A mnemonic phrase backup steel wallet is a durable way to store your recovery phrase or private keys offline. Backup steel are often plates, pins or in other forms and are made of fire-resistant and waterproof materials like stainless steel or titanium. They protect your private keys from damage caused by fire, water, or physical wear and tear.

Paper backups are very fragile in the face of fire, water, or decay over time. This makes paper not secure over long periods of time to store your seed phrase backup on. Paper causes unneeded risk in self-custody. Steel wallets offer long-term durability and can withstand extreme conditions like house fires and floods, which makes surethat your mnemonic phrase remains intact in any scenario.

Steel wallets typically use engraved plates, stamped letters, or slide-in tiles to record your mnemonic seed phrase. These designs ensure that even under high temperatures or impact, the information remains readable and secure. Most often they literally save the first 4 letters of your 24 words. But there are also other innovative solutions like the OneKey KeyTag Wallet, which is a steel QR-code with which you can recover your crypto assets using the Onekey Chrome extention, Android or iOS app. The NGRAVE Graphene Wallet is also secured against a malicious actor who steels this type of steel backup as the Graphene wallet stores the encrypted form on the steel plate instead of the plain words. As you see there are many options available in different shapes and sizes, but also with different strategies to keep your seed phrase protected against bad actors.

Yes, steel wallets store mnemonic seed phrases, which are used universally across wallets for all cryptocurrencies. Whether you’re storing Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other asset, a steel wallet secures your private keys effectively.

Look for features like fire and water resistance, tamper-proof designs, and ease of use when recording your seed phrase. Consider trusted brands and ensure the wallet can withstand high temperatures and physical impacts for maximum security. We recommend to store steel backups in a hidden, locked and secure place. A safe is not a bad idea. Another way would be to get an encrypted steel backup like the NGRAVE Graphene Wallet if you do not have a safe or any other protected place available, as the encrypted format makes the steel plate useless to bad actors and you would have moved your assets to another private key before they will be able to crack the encryption.