I just can’t say enough about this tutorial from
@ForrestHODL.
It’s rare that I learn something new about Bitcoin self custody that I haven’t already tried and employed to some degree. But this is a real game changer for the security and portability of the asset that I didn’t even know about two weeks ago. I mean this literally gives you the ability to go through any security checkpoint or temporarily sweep funds to an alternate location, knowing that, if you can get access to a laptop/desktop and an internet connection on the other side, you can transport and maintain control over an unlimited amount of wealth in your head, without having to memorize a properly ordered sequence of 12 or 24 words. All you need to do is remember a shape on a grid, and one word. Easy.
You no longer have to worry if your uninitialized signing device, phone or laptop get confiscated or stolen at the border, or have to risk physically transporting your primary seed phrases, (even if they are microstamped on tiny stainless and nylon washers and sewn into your clothing and luggage). Border wallets abstract away the need to ever store or transport your primary seeds in an insecure way, and in doing so give you the freedom to store and transport the access instructions and seed precursors in plain sight (on multiple online and physical locations for redundancy), and safely restore access to funds at your destination.
If you have the luxury of being in a situation where you ARE able to travel with your phone, laptop, and an uninitialized signing device, even better. But if you aren’t, and you are literally in the trunk of a vehicle with only the clothes on your back, you can access any funds that you send to these addresses prior to your departure. You can wipe every piece of wallet and transaction software off your phone and laptop before you travel. If you are smart and have thought ahead about your installed apps, media, general password management and recovery scheme for your online accounts and socials, your phone and your laptop can be made to look REALLY boring prior to travel. Anything that matters can be stored in a way that you can access later, without it mattering one bit if it falls into the wrong hands.
As far as BTC goes, with the border wallet method, you can even use the seed precursors as the legitimate seed for a decoy or duress wallet, with a couple hundred bucks worth of BTC on it. The possibilities are endless. In fact, the border wallet method could be adapted to ANY BIP39 key storage requirement. It is genius.
One word of caution, border wallets are software wallets. So while they are good for temporary storage to get you to your destination, you will want to have a plan to move coins into addresses protected by an air-gapped signer soon after, once you are safe.
Anyway, watch the tutorial and zap the shit out of
@ForrestHODL for it.
Play around with this. Create and delete a border wallet. Restore it. Record some addresses before and after deleting the wallet. Check the addresses again. Send $5 to your test border wallet, and prove to yourself that your restoration process works, if you want to see it in action. Establish a couple border wallets and record a couple of their addresses somewhere so you can move funds to them with almost no notice in an emergency.
PS one little trick to even further obscure the fact that your precursor word grid (a pdf file) has anything to do with BTC, is to simply change the file extension to another common one. If anyone gets access to it and double clicks on it, it’s gibberish. Just remember the proper file extension when you go to use it and change it back.
Another idea for storing seed precursor info like your grid, your precursor seed and your code-written unlocking secret is to email them to yourself in a couple inoccuously titled emails that get archived in your webmail. Open up your webmail when you get access to a computer at your destination, and there it is. Properly worded, these emails can be made to look like nothing interesting at all. Install Sparrow and restore with that info in minutes, along with an easy to remember shape, and one word. Thanks Forrest. And thanks to
@craigraw
#grownostr
