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Bitcoin Brain Wallet – Not Recommended for Most Users, Perfect for Some
A Bitcoin Brain Wallet relies on your ability to create and remember a passphrase for your coins. This method of storing Bitcoin is very secure because there are no attack vectors that a hacker can use to pry the information from your head. However, there are some concerns with leaving your Bitcoin savings up to memory. Here’s what you need to consider before you make a Bitcoin Brain Wallet.
There is nothing new about the concept of storing Bitcoins in your mind by memorizing a seed phrase. This style of Bitcoin storage, if used correctly, is one of the safest. You trade all of the online threats your crypto faces in for mental risks. No hacker can get inside of your brain and extract the information from a distance. It is worth mentioning that the information could be given up voluntarily if you are tricked or, even worse, coerced in other ways to reveal your phrase.
Benefits of the Bitcoin Brain Wallet
There are some significant benefits you can obtain if you master the art of Bitcoin brain wallets. Primarily, it’s very secure. You eliminate all online attack vectors. Alongside your phrase creation process, there needs to be a strong focus on discretion. Your Bitcoin brain wallet is like any other wallet in that if thieves know there’s a treasure to be had, they will attempt to extract it. Sadly, extracting Bitcoin brain wallet info usually includes physical abuse, including torture.
For these reasons, brain wallet users must remain vigilant in their discretionary tactics. For example, you should employ Bitcoin mixing protocols to obfuscate your transfers and wallet address. Ideally, no one will ever know you’re walking around with a Bitcoin fortune in your head.
How Does a Bitcoin Brain Wallet Work?
Brain wallets are free and secure. They involve no physical or digital record of the phrase at all. Notably, most people lack the mental fortitude to directly remember a Bitcoin address, including public and private keys. Thankfully, some platforms simplify the process by allowing you to convert your passphrase into a sentence.
The key to this strategy is to think of a strong phrase. Then it would help if you scrambled it up with deliberate misspellings. The smartest way to do this is to substitute some letters for visually similar numbers or symbols. In this way, you can make a simple sentence into a very secure phrase.
Brain Wallet Passphrase Creators
The brain wallet strategy has proven to be a less common one employed by users over the years due to the increased risk of loss due to forgetting your phrase. This storage style has recently begun to make a comeback thanks to introducing more brain wallet phrase generators. These platforms help users to create a passphrase that’s easy to recall but difficult to crack.
Investors interested in this strategy have some options. There are many brain wallet phrase generators in the market today that are well known for their security. Platforms such as brainwalletx.github.io operate as a client-side Bitcoin phrase creator to keep you safe. Your phrase numbers calculate from your passphrase. This strategy allows you to reconstruct your SHA 256 digest or the original private key securely.
BrainWallet.io is another popular option in the market today. This platform features a deterministic Bitcoin and Litecoin brain wallet phrase generator. New users don’t need to have any prior technical understanding to navigate the network. You can set up a new brain wallet in minutes using the protocol.
Keeping Track of multiple Bitcoin Brain Wallets
If you are like most crypto holders, you probably own more than one cryptocurrency wallet. There are multiple reasons to hold various Bitcoin wallets. For example, you may use one wallet for sending and one for receiving. In this way, you can keep the value of your holdings a mystery.
In a standard wallet scenario, it’s nothing to operate multiple wallets at the same time. In the Bitcoin brain wallet arena, this requires a bit of a unique approach. In many cases, experienced investors will add a suffix or prefix to each account phrase to distinguish the two. This strategy is smart because it makes it simple to remember all of your accounts.
This strategy has another powerful use. It can come in handy if you ever need an escape route. For example, if you ever find yourself in the unsavory position of being held hostage for your crypto holdings, a private wallet address is priceless. History has shown that thieves have no qualms about causing physical harm to Bitcoin holders when extracting wallet information.
With a secondary wallet address, you can place a smaller amount of holdings in the account and use it to appease the attackers. This strategy can keep you from enduring any physical harm. Ledger hardware wallet users commonly use this technique as the device supports a stealth screen feature to hide your dedicated wallet.
History of the Brain Wallets
Bitcoin brain wallets are as old as Bitcoin itself. These wallets were less common in the early days because Bitcoin didn’t hold as much value today. However, there have always been significant investors who foresaw Bitcoin’s rise to greatness and decided it was best to keep their fortunes mental. Sadly, not all of these strategists had their plans play out as they intended.
Forgotten Key Risks
One of the most publicized incidents of a Bitcoin brain wallet failure occurred in November 2019. A Reddit user posted on the forum to vent his anger at what he felt was a faulty Bitcoin brain wallet seed. According to the user, he had safely stored his Bitcoin utilizing a brain wallet passphrase. However, he stated that he could not open his wallet when he attempted to again years later. Sadly, the user claimed the wallet held 1,800 BTC that had been gathered since 2016.
Almost immediately, the claim that the passphrase was not working came under scrutiny from the community. Many noted that the user probably forgot what words or phrases he altered during the wallet creation to make his written down version different from the original. Unfortunately, the market will never know what happened in this incident as the users vanished after people began to question their claims.
Bitcoin Brain Wallets – Only for the Best and Brightest
The concept of memorizing a passphrase to secure all of your Bitcoin holdings is not appealing to most people. The typical person has problems remembering their iTunes password, let alone a long, coded passphrase.
However, if you live in an area where you feel that Bitcoin users could be targeted in the future, a Brain Wallet will allow you to secure holdings without any evidence. For these reasons, Bitcoin brain wallets are always going to have a home in the market.