- If you lose your hardware wallet, you can still recover your crypto thanks to your seed phrase
- Storing your seed phrase properly is very important, as it’s your final chance to save your crypto from oblivion
- There are services to secure and backup your seed phrase, so consider using one if you’re fairly clumsy
You’ve finally decided to listen to the proof of keys movement and get your crypto off of exchanges and into your own hardware wallet, but then it goes missing. We’ve all been there at one time or another, even if it’s just a scare after you misplaced your hardware wallet.
But, for some people, the hardware wallet is long gone. Whether someone threw it out with the trash because they didn’t understand it or whether you genuinely lost it and have no clue where it is, it’s a scary time. But there’s good news, if you were sensible when you set up your hardware wallet, you can get all your crypto back!
Wait, I Can Get it Back?
About a week ago, David Portnoy revealed to the world that he lost his hardware wallet containing $50,000 of Bitcoin on it. He’s since then accepted that it’s just lost to the world and he’ll never see it again. But, there’s no need to actually reason like that if you set yourself up correctly.
When you initialize a hardware wallet, it will ask you to jot down a seed phrase and then repeat it back to the wallet to prove that you wrote it down. You can use this seed phrase to recover your old wallet’s contents onto a brand-new wallet – how cool is that!
I Lost My Seed Phrase Too…
The crypto veterans will tell you that storing your seed phrase somewhere safe is one of the most important things that you can do. However, if you’re one of those that just cut and paste them onto your computer then lost the file, there’s nothing that can be done. IF you lose the paper with your seed phrase, your crypto is long gone. So, our best advice to you is write down the seed phrase a few times and store these phrases in separate secure locations – but not a bank vault, of course.
There is a Solution
Alternatively, you could just use a wallet like Keevo which has a subscription level tier where they’ll allow you to store a copy of your keys in a super-secure vault with their partner Iron Mountain and ship it back out to you if you lose your current set of keys – pretty handy, huh? This is called the Keevo Carbon Key and it’s a subscription service add-on package, meaning it is a paid feature. You can actually do a whole lot more with this cool service, such as estate planning, but that’s something for another day. So, there’s actually a solution for all of you out there that are clumsy and tend to lose things. If you’re worried about losing your crypto, perhaps it’s time to pay a bit more for the peace of mind!
