cryptocurrency scene, step one is setting up your hardware wallet - and recovery seeds follow suit.

One expert, The Crypto Merchant, offers an explanation.

“The words in your recovery seed come from an industry-standardized list of 2042 words known as BIP39. This means that you can recover your cryptoassets on any BIP39 compatible wallet. If you have cryptoassets on a Trezor One and it gets lost or damaged, then you can enter in the recovery seed from the Trezor One into a Trezor Model T or a Ledger Nano S and recover all of your cryptoassets.”

When do you set up a recovery phrase?

If your wallet is made by Trezor, Ledger, KeepKey, or most other reputable brands, you’ll likely be prompted to generate a recovery seed very early on. You don’t want to ignore it! Your best move is to keep your phrases recorded in a safe place. 

After all, without these word seeds, you risk losing access to your assets in the event of loss or damage to your hardware wallets. Nobody plans for their wallet to get lost - it can happen in the blink of an eye. Make sure you’re prepared. 

How should you record your phrase?

Always stay cautious where your recovery seeds are concerned, experts say. If you expose these phrases to any device with internet connectivity, your data could be exploited by hackers. That’s exactly why recovery phrases are used predominantly with hardware wallets - devices that are known for ensuring offline cold storage.

And make no mistake: offline is the best way to go. You have two options…

• Write down your recovery seeds with pen and paper. Nobody can hack ink via the internet, and your phrase is as safe as the place you store it. If any room in your house is secure, then so is your recovery phrase.
• Stainless steel seed phrase backup tools, such as those made by Billfodl and other notable brands. These devices are designed to house valuable data within an impenetrable, portable vault - specially built to withstand fire, flooding, and physical damage. 

Looking for a secure platform to find such devices? 

Authorized distributors get their crypto products directly from trusted brands, so whether you’re in the market for a hardware wallet, backup tool, or both, you can order devices that have passed stringent authenticity checks.