Hardware wallet/mnemonic seed phrase (extra) security guide, don’t just write it down 1,2,3,4…24

I never see people talk about this so let’s do it.

You’ve just opened your metamask or setup your ledger nano device. (Or other)
Don’t just write down your 12 or 24 word seed phrase on a piece of paper.
If someone finds your piece of paper, they’ll have direct access to all of your funds. So much for a secure cold wallet… at least make it harder for them, or impossible for them!

Security Hack 1) Encrypt it.

Instead of writing 1,2,3…->24
Come up with a sequence that you or your loved ones will know and remember.
Make it as simple as backwards! 24,23,22,21…->1
When you need to recover, you go backwards

Make it every other word 1,3,5,7,…->24
When you need to recover, you skip every other

Every third word) 1,3,6,9,12,2,5,8,11,4,7,10

When you need to recover, you do 1st, 3rd, 6th word and so on.

You can make it more complicated if you’d like but ANYTHING is better than writing 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12.

Security Hack 2) Omit a word entirely

For example just skip the first or last word and only write down 11/23 instead of 12/24
You can save this word elsewhere if you’d like, or tell your loved ones, put the single word in a security deposit box? Use your imagination
Just… don’t forget it. Make sure you have it somewhere incase you lose your memory from some accident IRL

Security Hack 3) (Ledger Nano specific)

There exists a function to essentially create a 25th mnemonic phrase which accessed an ENTIRELY different set of keys/wallets than just your 24.
You can consider your 24 word phrase to be your warm wallet, and 25th passphrase wallets to be your true cold wallet.
The guide to do it is linked below but here’s the gist of it:

You go to settings on the ledger, security, passphrase, you choose the passphrase (up to 100 characters and it can be any combination of letters numbers or characters so you can make it as complicated as you want.

(You also set a PIN code with it to access the cold wallet everytime you turn on your ledger.

Using your original pin gets you into your 24 wallet. Using your passphrase pin gets you into your 25 wallet.

The official guide is ledger website official explanation of 25th here

Pardon my Reddit formatting, I don’t post long explanations much

Stay safe out there, keep stacking during this winter!

Edit: you don’t need to do ALL of them, figure out what you’re comfortable and confident with. Just so it’s not EASY if it’s ever found.