A Custody Setup That Survives Losing Your House
Most self-custody advice is either 'not your keys not your coins' with no detail, or a single seed phrase in a drawer. Both fail. Real custody means surviving fire, theft, and your own death — three scenarios with different answers.
The threat model first
table
Split, don't duplicate
A single written seed in one location fails every scenario except device loss. Two copies in two locations doubles theft exposure but fixes fire. The usual compromise is a metal backup at home plus an encrypted copy in a second location, with the passphrase stored separately.
Never type the seed into anything
The seed's only legitimate use is restoring into a hardware wallet you bought yourself, from a fresh state. Any website, app, support agent, or 'migration tool' asking for it is theft. There are no exceptions to this.
The part everyone skips: recoverability
Write down how someone else would access the funds if you were incapacitated — which device, which location, which passphrase. Store it where a trusted person can reach it under defined conditions. Custody that only works while you're conscious isn't custody.
The mistakes that cost people money
- Storing the seed digitally in a cloud note.
- Single-location backup.
- Storing the passphrase with the seed.
- Photographing the seed phrase.
Common questions
Is a hardware wallet necessary?
For meaningful amounts, yes. It keeps the key off any internet-connected device, which removes the most common theft vector.
What if I lose the hardware wallet?
If you have the seed, you restore to a new device. The device is disposable — the seed is the asset.