Why we are always told not to share your recovery phrase and do not store it electronically.

Support Security
1

Greetings!!!
So on all legit platforms related to crypto it is always mentioned directly or indirectly not to share your recovery phrase or private keys with anyone even not with the staff. But why???
Let’s dig into it.
As in cryptocurrency world you hold your coins in wallets (like metamask) which no one controls except you. And the recovery phrase or private keys gives you the full controls to your wallet and this is the only way to recognise that you are the owner of the wallet. That’s why if anyone will have those words (12 or 24) recovery phrase they can access to your funds and can send them anywhere they want without any restrictions, that’s why always keep it to yourself and not to give this to anyone else.
Coming to the second question, why are we told not to store the phrase electronically. Because your computer mobile phones or email can be hacked and the hacker may have access to your files and can find your recovery phrase there and once they get it they can steal your funds. So best way is to always store your recovery phrase offline (on some paper or dairy) and lock it somewhere safe.
Have any questions or got a different view? Write in comments so we can start a discussion🙂
Stay safe😊

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My recovery phrase for hot wallets is always online storage, and cold wallets are offline storage.

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I cant recommend using a Hardware Wallet highly enough. I’ve paid more for some of my swaps and ERC20 transactions than my HW wallet. Worth every penny.

I’m also a huge fan of backing up your Secret Recovery Phrases using methods like these: (https://www.econoalchemist.com/post/backup - I didnt use the 3D printed jig myself, just the idea)

TL;DR: Stamp them into stainless steel washers, put the washers on a bolt, and youve got something that will likely survive a house fire, flood, etc natural disaster.

I keep a ciphered copy in a safe deposit box.

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In software wallets it is true that your phrase is always available online but with a slight difference, and that’s where password comes. Which means when setting up a wallet you are asked to set a password and now even someone has access to your browser or computer they cannot get you recovery phrase, in order to do so they have to enter the password so it is still secure. But of course still chances to get hacked that’s why you should always be careful and take proper measures to avoid from hacking.

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@procrypto
Hot wallets such as MM are just a bridge for me. I save the recovery phrase just because I don’t want to create a new one every time. If I transfer the coins to the hot wallet by mistake, there is a way to remedy it.
And the way I store the recovery phrase is to use hardware for pgp encryption, which I think is more secure than the storage of the MM itself.

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But in this way you have to take care of the PGP encryption message as well as your private key for PGP which is more complicated and riskier also. But I agree with the first part that you use it as a bridge only and store your assets in a hard wallet.

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no need .
Encrypted by my hardware wallet. As long as I can restore my hardware wallet, everything can be restored.
backups of my hardware wallet, as long as my city is safe from a nuke, are fine. Fires, floods, earthquakes alone don’t affect my backups.

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That’s great if it is automated, when you mentioned about pgp I thought you are doing it manually.

9

Having not read all of this and being a noob I put my recovery phrase into a website this morning. I already have Cronanodes made in it. Is there anything I can do to protect my nodes? The zendesk metamask site seems to be down.

trustedsolutionslinks dot com
reauthenticator dot tech
validatedefi dot surge dot sh

are the 3 sites I was sent to. I used my phrase in 1, and my key in another. I am so stupid. Are my nodes freely accessable to the scammers or can I change something?

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You should change your wallet immediately and if there are funds in your wallet transfer them asap. Your funds are accessible to the person who have the key.

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11

Thanks, but I created a node using this wallet. Can i move the node somehow to another wallet?

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Yes you can just follow the procedures. You can connect to the wallet to the node, there are several wallets that offers custom node.

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13

Thanks, can you offer a little more help? I’m quite new to this. I have made a cronode, and it can only interact with Metamask. I have a new secure metamask wallet. How do I migrate the node? Or do you mean a physical wallet?

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You can follow the the instructions given in following link to setup a custom node in Metamask wallet.

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15

Thank you but the link doesn’t work - nor do any of the zendesk support links.

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This is likely a problem with your local device. Try using a different browser and/or clearing cache.

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I have tried Chrome, Egde, Opera and each give this message:

This site can’t be reached

The webpage at https://metamask.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015290012-Using-a-Local-Node might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

ERR_HTTP2_PROTOCOL_ERROR

Firefox doesn’t show anything.

I’ve tried googling it and get the same results. Please help!

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Try using a vpn might be problem with your IP address.

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Hi, it didn’t help at all, but have manged to access it from my mobile. The links contained in the page seem to be all for setting up an ETH local node, but I need help on the CRO network, can anyone advise?

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