Been holding BTC for a while now, but honestly? I never actually tested my recovery phrase. I wrote it down, put it in the safe, and told myself "it's fine".

Last week, I decided to stop trusting and start verifying.

Wiped my hardware wallet. Took a deep breath. Started the restore process.

Those 5 minutes felt like 5 hours. Checked the derivation path. Checked the receive addresses. Made sure they matched what I had in Sparrow.

When the balance showed up correctly? Huge relief. But also a reality check.

Found out my passphrase had a typo in my documentation. Caught it just in time. If I had waited for an emergency to test this, I would have lost everything.

Your backup isn't real until you've tested it.

Don't wait for a hardware failure or lost pin to find out your seed phrase has a mistake.

Curious: How often do you guys test your recovery process? Once a year? Never? Just wondering if I'm the only paranoid one here.

bitcoin

Been holding BTC for a while now, but honestly? I never actually tested my recovery phrase. I wrote it down, put it in the safe, and told myself "it's fine".

Last week, I decided to stop trusting and start verifying.

Wiped my hardware wallet. Took a deep breath. Started the restore process.
Those 5 minutes felt like 5 hours. Checked the derivation path. Checked the receive addresses. Made sure they matched what I had in Sparrow.

When the balance showed up correctly? Huge relief. But also a reality check.

Found out my passphrase had a typo in my documentation. Caught it just in time. If I had waited for an emergency to test this, I would have lost everything.

My takeaway: **Your backup isn't real until you've tested it.**
Don't wait for a hardware failure or lost pin to find out your seed phrase has a mistake.

Curious: How often do you guys test your recovery process? Once a year? Never? Just wondering if I'm the only paranoid one here.

Stay safe. 🫡