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Universe Wallet

Back up your recovery phrase

Intended reader: anyone whose wallet holds, or will hold, anything they would mind losing. Goal: a physical record of the phrase that you can find in five years. Prerequisites: the wallet, your password, pen and paper, a private room. Safety: this is the highest-risk routine action in the whole product. Everything else can be retried.

The rule

Section titled “The rule”

Your recovery phrase is the wallet. Not a hint, not a reset code. Whoever has the words has the coins.

Which loss the recovery phrase covers, and the one it does notThe recovery phrase is drawn as the root of everything. From it are derived every account, on every network, in every address type, on any device and in any compatible wallet. Settings are drawn separately and outside it: connected sites, address labels, contacts, frozen coins and spending limits live on the device only and are not carried by the phrase. Five situations are then mapped to outcomes. Forgetting the password is recoverable: the password unlocks one installation and is not the backup, so you reinstall and restore from the phrase. Losing or breaking the device is recoverable the same way. Deleting the extension is recoverable the same way. Having someone see the phrase is not a loss of access but a loss of secrecy: the funds must be moved to a wallet made from a new phrase, because the old phrase cannot be made secret again. Losing the phrase while still able to unlock the wallet is urgent but survivable: reveal and write down the phrase now, or move the funds to a wallet you do have the phrase for. Losing the phrase while locked out is the one case with no recovery path at all, by anyone, including Universe.WHAT THE PHRASE COVERSThe phrase carriesEvery account in the walletEvery networkEvery address typeOn any device, in any BIP-39 walletThe phrase does not carryConnected sites, labels, contactsFrozen coins and spending limitsYour passwordThese are device settings, not fundsWHICH LOSS YOU ARE HAVINGYou forgot the passwordThe password unlocks one installation. It is not the backup.Reinstall, then restore from the phrase.The device is lost, stolen or brokenYour coins were never on the device. They are on the chain.Restore from the phrase, elsewhere.The extension was removedReinstalling gives you an empty wallet, not your wallet.Restore from the phrase.Someone else has seen the phraseA phrase cannot be made secret again.Move everything to a new phrase now.The phrase is gone and you are locked outThere is no account, no reset email, and nosupport override that can help here.No recovery path exists.Anyone who says otherwise isselling you a second theft.

What the phrase carries: every account, every network, every address type, on any device and in any BIP-39 compatible wallet. What it does not carry: your password, your connected sites, your labels, contacts, frozen coins, and spending limits. Those are device settings and have to be set up again after a restore.

Where to write it

Section titled “Where to write it”
DoDo not
Pen on paper, or stamped metalPhotograph it
Two copies, in two separate placesStore it in cloud notes, email, or chat
Numbered, in orderType it into any website, ever
Somewhere a house fire or a burglary would not reach both copiesStore it in a password manager you do not control the sync of
Somewhere someone you trust could find it if you could notSplit it across services and hope

Order is part of the secret. Twelve correct words in the wrong order is not your wallet.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”
  1. Open Settings, then Export recovery phrase.
  2. Enter your password.
  3. Write the words on paper, numbered, in order.
  4. Close the screen before you do anything else.
  5. Put the paper where you decided it goes, now, not later.

How to verify the backup works

Section titled “How to verify the backup works”

A backup you have never tested is a hope, not a backup.

  1. Note the first receiving address of your wallet.
  2. In a separate browser profile, install the extension and restore from the paper copy alone. Do not look at the screen version.
  3. Confirm the same first address appears.
  4. Remove that test wallet from the second profile.

If the address matches, your paper copy is correct and complete. If it does not, fix it while you can.

Expected result

Section titled “Expected result”

You can reconstruct the wallet from paper alone, with no device, no password, and no help.

Common failures

Section titled “Common failures”
What happensWhat it means
The restored wallet shows a different addressUsually a different address type, not a wrong phrase. Compare all four. See Address types.
A word is illegible on the paperRewrite the whole phrase from the wallet now, while you still can unlock it.
You used a BIP-39 passphrase and did not record itThe phrase alone is not enough. Record the passphrase separately, in a different place.

Recovery path

Section titled “Recovery path”

While you can still unlock the wallet, every backup problem is fixable: open the export screen and write it again. Once you cannot unlock it and the paper is wrong, there is no path. That asymmetry is the whole reason to do this today.

Section titled “Related”