Wallet Safety 101: Daily Habits that Prevent Most Losses
Seed phrases, approvals, blind signing, device hygiene, and sane wallet architecture.
1) Seed Phrases & Backups
Your wallet’s seed phrase (12/24 words) is the master key to every account derived from it. If someone gets your seed, they can sweep all funds. no password reset, no customer support. Treat it like the combination to a vault.
- Back up offline. Write on paper or, even better, engrave/punch into a metal backup for fire/flood resistance. Never store in cloud notes, screenshots, email, or messaging apps.
- Two locations. Keep two copies in separate, secure places with different threat profiles (home safe + safety deposit box). Don’t label them “seed” or “crypto”.
- Never type the seed on a website. Seed generation and entry should happen only on a hardware wallet screen. If a site or “support agent” asks for your words, it’s a scam.
- Passphrase (25th word). Optional but powerful. It creates a separate, hidden wallet from the same seed. If you use it, either memorize it reliably or store it separately from the seed. Forgetting it means permanent loss.
- Recovery rehearsal. Test restoring a device with your seed (and passphrase, if used) before holding meaningful value. Confirm the first receiving address matches.
Threat model snapshot: Most losses come from phishing (seed capture), malicious approvals, or signing the wrong thing not from “being hacked by magic”. Build habits that block these three.
2) Wallet Architecture (Vault vs Daily)
Separate your crypto life into two roles: a vault that almost never touches the internet, and a daily wallet for routine dApp use. This limits blast radius if your browser session, extensions, or a dApp goes bad.
- Vault. Hardware wallet; long-term funds; used only on reputable apps; no experimental mints. Consider a passphrase for an extra layer, or multisig for higher amounts.
- Daily. Browser or mobile wallet with a small balance. Approvals limited to what you actually need. Refill from the vault when necessary; drain excess back to the vault.
- Network separation. Keep different accounts for different chains or risk tiers (e.g., one for mainnet blue-chips, another for new/untested chains).
- Address book / allowlist. Save trusted recipient addresses and common dApps as bookmarks. Don’t Google dApps; search ads are a common phishing vector.
- Two-man rule for large transfers. For big moves, require a second check: confirm the address on-device, compare with your address book, and reread the amount/chain.
Daily flow 1) Send small amount from vault → daily 2) Interact via daily (limited approvals, small balances) 3) Sweep unused funds back to vault 4) Periodically rotate daily address
3) Approvals & Blind Signing
On EVM chains, tokens use allowances (approvals) letting a contract move your tokens. Many scams trick users into granting unlimited approvals to malicious contracts, draining wallets later without additional prompts.
- Prefer finite allowances. When possible, approve only the needed amount instead of “unlimited”. If the UI forces unlimited, consider using a different interface or an aggregator that lets you edit allowance.
- Review and revoke. Periodically check allowances and revoke unused approvals. Do this especially after trying new dApps or mints.
- Permit & off-chain signatures. Some tokens support “permit” (gasless approvals). Treat these like on-chain approvals; they can authorize spending without a transaction fee, great UX, but equally risky if misused.
Blind signing means your wallet can’t show a human-readable summary of what you’re signing (common with unknown chains or complex contracts). This is dangerous.
- Prefer structured data. Use wallets that display clear EIP-712 (typed data) summaries or parse contract calls (token, amount, spender, chain).
- Simulate before signing. Good wallets/routers simulate the transaction outcome. If a simulation shows funds leaving to an unexpected address or “transferFrom” to a suspicious contract, cancel.
- Red flags. “Signature to verify your wallet”, rushed mints, fake airdrops, “support” DMs, or popups requesting seed phrases. None of these are normal.
Quick approval checklist: Who is the spender? What token and amount? Can I cap the allowance? Do I recognize the contract and domain? Did I open this site from my own bookmark?
4) Device & Browser Hygiene
Most “hacks” start with basic hygiene failures: fake extensions, poisoned search ads, or malware that swaps clipboard addresses. Lock down your environment once and you’ll avoid 80% of pitfalls.
- Dedicated browser profile. Use a separate profile for crypto. Minimal extensions: your wallet, a password manager, and perhaps a reputable ad/script blocker. Remove everything else.
- Bookmarks, not searches. Bookmark dApps you actually use. Navigate from your bookmarks or the project’s official docs; ignore search ads and random links.
- Updates. Keep OS, browser, and wallet firmware up to date. Update from official sources only.
- Clipboard vigilance. After pasting an address, compare first/last 6–8 characters with your expected address. Address-swapping malware is common.
- RPC & chain ID sanity. Add networks using official instructions. Mismatched chain IDs can route transactions to malicious forks or fake explorers.
- Cold vs. hot. Sign sensitive transactions on a hardware wallet and verify details on its screen. Keep your hardware device disconnected when not in use.
- Phishing & support scams. No legitimate support will ask for your seed or passphrase ever. If asked, end the chat immediately.
Monthly hygiene • Revoke stale approvals (Revoke tool) • Audit extensions & profiles • Update OS/browser/wallet firmware • Test small “canary” transfer from daily → vault • Review address book & bookmarks
5) Smart Accounts & Passkeys (Overview)
Account abstraction (smart accounts) replaces your externally-owned account (EOA) with a smart contract wallet. This unlocks features like passkey login (no raw seed exposure on the daily device), session keys for games, batched transactions, spending limits, and social recovery.
- Passkeys. Authenticate with device biometrics or a hardware security key. Great UX, fewer phishing surfaces for the daily wallet.
- Spending limits & session keys. Cap per-transaction or daily spend; grant time-limited permissions to specific dApps without full approvals.
- Social recovery. Designate trusted guardians (people or devices) to recover access if you lose your phone. Choose guardians carefully; test the flow like you would a seed restore.
- Tradeoffs. Smart accounts rely on on-chain logic and (sometimes) external services (bundlers, paymasters). Understand fees, recovery steps, and what happens if a service goes offline before making it your main vault.
Practical design: Keep your vault as a classic hardware-secured account. Use a smart account with passkeys for your daily wallet to gain safer approvals, limits, and recovery options.
Quick check
- Where should you back up your seed phrase?
- Why keep separate vault and daily wallets?
- What’s the danger of blind signing?
- When should you revoke approvals?
- What benefit do smart accounts add for daily use?
Show answers
- Offline, in two secure locations (paper or metal), never in cloud services or photos.
- It limits the blast radius: daily risks don’t endanger long-term holdings in the vault.
- You might authorize token transfers or actions you don’t understand; the wallet can’t show a clear summary.
- Regularly (monthly or after trying new dApps), and immediately if you suspect a malicious site or rushed mint.
- Features like passkeys, spending limits, session keys, and social recovery for safer, smoother day-to-day activity.
Go deeper
- Ethereum.org — Wallet Security
- Revoke.cash — approval manager
Next steps: set up a dedicated browser profile, bookmark dApps you use, and run a monthly approval-revoke routine.
Ready to level up with hardware devices and advanced backups?