Seed Phrase: Where to Store It and Where Not To

A seed phrase is not one of the ways to restore a wallet. It is the private key in human-readable form. From it, you can restore the wallet on any device, and no one will ask for a password or 2FA. Therefore, its storage rules are closer to nuclear codes than to an email password.

Where NOT to store it

Any kind of cloud. iCloud Notes, Google Drive, Dropbox, notes on an iPad with sync — all these are copies physically living on someone else's servers. A leak of one cloud account — and the funds are gone.

Photos on your phone. Gallery backup does the same thing — syncs with the cloud. Plus, if the phone is stolen and unlocked, the photo is instantly accessible.

Password manager. This is not unequivocally bad, but risky: compromise of the master password leads to all wallets at once. If you must store it there — then with an additional passphrase.

A message to yourself in Telegram. A chat with yourself is a server-side chat, not a local note.

Where you can

Paper, in two physical locations. One copy at home, another somewhere else (bank safe deposit box, with a relative). You can write the seed on paper with a pencil — less chance of fading.

Metal plates. More expensive than paper, but resistant to fire and water. Nothing fancy needed — Cryptosteel, Ellipal Mnemonic Plate, or their analogs will do.

Encryption with a local key. You can encrypt the seed (e.g., via a VeraCrypt container), put the file in the cloud, but keep the master key offline. This works but requires discipline in rotation.

Passphrase: an additional layer

Most hardware wallets support an optional passphrase — an additional word or phrase on top of the seed. This allows: even if the seed is stolen, without the passphrase the wallet cannot be accessed; and store the seed separately from the passphrase, so that an attack requires compromising both locations.

The downside — forget the passphrase, lose access irreversibly. Therefore, store it separately, in a different physical location.