Today is World Backup Day. Let's make sure your seed is secure and backed up.

Did you know that March 31st is World Backup Day? Well, you know now!

I want you to imagine that something happened to your hardware wallet. Maybe a firmware update caused it to get wiped out. Maybe somebody found your hardware wallet and tried to guess your PIN, but after a few failed attempts, it wiped itself out. Or maybe they stole it. Maybe the device got damaged somehow & is unusable.

"No worries," you say. "I wrote down my seed."

Excellent! ...but are you sure it is where you think it is? Are you sure you didn't make a mistake when you wrote down your seed? Maybe one of your words is "armor" but you wrote down "army" instead.

Most people don't think about this kind of thing until something goes wrong, at which point it could be too late.

Today is the day to check!

I'm going to use a Ledger hardware wallet for this post because that's what I own, but the steps for any other wallet will be similar.

Step One: Confirm That Your Seed Phrase Is Secure.

Retrieve every copy of your seed to prove it is where you put it, and to prove that place is secure. For example, I have two copies of my seed: one is written on a piece of paper that's secured in a safe only I have access to, and the other is on a Crypto Steel type metal plate, which is in my safe deposit box. Today, over lunch, I dropped by the bank to check my safe deposit box. You should make time to check when you've stored your seed too. Make sure your seed is secure.

If your seed isn't where you thought you stored it, your coins are at risk and need to be moved to a new seed immediately.

Step Two: Confirm That Your Seed Is What's Written Down.

Unlock your Ledger hardware wallet with the PIN code for your seed, not the PIN for your seed+passphrase (if you use a passphrase). Using Ledger Live, add the Recovery Check app to your Ledger device and open it to confirm that the seed in your device IS what you think it is. This is easy and it won't take much time. Recovery Check will ask you to input your seed words into your Ledger hardware wallet and it will confirm that they match the seed already stored in your wallet.

If the seed in your Ledger hardware wallet doesn't match, it means the seed in your wallet isn't what you think it is. Unless you can figure out what mistake you made, your coins are at risk and need to be moved to a new seed immediately.

Step Three: Confirm That Your Passphrase Is Secure.

Get your passphrase from wherever you secured it, to prove it's there and to prove that it's safe. It's very important that your passphrase isn't secured with your seed phrase. If somebody finds your seed, they can't access your coins without your passphrase. If somebody finds your seed and passphrase, your coins are theirs for the taking. Don't store your passphrase with your seed words.

Note: A passphrase is not a password for your wallet. A passphrase is a different set of addresses and keys which cannot be accessed using your seed alone. You probably know this, but I'm mentioning it since so many people think a passphrase is a password for their wallet. It's not.

Seed = addresses and keys which anyone who has the seed words can access.

Seed & Passphrase = a different set of addresses and keys which can only be accessed using both the seed words and the passphrase.

Step Four: Confirm That Your Passphrase Is What's Written Down.

To confirm your passphrase was originally entered into your Ledger hardware wallet correctly, go into the Settings app on your Ledger hardware wallet and create a Temporary Passphrase. Enter the same passphrase you use with your wallet. If an account in Ledger Live which uses your passphrase will sync with this temporary passphrase, it means they're the same, which means you know the passphrase in your device IS what you think it is. It's good!

In Ledger Live, if the temporary passphrase won't sync with an account that uses your passphrase, it means the temporary passphrase doesn't match the passphrase you assigned a PIN in your Ledger hardware wallet. This also means your coins are at risk and need to be moved to a new wallet immediately.

My goal with this post isn't to scare you. My hope is that you fetched your seed and proved that it is perfectly secure. My hope is that you checked your seed words and passphrase in your Ledger hardware wallet and proved they are exactly what you think they are. If you did that, you know your security is in tip-top shape! With your seed and passphrase secure, if something bad happens to your hardware wallet, you have no worries.

TL;DR:

1: Confirm That Your Seed Phrase Is Secure.
...where is it, and is it safe?

2: Confirm That Your Seed Is What's Written Down.
...are you suuuure it's correct?

3: Confirm That Your Passphrase Is Secure. ...it's not stored with your seed, right?

4: Confirm That Your Passphrase Is What's Written Down. ...are you suuuuuuuuuuuuure it's correct?

I hope this helps you stay safe.