Risks of storing your seed phrase on your computer

What dangers are lurking around the corner if you’re storing your seed phrase on your computer?

A seed phrase (also called mnemonic phrase) is a long list of words that can be compared to a password.

Typically, a good seed phrase is a series of random words that reveal little about yourself and have little logic. You can also choose to have a seed phrase generated by a software program.

Generating the seed phrase is mostly done for you when you create a new crypto wallet. So you don’t have to worry much about that part.

The seed phrase is what you need if you can no longer access your wallet. It will help you to restore your wallet on another device if for example you lost your private key.

Your private key is what links you uniquely to your blockchain address, while your seed phrase is a fingerprint of all your blockchain assets that you can use as a back-up if you lose your crypto wallet.

Traditional ways to store your seed phrase are not safe enough

Most wallet UI’s recommend writing your seed phrase on a piece of paper, the old-fashioned way. But we’ve already discussed this has a lot of risks involved.

Others may tell you that it is better to make a backup on your computer. You then keep your seed phrase in a secret folder, for example.

However, there are several reasons why it’s not a good idea to be storing your seed phrase on your computer.

Access to your computer = access your funds

That’s right, those who are a bit handy with computers and software usually know how get into your computer very easily and how to find files with sensitive information.

Or what if you have to take your computer to a repair shop?

Therefore, it is not safe to put a seed phrase on your laptop or computer just like that.

Someone else who discovers the phrase can steal your funds. Since you use a seed phrase to (re)generate your private keys and restore your wallet, everyone who gets his hands on it is able to access your funds. Without even having to use your computer.

Broken computer = seed phrase gone

There are numerous ways in which computers can break. If your computer breaks and your seed phrase is stored on it, you will be unable to restore your wallet on a new computer.

All you can do then is take your hard drive out of the computer and hope you can connect it to another laptop to retrieve your seed phrase.

There are countless stories online of crypto investors and users who have seen a fortune lost because they had no secure backup of their seed phrase.

And what if you have a computer in great condition, but it got  damaged by a fire or earthquake? If you are storing your seed phrase on your computer, you might want to look out for a safer solution.

If something happens to you, the access to your seed phrase is gone as well

Although Bitcoin is running on open source code, you can think of a downside to security while using crypto too.

Since in blockchain everything is decentralized, you do not use banks and the number of intermediaries is limited. You have a big responsibility to keep your funds safe yourself.

This also means that you should think about what should happen to your crypto when you die.

If you keep the seed phrase -that allows you to restore your wallet- on your computer, chances are your next of kin will not know how to access your wallet.

And if you pass away, you’d like to give your next of kin or a few trusted persons access to your wallets, right?

How to keep your seed phrase safe?

Fortunately, there are a lot of better solutions, just like Inheriti®, which are perfectly in line with the philosophy of crypto and blockchain. It can help you secure and store a seed phrase without storing it locally on your computer or even on a computer network.

It’s the only safe and 100% decentralized solution to securely backup your seed phrase. And we have multiple patents in different jurisdictions around the world.

Click here to learn more about our patented solution: Inheriti® »