Samourai Wallet in addition to their coinjoin implementation Whirlpool, and other privacy features, has one particular feature that has existed from almost the beginning of the project in one form or another: Stealth Mode. This is an incredibly valuable feature in a situation where you must cross an international border. <\/p>\n

The mobile application can be set to obscure everything about the fact that it is a Bitcoin wallet. The logo is changed to masquerade as a number of different applications, and all signs of Samourai Wallet being installed are obscured. It can function as either a calculator app, a VPN app, a QR scanner, or a notepad. Each fake application is functional, and when launched has the appearance of being whatever decoy app the user selects. Each decoy app has a different mechanism hidden in it to actually open Samourai Wallet to access your Bitcoin. <\/p>\n

It is important to note that this will not stand up to any forensic analysis of your device. I.e. if it is seized and actually inspected using computer forensics software, they will be able to suss out the fact that a Bitcoin wallet is installed. However, a manual inspection of your device (which is much more common if any inspection takes place at all) should give no sign whatsoever to a customs agent that a Bitcoin wallet is installed on your device. <\/p>\n

Steganography<\/h2>\n

Steganography is the technique of hiding a piece of data or information inside of some other piece of information. A good example of this is hiding information inside of a jpeg. It is possible using different digital tools to take a secret piece of information, such as a text document, or a bitcoin seed phrase, and embed it inside of a jpeg. The jpeg would look completely normal, with no changes to the visual image, but the file itself would have the secret information included within it to be extracted by anyone who knew it was there. <\/p>\n

Now this requires putting your seed phrase on a computer to encode and embed it, and requires using tools that are not very user friendly (there are web based tools for this kind of thing, but NEVER<\/strong><\/em> use something like that to handle your seed phrase or private keys). However, the general concept is something that can be useful. <\/p>\n

Do you have a book? Any book? If you do, see if you can go through it page by page and find the words in a seed phrase you have generated in the correct order through the pages of the book. If you can, you\u2019ve just found something that can be used to transport your seed phrase safely without anyone suspecting it. Simply go through the book and highlight (in order) the words making up your seed phrase as you find them. Done. <\/p>\n

You can simply stroll through border control with a completely innocuous looking book, knowing that hidden within it is your bitcoin savings. <\/p>\n

Memorization<\/h2>\n

I mention this last specifically because all the other options presented above are much safer for most people, especially given that Border Wallets is a system set up specifically to aid peoples\u2019 ability to memorize their seed phrase in a safer way. In the event that for some reason that is not an option, just memorizing your seed phrase as it is can be a path to take. <\/p>\n

But I must stress that this is very risky for many people. If you go this route, be very careful<\/em>. Test yourself numerous times, memorize your phrase and give yourself a week of not looking at it. Repeat it to yourself in your head every day. At the end of this period write down what you remember and compare it to the original copy. Do this a few times. <\/p>\n

When it comes time to leave, as soon as you possibly can after arriving at your destination write it down again and create a physical copy<\/em>. This is by no means the best, or safest, option for transporting your Bitcoin keys across a border. But sometimes people find themselves in a situation with limited options. This should be a last resort. <\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n

The list above of tools for transporting your seed phrase across an international border are by no means exhaustive. There are numerous other options for ways to accomplish this, all with their own trade offs in terms of risk of loss or detection. I\u2019m sure that if many of you reading this put your minds to it you could come up with your own methods for doing so. <\/p>\n

The options here were chosen because of the reliability, simplicity, and the safety against loss. If you feel the need or desire to venture into more complicated or self created ways to transport your seed, I recommend extreme<\/em> caution in doing so. The options above should be applicable and useful for the vast majority of situations people can find themselves in, and are some of the safest ways to do so. <\/p>\n

Keep these tools in mind, one day they might make the difference between starting over somewhere destitute, or starting over somewhere with your accumulated wealth intact.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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