Sia Docs
GithubDiscordYouTubeBlogsRedditForum
Legacy
Legacy
  • Welcome to Sia!
  • Get Started with Sia
    • Introduction to these docs
    • Sia 101
    • What are Siacoins?
    • How to buy Siacoins
    • What is the Siacoin total supply?
  • Your Sia Wallet
    • Wallet overview
    • The importance of your seed
    • How to make a Sia address
    • How to send Siacoins
    • How do I change my Sia wallet password?
    • Back up your Sia wallet
    • Wallet troubleshooting
      • Delete your seed and make a new one
      • Find or fix your seed
      • I lost my seed. What do I do?
      • My deposit or withdrawal didn't go through
      • Why does Sia take so long to sync?
      • What are these deductions in my wallet?
      • Why does Sia-UI give me a new address each time I click Receive Siacoin?
    • Sia-UI FAQs
      • How to download and install Sia-UI
      • How to make a new wallet in Sia-UI
      • How to restore a wallet from a seed in Sia-UI
      • How to perform a clean install in Sia-UI
      • How do I uninstall Sia-UI?
    • For Advanced Users
      • Verify the Sia release signature
      • Using Sia on a remote node
      • Using Sia on multiple computers
      • How to bootstrap the Sia blockchain
      • How to automatically restart and unlock Sia
      • How to set an environment variable
    • 🚧walletd
      • Wallet overview
  • Renting
    • About renting on Sia
    • Managing your files
    • How to rent storage on Sia
    • How to back up and restore your files
    • Renter troubleshooting
    • Is my data secure?
    • 🚧renterd
      • About renting on Sia
      • renterd Workshop
  • Hosting
    • About hosting on Sia
    • Hosting with the Sia-UI GUI
    • Hosting with the siad CLI on Linux
    • Hosting FAQ
    • 🚧hostd
      • About hosting on Sia
      • Setup Guides
        • Linux
        • macOS
        • Windows
      • Dynamic DNS
        • DuckDNS
        • Cloudflare (Advanced)
  • Mining
    • About mining on Sia
    • Sia mining pools
  • Contributing
    • How can I contribute to Sia?
    • Where can I learn more about Sia?
  • Siafunds
    • What are Siafunds?
    • How do I buy Siafunds?
    • How to cash out Siafunds
    • SEC Settlement FAQ
  • Sia Integrations
    • Listing Siacoin on your exchange
    • Using the Sia Ledger app with Sia Central
    • Using the Sia Ledger Nano app with CLI
    • Brand guidelines for Sia in your project or site
  • Testnet
    • What is Zen?
  • Forks
    • Using the wrong chain after a fork
    • Navigating the 2021 Sia hardfork
    • So, you didn't update in time for the fork
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Your Sia seed is your key
  • About the Sia seed
  • Backing up your Sia wallet
  • Physically Safe
  • Digitally Safe
  • It's time to strategize
  • That's it

Was this helpful?

Edit on GitHub
  1. Your Sia Wallet

Back up your Sia wallet

Keeping your digital assets safe is something you need to put thought into. Whether those digital assets are precious family photos or keys to your cryptocurrency wallets, you should store copies in multiple secure locations.

This article will provide an overview of what you need to save in order to backup your Siacoin wallet, and provide some suggestions on how to go about doing it.

Your Sia seed is your key

When you first create your wallet in Sia, you are presented with your Sia seed – a long string of words. This string of words must be stored safely.

About the Sia seed

  • It’s 29 words... most of the time. There's a small chance you'll get a 28-word seed.

  • It's generated when you first make your Siacoin wallet.

  • As long as you have a copy of your 29-word seed, you can recover your Siacoins and your uploaded files, as long as you've backed up your metadata. Learn how to load a wallet from a seed (WIP).

Backing up your Sia wallet

Because your seed is so important, you should have physical and digital methods of storing it safely.

  • Store it the same way it's given to you: all lower-case letters, with a space between each word.

  • Make sure there is no space at the beginning or end of the seed.

Physically Safe

Keep a laminated paper copy stored in a locked safe or a bank safe deposit box.

Digitally Safe

Keep your seed in a password or biometric (e.g. fingerprint) secured app like 1Password or LastPass.

It's time to strategize

There's an old saying about data.

Your data isn't safe unless it's backed up three different ways in three separate physical locations.

If there were a fire in your home, would your important things be safe? Even if you had the stuff you cared about backed up onto a hundred hard drives and printed out three copies of every photo you cared about – what would happen if your home flooded?

These are things to consider when creating a backup strategy for your digital necessities. And I don't use the word strategy lightly – keeping your data safe is a constant, evolving practice. Hard drives fail, drinks are spilled, electrical surges occur. Time moving forward, as it always will, increases the risk that your data will no longer be your data. When your last failsafe fails, you have entered into a data loss event. Make sure yours is minimized.

This attitude applies to more than just digital content, but that's a bit beyond the scope of this article. πŸ˜ƒ

That's it

Cryptocurrency assets should absolutely be considered when estate planning as well. If you're holding long term, make sure your Siacoin balance is factored into your will, and that the person who receives it will know how to retrieve and use it. They'll need a copy of your seed, and instructions on how to restore that seed into a wallet.

PreviousHow do I change my Sia wallet password?NextWallet troubleshooting

Last updated 1 year ago

Was this helpful?

Learn more about the .

importance of your seed