Instruction SOLIDHODL

SOLIDHODL Instructions

This article explains how to safely secure your 12, 18, 20, or 24-word recovery seed phrase using a SOLIDHODL.

What is a SOLIDHODL?

With a SOLIDHODL, you store your recovery seed in stainless steel. On each SOLIDHODL plate, you can punch the first 4 letters of 24 words, and you also have the option to give the plate an 8-character name for administrative purposes.

Why only 4 letters per word?

Every word in your recovery seed comes from the BIP39 wordlist, which consists of 2048 words. A word may appear multiple times in your recovery seed, but every word on the BIP39 list has unique first 4 letters. Because of this, you only need to store the first 4 letters of each word.

Video instructions

Watch our video guides. Tip: you can enable automatic subtitles in your preferred language via the YouTube player settings.

Prefer text and photos? Scroll down further.

Recommended

Dutch video

Most comprehensive guide with all details.

English

English video

Short visual guide.

Tips before you begin

• Use a stable, non-slip, and flat surface.
• Make sure you are in a location free from distractions or other people.

Step-by-step guide

1

Prepare plate & sleeve

Place your own (written) recovery seed phrase next to the empty SOLIDHODL plate.

Then slide the sleeve over the plate, with the open side visible on the front of the plate. Slide the sleeve opening to 'column 1'.

2

Punching the first word

Always double-check where you are punching the dots. Once you press a dot into the SOLIDHODL plate, it cannot be undone.

Punch the first four letters of word #1 in column #1. If the word consists of only three letters, punch the first three. If the word has exactly four letters, punch all four.

Inside each column are four sub-columns. The first letter goes in the first sub-column, the second letter in the second, the third letter in the third, and the fourth letter in the fourth sub-column.

Tip: Hold the puncher pen with both hands while punching. It works best to hold the pen with one hand and place your other hand on top so you can apply pressure more easily.

3

On to word 2

Slide the opening of the sleeve to 'column 2' and punch the first four letters of 'word 2' in 'column 2'.

5

Naming the plate (optional)

Do you have more than one plate? You can use the last column on each side to give your SOLIDHODL plate a name. Very handy for administrative purposes. In total, you have room for eight characters.

Important next steps

We recommend taking the following steps after setup:

Test your backups
This means resetting your wallet and restoring it using your SOLIDHODL plate. This way, you are 100% sure the recovery seed phrase is correctly punched onto the SOLIDHODL plate. Only do this if you are 100% sure that the paper recovery seed phrase you originally wrote down is accurate. Some hardware wallets allow you to test your backup without resetting the wallet.

Take personal responsibility
If a SOLIDHODL plate is your only backup, realize that you could lose access to your crypto if you lose the plate. Think carefully about where you store your backup and whether you want to keep multiple backups in different locations.

Destroy paper version
Want to dispose of the paper version of your recovery seed backup? Safely burn it instead of putting it in regular paper recycling.

Maximum security for your crypto?

Store your recovery seed in a second location for extra safety, or order an additional expansion plate.