Your backup plan
Every install ends with a backup drill. This is the plan we set up with you. You keep every copy; we never see or store a seed, a key or a backup file.
Your bitcoin wallet
We recommend a hardware wallet. Your store only gets its public key (xpub), so the server can create addresses but can never spend.
- Write the seed words on a metal backup, not paper alone. Metal survives fire and water.
- Keep two copies in two different safe places, so one fire, flood or burglary can't take both.
- Never photograph, type, email or upload the seed. No cloud, no notes app, no screenshots.
Your Lightning node
Lightning needs two things to recover. Without the channel backup file, funds in open channels can be lost.
- The node's seed words, stored like your bitcoin seed (metal, two places).
- The static channel backup file. We turn on automatic backups and show you where the file is; keep a recent copy off the server, for example on an encrypted USB stick.
Your Monero wallet (Privacy Checkout and Merchant Box)
Where the plugin supports it, BTCPay gets a view-only wallet that can see payments but can't spend. The spend key stays in your own wallet app.
- The Monero wallet's seed words, stored like your bitcoin seed.
Prove it works
During the drill you restore from your backups into a test wallet and check the balance matches. A backup you've never restored is a guess.
Where to get a metal backup
Buy it directly from the maker, so it arrives sealed and nobody else has handled the device that will hold your seed. We don't sell them and we don't need to see yours.
- Cryptosteel: Steel capsules and cassettes for seed words.