Learning paths

For: you own (or are about to own) your first hardware wallet, or have coins on an exchange and want to understand self-custody. Time: 2–3 hours of reading.

1. Start here: back up now — make a basic, tested backup today.
2. Your first week, day by day, and keep the "what to do if…" quick answers to hand.
3. Safety & scams — the handful of rules that prevent most losses, then current scam patterns, calls after data leaks and fake extensions. For the words themselves: what each piece reveals and why the wordlist matters.
4. Exchange or self-custody?, what protects you in the UK and USA and moving coins off an exchange safely; then real mistakes to avoid and the mistakes table with real cases.
5. Fundamentals: what a seed phrase is and BIP39 basics.
6. Why randomness matters — and why you must never choose your own words. Start with the confidence ladder, then the checksum word in plain English and why 50 dice rolls.
7. Physical storage: start with at a glance, then paper, materials compared and metal backups.
8. Hardware wallets at a glance, what they do and do not protect against, choosing one and the setup checklist.
9. Compare methods: at a glance, the master matrix and the anti-patterns to avoid.
10. Decision guide → five questions before you choose, the level-based path, the beginner shopping list and the price check.
11. Common misconceptions and which standard is my backup?
12. Scenario: beginner plan.
13. Write a letter of instruction using the printable template; read what never to write first.
14. Print the backup inventory and recovery drill log, then work through the beginner checklist.

You will be able to: create a seed safely, store it on durable media, test recovery, recognise the common scams, and leave your family a pointer.

Next: once you hold an amount you could not replace and have restored at least once, move to the intermediate path.

For: you hold savings you could not afford to lose, or want protection against theft of your backup as well as its loss. Time: a weekend.

1. Common decision mistakes and moving up a level safely: read these before changing anything.
2. Compare devices in the hardware wallet matrix, then read security models, fake devices and phishing and the advisories table.
3. The BIP39 passphrase — and the many ways people lose them.
4. Derivation paths, xpubs and watch-only wallets.
5. SLIP-39 Shamir backups and why not to split words in half.
6. Multisig vs Shamir — the key comparison — then the threat-by-method matrix, single points of failure, which method for which person and UK vs USA.
7. Choosing and separating locations: the threat matrix, stress-test evidence, fire safe ratings, UK and US safe deposit boxes, backup layouts and maintenance.
8. Collaborative custody & services, with pros, cons and pitfalls by model and the SEC's questions for custodians.
9. What the official scam figures say and supply-chain checks.
10. Threat models & scenarios — fire, flood, theft, death, coercion.
11. Asset management: what to record, UK and US tax records, testing cadence and multisig housekeeping.
12. Estate planning overview (start with UK and USA compared and common failure modes), then your jurisdiction: UK (start with at a glance, the three-systems table, which document does what and the illustrative scenarios) · US (start with which document does what and the worked scenarios) · elsewhere (start with at a glance, then the cross-country comparison, things that differ by country and cross-border pitfalls).
13. Case files — learn from others' failures (new in October 2026: coercion of relatives and fake recovery firms).
14. Digital legacy & account access — what Apple, Google, password managers and exchanges do after a death.
15. Restore checks, format compatibility and the worked scenarios (fire, compromise, forgotten passphrase, death, divorce, travel, burglary, moving house, incapacity), plus threats at a glance, approval drainers, SIM swaps, the BIP family and who needs what.
16. Templates: the UK or US supplement, the hardware wallet setup log and the review log; then the intermediate, annual review and after-an-advisory checklists.

You will be able to: design a setup that survives the loss or theft of any single backup, explain it to an heir, and test it regularly.

Next: for large holdings, a business, or to verify rather than trust, continue with the expert path. Otherwise, keep up the annual review.

For: significant holdings, businesses, advisers, or anyone who wants to verify rather than trust. Time: ongoing.

1. Randomness & entropy, in depth — dice entropy and bias, checksum computation, verifying a device's entropy, a comparison of generation methods, min-entropy and NIST SP 800-90, how devices mix your dice, entropy sources compared, passphrase, BIP85 and SLIP-39 entropy, verifying entropy claims, and weak-RNG incidents.
2. Codex32 (BIP-93), Seed XOR and SLIP-39 groups.
3. Output descriptors and multisig configuration backup, plus descriptor and xpub record-keeping.
4. Air-gapped signing (PSBT), multisig across vendors, verifying firmware and reproducible builds and descriptor backups.
5. Shamir vs multisig vs MPC (where the threshold is enforced, revocation, published MPC flaws).
6. MPC and smart-contract wallets, including the 2025 Safe{Wallet}/Bybit lesson on blind signing.
7. High-net-worth and business treasury designs; timelocked inheritance (Miniscript).
8. Coercion resistance and physical security, including the Balland kidnapping.
9. What happens if a custodian fails (Celsius, FTX, custody disclosures).
10. Combining metal backups with passphrases, SLIP-39 and multisig, and the design lessons from stress tests.
11. UK / US trusts, tax and fiduciary access (plus the US notes on lost or stolen crypto, exchange death claims, small estates and Forms 706 and 1041), including UK deputyship, exchange death claims, IHT on crypto step by step, crypto situs and valuation, the Law Commission's work, excepted estates and court decisions.
12. Cross-border estates: EU choice of law, CARF/DAC8 reporting and valuation evidence, plus practitioner advice.
13. Document it: the multisig configuration record, the offline dice entropy worksheet and the expert checklist.
14. From words to addresses, xpub risks, interoperability pitfalls, descriptors and moving between the UK and US, plus one seed, many chains and sourced coercion cases.
15. Primary sources — read the BIPs/SLIPs themselves.

You will be able to: audit a wallet's key generation, design vendor-diverse quorums with documented recovery, and coordinate technical and legal succession.

Next: keep it current with the annual review and the after-an-advisory checklist, and check new case files.