Whenever anyone is first introduced to the world of crypto, they first start off by making an account in central exchanges. We store our money in central exchanges just like we deposit money in a bank. However, the money you store with central exchanges are technically not under your own custody but their custody. We often rephrase this in a single sentence: Not your keys, not your coins.
So, how do we actually bring our coins under our custody? If you are familiar with the decentralized finance ecosystem, you already know the answer to this. You make your own wallet and store your assets in them. But having your own wallet comes with a responsibility that you need to know the password for your own wallet. This password is the one and only key to your wallet and it gives you access to your own wallet from anywhere around the world where there is internet access.
Let’s talk about the Ethereum addresses. Typically metamask wallets have 12 mnemonic words as password phrase while cold wallets such as ledger have 24 mnemonic words. There are several options to store these safely:
- Danger — Take a picture of your phrase: Plz don’t post it on twitter
- Warning — store in a secure digital memo: Face ID is a must on your phone
- Safe — Write it down on a paper, hide it somewhere: But papers do burn
- God — Memorize it in your head: Trust your brain, right?
So we’ve looked at all these options. Besides the dangerous options, they seem decent enough. However, we always need back ups. It’s never a bad choice to be extra prepared. Especially when you financial freedom is at stake.
Thus, based on my experience using the “Cash Box”, I recommend this to the ones who want to store their passphrase extra safely. The major perks I personally think makes it valuable:
- It’s made of brass: Doesn’t burn, break, rip, fly away like paper
- It’s DIY: you don’t need to tell your password to anyone to make it.
- Pretty legit design: the right gift to those entering crypto.
- Breakthrough of what I had to do: DIY
All the materials and tools come with the package besides the hammer. You need a hammer. Hammer’s 10 bucks on amazon. Everything else is in the package.
i) Translate your passphrase into numbers using BIP 39
There are total 2048 mnemonic words to be chosen from and in alphabetical order there is a number put to all the 2048 words from 0001–2048. You can use the little booklet in the package or use the link below. So basically we are gonna be carving the numbers on to the brass cube to store our passphrase.
ii) Recheck your numbers if they translate back to the pass phrase
Double checking is ALWAYS important. And check the cube, retainer, and the rods that will be used to code the numbers on to your cube.
iii) Carve the numbers on to your cube
Using your hammer, retainer and the rods with the right numbers, carve your passphrase onto the cube. Be careful not to be wrong as it is hard to make changes to numbers once you carve them. And watch your hand, too.
iv) It’s all done!
Store your “Cash Box” in a safe place and it’s all done.
2. Overall impression
The product is pretty neat and it serves its purpose pretty well. Also, the DIY process isn’t too hard at all. It takes half an hour to about an hour to finish your job. It’s better than risking to give your password to someone to make it for you. Always remember: Not your keys, not your coins.
