UK seized new powers starting today [including destroying Monero]
--Police will no longer be required to make an arrest before seizing crypto from a suspect.
--seize anything, such as written passwords, flash drives, or memory sticks
--destroy crypto assets, such as privacy coins, for the "public good", like Monero
--goes into effect today
This has the text copy-pasted from the official UK website, but without having to have your IP address literally connect to the official cybercrime division website, (ironically, we seized their text)
Well, if they destroy Monero, that's bad for the person who gets their Monero destroyed, but it's good for the rest of us, because that just lowers the inflation rate more than it already is. That makes the rest of our Monero more valuable. This is why you also do not write down your passwords because even if they were to seize something like my flash drive with my key pass database on it, they could not get into it and therefore could not get my private key to my Monero.
Good kick in the butt to memorize passwords and seedphrases I guess.
I honestly don't know if I would ever be able to remember an entire seed phrase. Just straight out. But I can remember a 30 character or more passphrase with special symbols. I just put my seed phrase in my key pass database and my key pass database stays off any cloud services.
What part of "do not store digitally" did you miss? Don't. Do. That.
I know its not the best idea, but good luck cracking a Keepass DB with over 20 characters including symbols.
You type that password to that file on your machine daily. Nobody has to crack it. You get malware on your machine, they have the file and the passphrase. Your encryption scheme is no more secure against remote malware attacks than storing it in plain text.
I primarily use it on my phone so fingerprint. I rarely have to type it out. Plus i run DNS level malware and ad blockers, linux, and as much FOSS software as possible. I have no doubt it would be possible to get it, but its not a huge concern.
An old school method is to write a note with every fifth word being a seed word. Keep that note among 20 others so you cannot know what is relevant.
Smart way to do it. But if you need to travel and take your data with you, the device itself is at risk of seizure or destruction. Alternately you could reload your needed data backups at your destination when you arrive, say after crossing unfriendly borders, but then you'd want to find the safest most secure way to transfer the data. There are plenty of solutions, but with more and more news like this, most people will need to think a bit more than they have been about their threat model opsec and procedures.
It doesn't need to be on a device. You can create a "book" at the local binding store containing 200 samples of "Vogon poetry" ( http://spaceinvaders.epizy.com/vogon.html?i=1 ) . Your seed phrase can be scattered in a memorised pattern within the book. You can bring that book with you anywhere and have multiple copies in different locations.
I have taken that into account and have a way around that.
There's nothing smart about storing seeds digitally on a networked device.
Fair enough perspective. What do you favor? Paper wallet? Something like cryptosteel? Hardware wallet? Memorization? Other airgapped digital device solutions? Shamir secret sharing? Something else?
It's always good for others to hear and gather approaches and try to choose amongst them for what may work best.
Just write it down. Paper, steel, whatever, just don't store it digitally. If you're storing something worth more than a hardware wallet, the seed with a good hardware wallet is a good idea. Memorize it if you can, but have it written down somewhere. If you can rip wireless networking out of a device, airgapped notebook or cell phone is fine. If you have a bunch of different people that will need access in the event you can't give them access, and you're concerned about one of them potentially stealing it from you, and they know how to do this kind of stuff, shamir backup is great.
Good input. Thanks.