Hi, I have a bit of a situation I'd like to ask for your help.
I'm planning to give a wallet to a family member but take care of seed backup myself, because they're not able of reliably store the seed themselves.
The biggest issue is that I can't physically reach them to give the seed safely, the only way to contact them is through calls and video calls.
Do you have any ideas for how to do it?
I'd like to know how it can be done, I'm also fine with options like self-hosting.
this is basic, find a book you both own,, same copy find the 12 or 24 word you need give the page numkber and word number dont mention the book in that specific call, this must be set on another call, win
reply
There are 129,864,880 books. That's ~ 2^27. There are 2^256 seed phrases. What you're proposing reduces entropy by a factor of 2^229, at least in theory, which is like reducing a seed phrase with 24 word seed phrase to one with 2.45 significant words (I.e. not counting the checksum). I'm not counting editions, but if the average book has 8 editions, that's only 3 bits more, so 2.72 words.
In practice, an attacker would need a digital library of all editions of all books. But your book is likely to come from a smaller set, e.g. it's likely in English and less than 100 years old.
reply
just broke my brain trying to think such numbers :)
reply
This technique is called a one time pad and is similar to seedXOR.
reply
its called book chipher and its used for centuries now.
reply
Really clever, thanks!
reply
Normally pgp. But if they're not capable of having a seed themselves, then pgp will be complicated to set up.
reply
Is my assumtion right that you should take the encrypted file to an offline device (e.g. Tails) to encrypt it there and use the seed from there? I would not encrypt the seed on a device connected to the internet.
reply
That's right, the most I can manage is having them put the seed in a wallet app and destroy it for safety, I'll be keeping the backups.
reply
Write a nice letter, on paper. Put each word of the seed into a specific position of the letter. Make a nice story.
Then later tell them by phone or other communication method where are located the specific words.
Example: in one of my bitcoun guides on substack I put 12 words from a wallet. Is just another backup of many. I could retrieve that seed anywhere I have access to internet. Or I can just share that guide with somebody and indicate where are the specific words.
reply
You only need the first 4 letters of each word in the seed phrase.
reply
Security by obscurity is bad practice.
Kerckhoffs principle is rule number 1 in cryptography. There is kind of no rule as important as this one.
reply
I invite you to find the words if you can
reply
I see, but do you have a pattern for constructing the phrases? Surely you need some kind of rule to fetch them right?
How would you go about it?
reply
I cannot say absolutely anything here, on a public space, man. Please try to use your brain, I gave you the tools, it's up to you how to use them. Some things is not good to say it out loud...
reply
Sorry about that. 😅
I just wanted to know how others handle these things.
You're absolutely right, please forgive my unnecessary curiosity.
reply
No need to apologize. You did nothing wrong asking. Is a good question. Read my bitcoin guides for more info https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/bitcoin-be-your-own-bank-think-like
reply
Thanks! 🫂
I did read some of your posts earlier, they're clean and informative, I didn't know of that way of managing wallets.
Thank you for writing about Bitcoin.
What soulution would you propose?
reply
reply
The secret you share would be potentially visible with others right?
Seems interesting but I'm not sure about this, can it be self-hosted?
And how would you go for setting a title that only me and them can find?
reply
use your imagination to create methods
reply
Fair, I'm just concerned to the possibility of being readable from other, guess you can further obfuscate the content after all.
reply
passphrase into passphrase... so many options you could do make it fun. As I said, write a nice letter, send it by email and the same letter put it into publicnote and encrypt it, hiding the 12 words. The receiver just have to copy paste the letter and reveal the words.
reply
if you put the text above in publicnote you will reveal the hidden message from me
reply
No messages found, but being public like that still concerns me, even if well hidden someone can still get it or even worse override it.
I can see it as a good tool for other uses though.
reply
deleted by author
reply
Yes, it's called public for a reason... 🙃
Sadly the best they can do is installing an app and put the seed in.
The idea of giving hints but not the source seems the best idea so far.
reply
Use the following address: https://privatebin.io/
reply
I'd prefer to not have it stored for too long on somebody else's servers, might be good for self-hosting though.
reply
Aren't you protected by the tool that only once you can view the message because after it will automatically delete itself ?
reply
It is a zero-knowledge service which is really good, but it stays stored for a whole week from what it says, also I'd have to send the URL somehow with risks of exposing it.
Better to do with something I can share partially over voice or text so it can be fetched outside the current chat or call.
reply
Thank's for sharing this, have a blessed day 🙏
reply