Washers are better than metal plates (Reddit Bitcoin)

I used to engrave my word seeds into metal plates (image 1). But I recently convinced myself that washers are securer than metal plates, and cheaper.

As you can see in image 1, discarding metal plates is difficult. I know you are throwing them away because you don’t need them anymore but it’s still safe to scratch your words in the plate not to get traced. That takes a lot of time, lots of hammering.

Second drawback is, if you prefer splitting your word seed into a few for storing in different locations, you cannot do it with plates. Or you’ll have to buy several plates which is costly.

Not only they are cheaper, but I found washers are superior than plates.

You engrave each word and its number on a washer (image 2), so you engrave & store the 12-24 washers with a nut and bolt (image 3)

Here are the reasons why washers are great:

1. It’s easier to discard than a metal plate:

As you hold bitcoin for a long time, there’s a chance you move your bitcoin to another wallet for better security, compromised, etc. you can throw away one washer at a time in several locations for months, so it’s hard for someone to collect the washers again.

1. You can engrave any letters, numbers, symbols:

Most metal plates in the market are meant to store only word seeds but not passphrase. But with washers, you can engrave anything you want. So I also store my passphrase on washers.

1. Washers are easier to hide than metal plates:

Some people don’t want to store all of their word seed in one place, so they store some of them in hidden places like inside of sugar in the kitchen or in a flower pot. I found washers are easy to hide than bulky rectangular metal plates.

1. Dirt cheap:

Simply go to a HomeDepot and buy those. You could make like 5 wallets with $10.

1. Less chance of being a target due to hack:

If you buy a crypto metal plate online, there’s a chance your name & contact to be exposed due to hacking (like Ledger & Trezor incidents). If you simply buy washes, you don’t become a target.

1. (My pure guess) Securer to go through TSA:

A metal plate is flat and you engrave words on the same surface. I think this is easier to see in the security machine than washers stacked together. If you don’t feel safe, you can break them down into several pieces and store them in a backpack, suitcase, etc.

Here is a great instruction of instructions of making cold wallets with washers by Blockmit