How to Restore Your Bitcoin Wallet

What’s your worst fear? Maybe it’s spiders or heights … some are even afraid of the ocean or dogs. But one fear that I think we can all get behind is the fear of losing your money.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, which means you can have full responsibility and ownership of your money and where you hold it. This is done by having your own Bitcoin wallet and storing its private keys or seed phrase somewhere secure, like on a piece of paper or a metal plate. If done right and stored safely, this is one of the best ways to keep your Bitcoin from being stolen.

But having your Bitcoin stolen might not be your only fear. What if you lose or damage the phone where you installed your mobile wallet? Or even if you upgrade your phone for a newer model? Does this mean all your digital currency is gone as well?

No! All you have to do is recover your wallet by importing it.

Yesterday we talked about How to Secure your Bitcoin Wallet, and today we’ll go over how to restore it when the unthinkable happens.

What Those 12 Words Are For

Most non-custodial Bitcoin wallets have you set up a “recovery phrase” (also called a seed phrase) to protect you. This phrase can be 12, 18 or 24 words and is created from your actual private key, which is a long, nonsensical string of letters and numbers. The seed phrase is what most people mean when they talk about writing down your private keys.

So, even if you don’t have, didn’t store or can’t remember your original private key, the recovery phrase is all you need. Now you’ll be able to get access to your wallet back with no problem.

Depending on what wallet you’re using, there should be an option to “import wallet/key.” Here you can enter your recovery phrase, and boom, you have your wallet (and coin) back!

Try the Coin Cloud Wallet

An example of a quality mobile wallet that’s extremely user-friendly and easy to restore is the Coin Cloud Wallet app. This app even has a built-in map that will show you locations of digital currency machines (DCMs) where you can trade your digital currency for cash or vice versa. If you’re ever feeling unsure of how to use either the machine or your app, Coin Cloud has a live support team ready to pick up your call, seven days a week.

So don’t worry, your money isn’t lost just because your phone is. You only need to make sure you know where your recovery phrase is. Oh, and please keep it somewhere secure that you can access, but nobody else can. Like a fireproof, waterproof safe or lockbox.

Disclaimer: The information and views supplied on the Coin Cloud blog are for educational and entertainment purposes only. We are not financial advisors, so please do your research and consult with a trusted financial specialist before investing your money.

What is Coin Cloud?

Founded in 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Coin Cloud is the leading digital currency machine (DCM) operator. With over 4,500 locations nationwide, in 48 states and Brazil, Coin Cloud operates the world’s largest and fastest-growing network of 100% two-way DCMs, a more advanced version of the Bitcoin ATM. Every Coin Cloud DCM empowers you to quickly and easily buy and sell over 40 cryptocurrency options with cash.