How to Securely Store Your Seed Words in Dropbox
Most wallets — hardware and digital — come with recovery seeds. These are 12 to 24 words that let you to recover your wallet. Unfortunately, any attacker that finds these seed words would have complete access to your funds.
What if there were a completely secure way of storing these seed words online? A method that’s secure, even if your computer and your Dropbox have both already been compromised?
This method entails using images instead of words to store your seeds, using pictures that only make sense to you. Your brain becomes the encryption key.
Before jumping into how this works, let’s take a look at the drawbacks of physically storing seed words.
Note: for more interesting Crypto investing & tech ideas, check out our podcast, the Crypto Starship.
Drawbacks of Physically Storing Seed Words
The most common advice given to wallet owners is to keep your seed offline, and never upload it to the internet. While this does prevent most hackers from getting access, it has several major drawbacks.
Easy to Steal
Anyone who can gain physical access to your seed words would have instant access to all your funds.
Easy to Misplace
Physical storage also puts your crypto in danger of being lost to physical accidents.
Wired Magazine author Nick Ortega describes losing $30,000 in BTC because his housekeeper threw away a piece of paper with his seed words and PIN.
Physical storage means risking house fires, robberies, or plain forgetfulness (i.e. “where’d I put that thing again?”)
Hard to Access
Offline storage makes it hard for you to get to your seed words, if you ever need them. If you’re traveling, at a conference, or unable to get to your seed words, you’re locked out of your funds.
The only reason people don’t store their seed words digitally is for security reasons. So, how can you make it secure to store your seeds online?
Your Brain: The Unbreakable Encryption Key
It is possible to store a digital version of your seed words, without it being accessible to others, even if a hacker gets their hands on your seed file.
You can do so by storing your seed words with pictures instead of words. Pictures that only make sense to you.
Your thoughts are the encryption key.
How to use images to store your seed words:
- Store your recovery seed using images, rather than words. These images should have no connection to the seed word to an outside observer, but make complete sense to you.
- Include a bunch of decoy images.
- Have a non-sequential order of reading the image. Note: recovery seed words need to be entered sequentially to work.
Let’s Look at an Example
Let’s look at an example. This is our hypothetical 12 word recovery seed:
arrow purpose fiber parade leisure profit palace resource fee relief toddler evolve
This is what it looks like in its “Safe to Store in Dropbox” format:
This image takes all of our seed words, and turns them into images, in a way that is impossible to understand for anyone except you.
Here’s the order our seed words are stored in. The rest are diversions:
Creating the Image Map
Each seed word is created using your personal memory of the word. The image should be unrelated to the word, but make perfect sense to you.
The First 6 Seed Words
- Arrow. Tywin Lannister was killed by an arrow in his chamberpot. Game of Thrones reference.
- Purpose. Rick Warren is the pastor of the Saddleback Church, and author of “A Purpose Driven Life.” Photo is a saddle.
- Fiber. Wheat bread has fiber.
- Parade. John F Kennedy was shot at a parade.
- Leisure. I booked my last vacation using airline miles from my Amex Gold credit card.
- Profit. My dad owned a restaurant; and wine was the most profitable item on the menu.
The Next 6 Seeds
Palace. In Slumdog Millionaire, the main character gives a hilarious tour of the Taj Mahal palace, while knowing nothing about its history.
Resource. Natural gas leaking from a faucet. Natural gas is a resource.
Fee. You pay fees at the DMV, and this funny scene was at the DMV in the Disney movie Zootopia.
Relief. These are acupuncture needles, which are used for pain relief.
Toddler. When I was a toddler, my aunt tripped on an escalator and tossed me to my uncle to keep from dropping me.
Evolve. Pikachu evolves into Raichu. Pokemon.
Once an image map is created, it’s virtually impossible for anyone else to guess your seed words. On the flip side, it’s easy for you to restore from seed — using any cloud storage service — anytime, anywhere.
Tips for Using This Technique
Constructing an Image Map
I built my image maps with Adobe Photoshop, but creating one with Canva or other free tools also works.
The key to doing this right is to assume that your computer is already compromised. Don’t type in your seed word and look for interesting images.
Instead, think of a tangent on your image (such as Arrow -> Tywin Lannister) and type in that unrelated keyword instead. This way, even if your image search queries were monitored, you wouldn’t be at risk.
Remembering Your Seed
Don’t delete your seed words right away after creating an image map. Instead, review it once a day for a week or so to make sure you can remember the words easily. Then destroy your written seed words.
I personally go through my seed words about once a month to make sure I remember them.
Say Goodbye to Printed Seed Words
Using image maps to store your seeds is both more convenient and more secure than storing written words.
This method takes a couple hours to setup — but will pay off in the long run. I love the peace of mind that comes from knowing that I can recover my crypto, anytime, anywhere, if I ever need it.
Learn more and stay in touch
Want more interesting crypto & blockchain ideas? Check out our podcast, the Crypto Starship. Hope to see you there!
Derek Pankaew
Co-Host, Crypto Starship Podcast
