TL;DR
Prove that your backups can rebuild the wallet before you put real money in. Import the descriptor into a fresh Sparrow, check that the addresses match, and check your passphrase if you use one.
What you need
- The USB stick and printout from step 7
- Your three boxes with the seed plates
- A fresh Sparrow install: a second Windows user account on the signing laptop works
Steps
- In the fresh Sparrow, choose File → Import Wallet and load the descriptor from the USB stick. Not from the existing wallet file: that would only prove the file on your laptop works.
- You get a watch-only wallet. Compare the first few receive addresses and the balance with your real wallet. They should be identical.
- Passphrase users: back in your real wallet, connect each device and unlock it with the passphrase read from the card in the box, not from memory. On the Receive tab, click Display Address. If the device shows the same address as Sparrow, the passphrase on the card is right. With a wrong passphrase the device won’t recognise the wallet. Sort out any difference now. Later, with money on it, you can’t.
- Everything matches? Take the three boxes to their three places.
- Now move your real savings in. Start with a small withdrawal from the exchange and check it arrives before sending the rest.
No seed words in a computer
This rehearsal never needs your seed words. If a step anywhere seems to ask you to type them into a computer, you’re in the wrong place.
Once a year
- Open each box. Check the plates, the passphrase card, the USB stick and the silica gel
- Update the firmware on each device
- Check each seed on its device again, as in step 5
- Repeat this rehearsal with the descriptor from one of the boxes
- Write the date in your notes
Tell someone
A 2-of-3 with backups in three places is very safe, but your family can’t use it if they don’t know it exists. Write down, on paper: that there is bitcoin, where the three backups are, where the descriptors are, whether there’s a passphrase and roughly how to recover. Add a printed copy of this guide so they know what to do with what they find; websites don’t last forever. Seal the envelope and leave it with someone you trust, or with a lawyer or civil-law notary if that’s common where you live.
Common mistakes
- Importing from the existing wallet file instead of the backup.
- Moving the boxes out before this test, then having to fetch them back.
- Putting it off until the wallet already holds everything.