Back up your funds with a recovery seed (2024)

Keep your recovery seed safe for the long-term security of your digital assets.

Do notshare your recovery seed with anyone else.
Do notkeep digital copies of your recovery seed (this includes screenshots, photographs, emails, Dropbox backup etc).
We will never ask you to tell us your recovery seed, even if you're speaking with one of our customer support agents.
Never enteryour recovery seed anywhere unless prompted by your Trezordevice.

What is a recovery seed?

• Yourrecovery seedmay also be referred to as a:seed,seed phrase, mnemonic, recovery phrase, BIP-39 seed phrase(plus various combinations of these words)
• It is an ordered list of English words thatcontains all information necessary for recovering your wallet(i.e., accessing bitcoin or other cryptocurrency fundson-chain)
• A recovery seed providesfull access to the associated wallet (theprivate keyis mathematically derived from the seed)—this is why you must keep it safe

Recovery seeds were introduced as part ofBitcoin Improvement Proposal 39(commonly referred to as'BIP-39') to serve as a human-friendly method for backing up your wallet.

Your recovery seed is a 'plain English' representation of a random number, from which all of your keys and addresses are mathematically derived.

• Your recovery seed is an ordered sequence of:
  • 12 or 24 words for wallets using the BIP39 protocol, chosen fromthis listof 2048 words
  • 20 words for wallets using the SLIP39 protocol, chosen from this list of 1024 words
• When you backup your seed, the words must be copied down in the same order they appear
• It isvery importantthat you keep your recovery seedprivate and safe,so that your cryptocurrency is never at risk
• Having a safe backup of your recovery seed means you can recover your Bitcoin in case of hardware failure or the loss of your device

Your Trezor derives your private key from your recovery seed, which can then be used to spend your Bitcoin.

We will never ask for your recovery seed!
Scammers,perhaps posing as Trezor support team members on social media and chat forums,will try to persuade you to share your seed
Please also be aware of increasingly sophisticatedphishing attacks (usually in the form offake websites or emailsthat often appear legitimate) that aim to steal your security info (recover seed, PIN, passphraseetc)

Recording & storing your recovery seed

The physical security of your recovery seed is even more important than that of your device.

Your Trezor hardware wallet ships with a pair ofrecovery seed cardsthat you should use for writing down the recovery seed when you backup your device - this is astrongly recommendedstep when setting up your Trezor.

You can download additional copies of Trezor recovery seed cards from the Recovery seed card article.

You can also protect your seed with the Trezor Keep Metal, foran easy-to-use robust backup solution, tailor-made to store your recovery seed securely.

If your Trezor is lost or stolen, it is highly unlikely someone would be able to access it without your PIN. However, if someone steals your recovery seed, your coins can be accessed easily using a different device or wallet.

When backing up your device, you should:

• Make sure you have all of the words correctly spelled and in the correctorder
• Never make a digital copy of your recovery seed cards (this includes backing up via Dropbox, e-mail, encrypted folder, or taking photos)
• Keep your recovery seed cards safe from theft and damage