Construction

Billfodl is made from a combination of 316 marine grade stainless steel, iron and steel and is rated to 2200 degrees farenheit. So fireproof protection is slightly lower than the Cobo Vault but the stainless steel grading is higher. These features are key to your seed storage wallet being fireproof and water proof.

Billfodl is fireproof, waterproof, smash proof and will keep your assets safe for generations to come.

Billfodl comes with a one year warranty.

In the box you get:

• the Billfodl metal tablet with three stainless steel plates that slide open and closed
• a cardboard container with 400+ laser cut stainless steel letter tiles
• user guide
• tamper proof seals are available separately – and come in a pack of 10.

Security

The Billfold tablet comprises thick stainless steel plates with your seed recovery phrase inputted on the inside. Once the stainless steel plates are closed together the seed phrase is obscured from view.

The metal tablet can be locked with a padlock (self supplied).

The tablet itself feels very sturdy including the pin joint holding the metal sheets together which could be a point of weakness if someone attempted to force open the table to get to your seed phrase.

Ease of use

By design you only need to record the first 4 letters of each seed word on the Billfodl. This is because under the BIP39 standard, the first four letters of all words that can be used as seed words must be unique from other seed words. This means the full seed word can be determined by the first 4 letters. This feature is a time saver in the set up of your tablet.

Each Billfodl supports 24 words exactly like the Cobo Vault.

To set up the tablet you need to open the inner metal plate which is secured by screws. There is no screw driver to do this so the only solution we could see was to use one of the metal tiles to rotate the screw 90 degrees. While this worked, it was a little finicky.

You then slide each tile into the slot one by one which is easy, and resecure the locking mechanism with the original screw.

The Rolls Royce of seed phrase wallets, you can’t go wrong with the Billfodl. It’s sturdy, quick to set up and has all the security you need.

Construction

The Ledger Cryptosteel Capsule offers a different construction and design from other metal crypto wallets on this list. Instead of coming in lockable wallet form, the Cryptosteel brand uses a stainless steel capsule to secure your seed phrase.

The capsule is 25mm x 185mm x 255mm in size and weighs in at around 500g. The shell and all internal parts are made from stainless steel – either 303 or 304 grade – so its as sturdy as hell and solid in your hand.

The Cryptosteel Capsule is rated as fireproof up to 1400C/2500F and shockproof and waterproof up to a 150000N pressure.

Security

We don’t rate security as highly as the BillFodl wallet for the simple fact that the capsule itself is not lockable. The lid simply screws into the capsule and that’s it. While it’s a sleek piece of kit made from durable and strong materials, you will need to store it in a safe or hide it somewhere in order to really secure your crypto.

There are ways to make the capsule more secure. For example, you can create your own tamper proof seal with a sticker placed where the lid and capsule join together. The idea is to then paint across all three – the capsule, the sticker and the lid – with nail polish. After that you take a photo of the seal you’ve made. With this system in place, you can at least tell if someone has accessed your seed phrase inside the capsule.

You could also weld the capsule closed, but this is a pretty unrealistic solution for most of us.

But there is nothing physical to prevent access in the device or at least to act as a deterrent to prying eyes.

Ease of use

Inside the capsule is a stainless steel rod. You slide the engraved tiles that come with the capsule onto the rod, to form the words of your seed phrase. There are separator tiles to mark and separate the beginning and end of each seed phrase word. Once you’ve arranged the tiles on the rod, a final end tile keeps everything in place.

The tiles are easy to slip on and off the rod without being too small to manoeuvre.

What’s not clear to us is how easy it is to retrieve your seed phrase when you need to. Once your tiles are arranged on the rod, you can’t see what your seed phrase is. We’re assuming retrieving the phrase is a process of taking each tile off the rod and laying the tile flat and in reverse order so that you don’t get a backwards word.

Things could be come complicated at this point if you’re not systematic about how you remove your tiles to reveal the seed phrase.

Sleek and sexy but not stand-alone secure. The Cryptosteel Capsule will withstand fire and flood but not those prying eyes.

Construction

SteelWallet is a seed phrase recovery wallet of the same ilk as BillFodl and Cobo Vault. Its a two sided stainless steel wallet made from 6 stainless steel plates – three that pin together on each side of the wallet. It comes with 96 tiny stainless pre-engraved steel tiles covering both letters and numbers and that you use to slot into each wallet sleeve to make up your seed phrase.

It weighs 12 ounces and measures 8.03 x 5.67 x 0.71 inches so credit card size but much thicker and studier.

Like the Bilfodl and Cobo Vault the SteelWallet is fire and corrosion resistant. The tiles are engraved deeply enough to stand the test of time.

Security

The stainless steel plates are secured together with pins and small screws that are accessible from the inside (once the wallet is open).

There is a spring lock that keeps the two sides of the wallet together and a slot that you can pass a small padlock through (padlock not supplied). The BillFodl lets you use a larger and more secure padlock on the outside.

After you insert your tiles, close the spring lock and push the two sides of the wallet together your seed phrase is obscured from view.

You don’t get any tamper proof seals to stick on the wallet once you’ve set it up and locked it down.

Ease of use

The SteelWallet is just as easy to use as the BillFodl and easier to use than the Cobo Vault. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to set up your seed phrase in the wallet and lock it all down.

You might wonder why there are a not enough spaces to insert every letter in each word of your seed phrase but this is by design. The seed phrase standard BIP39 ensures that words that make up seed phrases are must be distinct from one another using the first four letters only. This means that if you need to recover access to your crypto you only need to put in the first four letters of each word to do so. This saves you time, and is why there are few spaces to insert the letter tiles than you might expect.

Not the bells and whistles or comprehensive security of the BillFodl but equally easy to set up and a solid product for a pretty good price..

Construction

The Cobo Vault tablet consists of four laser-cut, anti-corrosion steel plates – two outer plates and two twelve word inner plates. There is a large pin (screw) that is designed to hold the plates together at all times and this does not need to be removed for set up.

The 304 grade stainless steel plates are sturdy and rated to 2650 degrees farenheit, protecting from fire, water damage and corrosion.

In the box you get:

• The tablet consisting 4 metal plates – 2 inner, 2 outert
• 4 sheets of laser etched metal letter tiles
• 26 screws and 4 spares
• screw driver
• user guide

Security

• The four steel plates comprising the tablet are secured with screws in the corners.
• Two outer plates face each other when closed concealing your seed phrase from view.
• There is a single tamper-evident sticker provided to seal the Cobo Vault after the seed letters are put in place.
• The plates can then be padlocked together – it does not come with the padlock.

Ease of use

If you can use a screwdriver then using the Cobo Vault is pretty simple. You unscrew the plates, place individual letter tiles on to laser cut and numbered slots on the slots to match your seed phrase, and screw the inner and outer plates back together. It’s a bit annoy that the plates come screwed together as this doubles your set up time. You also need to be careful you don’t strip the screw heads as you go or you won’t get back into the wallet.

Double sided storage means you can use Cobo Vault for a couple of crypto wallets with a 12 word recovery phrase (e.g. mobile wallets), or one crypto wallet with a 24 word recovery phrase. (hardware wallet)

Like the Billfodl, you only need to enter the first 4 letters of your seed word into the Cobo Vault tablet.

Cobo Vault is a close runner up for best seed phrase wallet and rates well on value for money. The Billfodl beats out Cobo Vault in ease of use both in the mechanism and tile slot design.

Construction

The Safe Seed bundle is a different type of metal seed wallet than the Billfodl and Cobo Vault. Safe Seed provide you with pure copper stamp plates, which actually look pretty sexy and different to other metal seed storage wallets on the market. The plates are pre-formatted with spaces to stamp up to 24 seed words, plus a space at the bottom to record the Crypto ticker, so you know which crypto the seed phrase is for.

The stamp kit comes in a timber box which is nice and makes them harder to lose. You’ll need to have your own hammer, and we recommend a steel bench block or you’ll struggle with getting clear stamping impressions.

Security

The beauty of the Safe Product is its simplicity. The copper plates are fire resistant to 2000 degrees and copper is essentially immune to corrosion because of a naturally protective film that forms on the metal’s surface.

As long as the plates are either hidden or secured inside a safe somewhere, then the Safe Seed is a safe option.

What it does lack on the security side however, is that there is no ability to conceal your seed phrase inside a metal wallet like there is with the Billfodl or Cobo Vault. Once your stamp plates are exposed, your seed phrase is out there. The Billfodl and Cobo Vault just enable that extra layer of protection so that you don’t HAVE to lock up or hide your metal seed storage from prying eyes in your own home.

Ease of use

Safe Seed is really a metal seed storage SYSTEM. With the stamping kit and the Steel bench block, all you need to do as you add cryptocurrency to your portfolio is purchase additional stamp plates. You can’t do this with the Billfodl or Cobo Vault as they have a limit to how many plates they hold. This feature makes the Safe Seed system the most economic metal seed storage over time for crypto hodlers.

One other thing to know, once you set your seed recover phrase for a particular crypto and stamp it out, there is no changing that phrase. This doesn’t really matter for most people, but if you’re super vigilant about your crypto security and know how to go about it, changing up your seed phrase in your hardware wallet can be an extra security precaution.

You do need to do some work with Safe Seed to set it up – the stamping is up to you! The plate is small, fitting in the palm of your hand so you have to have nimble fingers.

Overall its a cool product for the home handy type, or if you are into metal craft or artisan working. Just don’t pick the wrong letter or number when you’re at the stamping stage! The rest, is pretty self explanatory.

What’s in the ” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Seed Safe bundle?

The Seed Safe bundle package includes:

• 1 x 36 piece stamp kit in a timber box
• 2 x copper plates
• 2 x copper plate sleeves to protect from scratching

Alternatively, if you want the package in a more mobile form check out the sleek version – the Safe Seed Soft Kit. In this bundle you get a soft case for your Stamp Kit plus two copper stamp plates in sleeves:

To make sure the stamp impressions work, you need a hard surface to stamp on. A steel bench block like the SE 4” x ¾” x 4” Steel Bench Block is recommended:

The beauty with the Safe Seed is that if you add more crypto to your bags, just purchase a new Safe Seed stamp plate! Single stamp plates:

You need a safe at home or a killer hiding space but Safe Seed is a solid option for seed storage and offers a cost effective system for adding more crypto over time.