Back up your seed
Your 25 words are your wallet. Write them down once, keep the paper safe, and a broken or stolen computer can never cost you your coins.
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
Write each word next to its number, in the same order the wallet shows them. Some seeds repeat a word, and that's normal.
Where to find your seed
The wallet shows your 25 words when you create it. To see them again, open Settings > Wallet > Show seed & keys and enter your password.
How to keep it safe
- Write it on paper. Not in a photo, a screenshot, an email, a notes app or a cloud drive.
- Make two copies and keep them in two different places, away from fire and water.
- Keep it private. Anyone who reads it can take your coins, and there's nobody to reverse that.
- Never type it into a website, a form or a chat. You only ever enter it in your own COIN Wallet, to restore it.
Check your backup works
Before you keep a lot of coins in a wallet, restore it from the paper on another computer, or as a second wallet on this one. If the restored wallet shows the same address, your backup is good.
Seed or password?
Your password only unlocks the wallet file on one computer. Your seed rebuilds the whole wallet anywhere. Forget the password and you can restore from the seed. Lose the seed and the wallet file is the only copy left.
Advanced: passphrases and the command line
Seed offset passphrase
When restoring, the wallet accepts an optional seed offset passphrase. The same 25 words with a different passphrase open a completely different wallet. If you use one, you need both the words and the passphrase to get your coins back, so back up the passphrase too.
Command-line wallet
> seedShows your 25 words after asking for your password.
> restore_heightShows the block height your wallet starts scanning from.