How to keep your recovery phrase safe
The recovery phrase is the only way back into your wallet. Whoever holds it holds your name and everything else in that wallet.
The recovery phrase is the only way back into your wallet. Whoever holds it holds your name and everything else in that wallet.
A Web3 name lives in a wallet, and the wallet is protected by a recovery phrase, usually twelve or twenty-four words. There is no support desk that can reset it. If you lose the phrase and the device, the wallet and the name are gone. If someone else gets the phrase, they can take everything.
That is the trade for owning your name without a registrar: nobody can suspend it, and nobody can rescue you from a mistake either.
Use pen and paper at the moment the wallet shows it. Write the words in order, clearly, and number them.
Read the words back against the screen. One wrong letter makes the backup useless.
Store them in two separate safe places, such as a home safe and a trusted relative’s home. One fire or flood should not take both.
With a nearly empty wallet, restore it from the written phrase on another device and confirm the same address appears. Then you know the backup works.
Choose one person you trust to know where the copies are, so the wallet is not lost with you.
Real wallets ask for the phrase only when you restore on a device you chose. A site that asks for it to “verify”, “sync” or “claim” something is taking it.
Photos, notes apps, cloud storage, email and chat all sync to places you do not control. Malware looks for exactly these files.
No provider, support agent, buyer or friend needs it. Anyone asking is the risk.
A wallet that arrives already set up with a phrase written on a card belongs to whoever printed the card.
If the phrase is lost, nobody can restore the wallet, including us and the provider. If it is exposed, move the name and your funds to a new wallet straight away. Guide 07 explains how.
It is better than a photo, but it keeps the phrase online. Paper stored offline is safer for a phrase that protects something you cannot replace.
If the wallet is still open on a device, move the name and funds to a new wallet and write the new phrase down. If you have neither, the wallet cannot be recovered.
No. A password can be reset. The phrase is the wallet itself, and anyone who reads it can act as you.
For larger amounts it adds protection, because the keys never touch a connected computer. The phrase still needs to be stored on paper.
If you plan to use a name for a business, the next guide covers when that makes sense.