I recently see a lot of posts like this on social media platforms: "My computer just broke and I didn't wrote down the passphrase, can you help me?".
The thing is, no one can help you in this situation. And chances are high that there will never be anyone on this planet who could do. You need to backup and protect your private key or your wallet passphrase, because they are the only way to get access to your coins and tokens, if your wallet breaks, gets lost or gets stolen.
But, for example, if you buy a hardware wallet, you will most likely only get a cardboard card, were you write down your passphrase when you initialize the wallet for the very first time. The problem is, paper isn't very durable against water, fire or even time itself.
Fire is very obvious, paper likes to burn. I think I don't have to describe much else here. Water can damage the structure of paper and can wash away the ink you used to write down the words. Sure, there are things like "rite in the rain" books, but then there is the thing with fire again. And even time can damage paper, or the used ink under most conditions. And again, fire.
Handwritten things are bad as well. If I would need to write down something today, I probably couldn't read it anymore some months later. My wife, or many others couldn't read it as well, I guess.
But, you could write it down in a digital way. Lets assume for a second that you're really good with computers and security. You are able to save your passphrase on an encrypted usb stick, in an encrypted file. You used a very save password that you can remember, and the usb sticks as well as the file on it are very secure, no one could hack it. You even copied it five times and you put it on several places, no one knows about.
Well, good job. That's really secure. And if you're single and you don't have any single person in your life you care about, that method is one ... okay ... way to do it.
But! This way isn't cool if you have a family, a wife, a husband, children, brothers, sisters, someone else you care about. If something happens to you, and you're hodling like thousands or even millions worth of crypto somewhere, then your beloved ones will never be able to get access to that.
Or, let's assume you're the lone wolf. You don't really care about anyone but yourself. Fair enough. But if you have an accident, and there is something with your brain. Well. Then you will also have a very bad time. Maybe you know that you have millions worth of crypto, lying around somewhere, but you can't remember the super secure passwords anymore.
You see, there are some cases, when you want to protect your wallet, but you could make it worse. And there are tons of stories out there of people searching for old hard drives, because there were thousands of (back then) "worthless" Bitcoins on it. Or someone died and their family have no clue how to get access to the crypto heritage.
That's why I created the Phrasekeeper.
I wanted to create an easy to use and affordable set which can be used by anyone, even on a cheap Ikea table. No need for a 2kg hammer and an anvil as base plate.
You hammer the passphrase into a metal plate made of 99% copper, using a hammer and punching letters.
A usual house fire will rise to a top temperature of about 1000°C (1832 °F), whilst copper has a melting point at about 1085°C (1985°F). Under water, it would tarnish in a green tone after some time, but you'll be able to read the stamped words, or you can even clean and polish it to remove the copper rust.
Hand writing isn't a problem here. And you can tell your beloved ones, were to find it in worst case, and they will be able to read and access the coins and tokens.
Why no stainless steel? Well, after I made the first prototypes I made user tests. It turned out, that you would need to have an anvil, or a really hard and heavy base, a bigger hammer and more pricier punching letters, to get that done. And that's nothing "everyone can use". So I needed to find another material. Copper did the trick.
In the first set, you'll get the Phrasekeeper itself, consisting of two copper plates, one with a table of 24 rows and one as a visual cover, both are hold together with stainless steel screws. One punching letter set. And a steel base plate, to protect your Phrasekeeper plate from bending while you stamp your passphrase into it. You only need a hammer (we recommend a 300g - 500g version).
This product is super new. A few days ago I got my first five final prototypes and pitched them at some crypto meetups.
Next step is to make a kickstarter campaign and take a look if someone is interested in this. I also attend to local crypto meetups around were I live in Essen, Germay, to pitch the product and let people test-hammer the thing.
I would like to hear your opinion about the Phrasekeeper. What do you think?
It would be great if you could also give those social media pages a like and support the kickstarter campaign, as soon as it has started (I want to start in October 2018).
Thanks for your time!
Martin
twitter.com/attackemartin
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