Wallets · 13 / 86 · 2 min
Wallets and seed phrases
The app does not hold a pile of coins. It holds keys. The keys move the record.
The app does not hold a pile of coins. Lose the seed and the record is still there, with no way to move it.
A worked case
A phone wallet is set up and the seed is stored in a screenshot. The phone is sold. The buyer has the seed. The coins move the same day. The app was never the vault.
The seed is the wallet
A seed phrase is a list of words that can rebuild the keys. Anyone who has the words can move the money. A screenshot, a cloud note, and a support chat are copies of the wallet.
No real support team needs the seed. Not an exchange. Not a friend. Not TXKN.
Three places the money can sit
- A wallet you browse with. Convenient, and on the same machine as links and downloads.
- A wallet you do not browse with. Fewer ways in. Not magic.
- An exchange balance. The company holds the keys. A withdrawal is a request.
The screenshot that was the vault
A wallet is software that holds keys and asks the chain what those keys can move. The coins are not in the app. The New York Times account of lost bitcoin fortunes is full of people who understood this too late: a discarded hard drive, a forgotten password, a device with a guess limit. The record sat on the network the whole time. The missing object was the secret.
The common modern version is a seed phrase of twelve or twenty-four words, written once, and then photographed because paper feels old-fashioned. The photo syncs to a cloud account. The cloud account is recovered by an attacker, or the phone is sold, or a chat support asks for the words to fix a stuck withdrawal. The app never held the coins. The photo held the power to move them.
A wallet you can open is not a savings account. If the only copy of the seed is a picture, you have already decided who else might read it.
Read it yourself
These links are the record. They are not a recommendation, and they are not instructions. A news story or a court paper can still be wrong about a detail. The check does not change because a famous name is in the story.
Apply the check
Open a question. The line is about this topic. It is not a verdict that anything is safe.
No one, until the keys sign.
You, if you keep the seed. A thief, if they copied it.
Whoever has the seed. There is no reset.
Check yourself
Should you type the seed if support asks?
No. Anyone who asks for the seed is taking the wallet.
After this you can point to who can move the money, and keep the seed out of a chat.