Guide to Bitcoin Recovery with Kiboruto – Bitcoin Magazine

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This guide shows how to set up a new Samurai wallet on Android and secure the seed phrase in a sturdy stainless steel backup called Kiboruto, made by @Crazyk_031 and @stackbitme. You can find the Kiboruto and more at crazyk3d.com.

Introduction

If you’ve taken custody of your bitcoin, congratulations on taking the first steps towards a life without permission. Now you need to make sure your bitcoin is secure and safe from environmental hazards like fires and floods. Writing down your backup information in a notebook is a good start, but at some point you may find that it no longer feels safe enough when you factor in environmental risks.

When you take radical responsibility for the safekeeping of your bitcoins, you and you alone are responsible for those funds. There is no chargeback feature or 1-800 helpline with Bitcoin, so you want to be sure to take all necessary precautions to protect your funds. Since the Kiboruto is custom designed for Samourai Wallet, this wallet will be the focus of this guide. With Samourai Wallet, you want to secure three key pieces of information:

1. Seed words

When you set up Samourai Wallet, you’ll receive a list of 12 words known as ‘seed words’, sometimes also referred to as a ‘seed phrase’ or ‘mnemonic phrase’. These 12 keywords are key information that allows you to restore your Bitcoin wallet in case your phone is lost, stolen or damaged beyond repair, for example. Keywords should always be stored in the same order that your portfolio presents them to you. If you get even one word out of order, it could render your Bitcoin backup useless. Prepare for the worst and secure your keywords as if they were gold or jewels.

2. Passphrase

You will also set a passphrase when generating your Samourai Wallet. The passphrase is something unique that you define, it is not generated by Samourai Wallet. Your Samurai wallet has no way of knowing what passphrase you have set and furthermore any passphrase you enter will generate a valid wallet. Whether or not the wallet contains your bitcoin depends on your ability to enter the same passphrase that you originally set when you first set up your wallet. Unlike seed words, which come from a predefined list of 2,048 English words, a passphrase can include any combination of lowercase/uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters you want to use.

3. PayNym

Last but not least is your PayNym. The PayNym is a unique name and avatar associated with your wallet. You can use this PayNym to verify that you have restored the correct wallet. Your PayNym is capable of much more, however: it can display a static payment code to receive funds without revealing your previous transaction history to anyone. Use your PayNym to connect with other Samourai Wallet users so you can create collaborative CoinJoin transactions like Stowaway or StonewallX2. Visit usecahoots.com to learn more.

The next section will tell you exactly how to get these three pieces of information from a new Samourai Wallet.

Samurai Wallet Setup

The Kiboruto Stainless Steel Backup was designed specifically for your Samurai Wallet. Stainless steel backups like this can withstand extreme environmental conditions such as a house fire or severe flooding. Often people use pen and paper to write their seed sentences – that’s a good start and if you want to use pen and paper, download the Samurai Wallet recovery template here. But your paper backup may not withstand fire or flooding, so consider using both methods to have one as a failsafe. Keep in mind, however, that anyone with access to this information will technically be able to access your bitcoin, so keep them safe.

Here’s a video on how to set up your Samurai Wallet for the first time and get the keywords you’ll later stamp in your Kiboruto. Please note that the wallet version (0.99.96g) used in this video has since been updated to a newer version with a detailed explanatory introduction. The new version will be featured later in the guide when demoing your keyword recovery.

The following section will explain how to save your Samurai Wallet backup information to your Kiboruto.

Kiboruto stamping

Once you have set up your wallet and identified your PayNym, you can go back to the menu to view your keywords and then stamp them into the Kiboruto as shown in the video below.

From your Samurai Wallet homepage, navigate to the three-dot menu in the upper right corner and select “settings”, then “wallet”, then “show mnemonic”. A dialogue box will appear with your 12 keywords. These are the words you want to carve into the Kiboruto in order. To test your passphrase before stamping it, from your Samurai Wallet home page, navigate to the three-dot menu in the upper right corner and select “Settings”, then “Troubleshooting”, then “Passphrase Test/ backup”. From here you can enter your passphrase and Samourai Wallet will confirm if it is correct. Once you know it’s correct, you can stamp it into the Kiboruto. To view your PayNym from your Samurai Wallet homepage, navigate to the blue “+” sign in the lower right corner, then select the purple PayNym icon. Your PayNym short name will display directly under your PayNym robot avatar.

Be sure to use a solid surface to stamp your Kiboruto on, such as a concrete floor. A heavy hammer, such as a four-pound mini sled, works well for getting a clean stamp. You will stamp the 12 keywords in order on the large Kiboruto plate, then stamp your passphrase and PayNym on the small Kiboruto plate. This way you can store the two pieces of information separately if you wish. You will need both (seed words and passphrase) to recover your bitcoin in case you lose access to your wallet.

You should now have your keywords, unique PayNym, and metal secure passphrase on the Kiboruto. This way, you have the information you need to restore your Samourai wallet and recover your bitcoins in case your phone is lost, damaged or stolen or your backup is exposed to a fire or flood.

The following section will present a fire test of the Kiboruto to verify that the save information is recoverable under extreme environmental conditions.

Kiboruto Fire Corps

Any stainless steel backup must be able to withstand fire or flooding. But testing these backups is important to verify that the information they contain is recoverable. You may not want or have the tools/skills to perform your own fire test, so here is an example of the Kiboruto being brought to just below the melting point, 1500 degrees Celsius.

The Kiboruto managed to secure the vital information needed to restore the Samourai Wallet and regain access to bitcoin. The seed phrase is 100% salvageable and even most of the etching has survived.

The following section will show you how to restore your Samourai Wallet using only your Kiboruto backup information.

Restoration from Kiboruto

The advantage of keywords is that they follow the popular BIP39 standard. This means that you can use a variety of bitcoin wallets to recover your funds from this type of backup. For example, if you lost your cell phone and bought a new one, you can download the Samourai Wallet app again, then follow these recovery steps using your Kiboruto to regain access to your bitcoin.

Once you launch Samourai Wallet, you will have the recommended options for connecting to Tor and connecting to your own RoninDojo. Then you will have the option to restore from backup. Simply enter your seed words in order from your Kiboruto, then add your passphrase from your Kiboruto, then you should receive the same PayNym as your original and have access to your bitcoin again.

Conclusion

This should be all you need to restore your Samourai wallet after a catastrophic event in which you lose your phone and need to restore access to your bitcoin. If you ever have any questions about the wallet derivation path, WalletsRecovery.org has compiled most Bitcoin wallets in a list.

Here are the Samourai Wallet diversion paths, for example:

Deposit: m/44’|49’|84’|47’/0’/0’Bad Bank: m/84’/0’/2147483644’Pre Mix: m/84’/0’/2147483645’Post Mix: m/84’/0’/2147483646’Ricochet: m/44’|49’|84’/0’/2147483647′

When restoring a Samourai Wallet to another Samourai Wallet client, you won’t have to worry about these bypass paths. This would only be a consideration when restoring across platforms to another wallet.

Some final considerations are how many copies of Kiboruto you want, where to store them, and whether you store the passphrase separately or not. Everyone’s threat model, situation, and circumstances are unique, so each individual will have to make these decisions for themselves. Just keep in mind that an adversary could restore your wallet if they find your keywords and passphrase.

Using a RoninDojo is the most private way to use Samourai Wallet. @BitcoinQ_A wrote a great guide to getting started and there are full instructions on the Ronin wiki page. There is also a Bitcoin Magazine guide on setting up the new RoninDojo Tanto plug-and-play. If you ever have any questions, contact us. Both developer teams maintain nifty community support channels on Telegram:

This is a guest post by Econoalchemist. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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