A 12 or 24-word recovery seed is the key to your cryptocurrency wallet. That’s why, upon creating it, you’re prompted to write it down and store it in a safe place. But what if you didn’t have to write it down? What if there was a virtually failsafe means of committing those words to memory, enabling you to recall them at a moment’s notice? As it happens, there is. It’s called a memory palace and, with a little practice, it provides an effective means of developing an unforgettable wallet seed.
Build a Memory Palace and Lock Your Crypto Away from Fire and Thieves
In his 2011 book “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything”, Joshua Foer details the astonishing exploits of “mental athletes”. The author embarks on a year-long quest to improve his memory with the help of professionals, the best of whom can memorize a deck of cards in under 30 seconds. The secret to the feat is the construction of a ‘memory palace’, a visual technique that was practiced by the Ancient Greeks and Romans. This mnemonic method calls for creating “an imaginary location in your mind where you can store images. The most common type of memory palace involves making a journey through a place you know well, like a building or town. Along that journey there are specific locations that you always visit in the same order.”
The technique can be used to memorize extremely long numbers and phrases. In 2005, Lu Chao, for example, recited pi to 67,890 places. Memorizing a 12 or 24-word seed, in comparison, should be child’s play, and it doesn’t call for incredible mental athleticism. Even if you’re the sort of person who struggles to recall where you left your keys and constantly forgets birthdays, committing a dozen words to memory should be within your grasp thanks to the highly visual technique involved.