HowTo backup your 12, 18 or 24 word SEED PHRASE on the 6-Word-Plate™, 12-Word-Plate™, CipherTag™ and CipherLegacy™ cold storage solutions.
These can be used to permanently backup your BIP0039 and/or SLIP0039 seed phrases.

BIP0039 stands for Bitcoin Improvement Protocol 0039(BIP0039). It describes the implementation of mnemonics(replacing 0’s and 1’s with a group of easy to remember words) for generation of deterministic cryptocurrency wallets.


SLIP0039 stands for SatoshiLabs Improvement Protocols(SLIP0039). It describes a standard and implementation of Shamir’s secret sharing(SSS). Sharmir’s secret sharing splits a master secret(seed phrase) into separate unique parts that can be distributed amount several participants. A specific minimum number of parts are required to be able to reconstruct the master secret(seed phrase). Knowledge of fewer than the required number of parts does not leak the information about the master secret(seed phrase).

The majority of crypto wallets available today follow the BIP0039 standard wordlist. It describes the implementation of mnemonics(replacing 0’s and 1’s with a group of easy to remember words) for generation of deterministic cryptocurrency wallets.
The BIP0039 wordlist can be found on this link: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039/english.txt

There is a grid of 4 rows of 10 columns; hence the "4x10" name. There are 6 of these grids on the 6-Word-Plate™ and CipherTag™; 12 grids on the 12-Word-Plate™. These are used to permanently mark the first four characters of your Seed Words using the process below. To mark the seeds you can use a manual or an automatic center punch. The 6-Word-Plate™(displayed below) employs a more robust method of marking Seed Words and requires a drill/drill press. The 6-Word-Plate™ has laser etched countersunk holes to assist centering the drill bit.

The first row translates to the numbers ranging from 0-2 from the word list that consists of 4 digits. This first row translates the first number of the word list consisting of 4 digits.
This is the 1st digit corresponding to the 1st letter of the seed word.

The 2nd row shows the next series of numbered grids from left-to right translate to the numbers ranging from 0-9 from the word list consisting of 4 digits.
This is the 2nd digit corresponding to the 2nd letter of the seed word.

The 3rd row shows the next series of numbered grids from left-to right translate to the numbers ranging from 0-9 from the word list consisting of 4 digits.
This is the 3rd digit corresponding to the 3rd letter of the seed word.

The 4th row shows the next series of numbered grids from left-to right translate to the numbers ranging from 0-9 from the word list consisting of 4 digits.
This is the 4th digit corresponding to the 4th letter of the seed word.

There is a grid of 3 rows of 11 columns; hence the "3x11" name. There are 6 of these grids on the 6-Word-Plate™, CipherTag™ and CipherLegacy™; 12 grids on the 12-Word-Plate™. These are used to permanently mark the first four characters of your Seed Words using the process below. To mark the seeds you can use a manual or an automatic center punch.

The first vertical column translates to the numbers ranging from 0-2 from the word list that consists of 4 digits. The first numeric digit(of the mnemonic from the word list) is counting down from 0 to 1 to 2. This vertical column translates the first number of the word list consisting of 4 digits.
This is the 1st digit corresponding to the 1st letter of the seed word.

The row below, and the next series of dots from left-to right (columns 2-11)translate to the numbers ranging from 0-9 from the word list consisting of 4 digits.
This is the 2nd digit corresponding to the 2nd letter of the seed word.

The row below, and the next series of dots from left-to right (columns 2-11)translate to the numbers ranging from 0-9 from the word list consisting of 4 digits.
This is the 3rd digit corresponding to the 3rd letter of the seed word.

The row below, and the next series of dots from left-to right (columns 2-11)translate to the numbers ranging from 0-9 from the word list consisting of 4 digits.
This is the 4th digit corresponding to the 4th letter of the seed word.

As mentioned above: There is a grid of 3 rows of 11 columns. There are 6 of these grids on the CipherTag™ and 12 grids on the CipherSechs™ 12 Word Plates. These are used to permanently mark the first four characters of your Seed Words using the process below. To mark the seeds you can use a manual or an automatic center punch.

However.. this method introduces "OpSec"; operational security - a security methodology to prevent sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands. Instead of having the 4 digit number for each seed word punched on a displayed number on the 3x11 grid, we have opted to allow the owner to obfuscate the process/methodology of how the seed word is stored. The 3x11 grid of circles are not marked and are purposefully left blank.

In this case, an owner of the seed word may decide to shift the cipher; ie the punched/marked holes to the right 'x' amount of spaces, thereby obfuscating the actual seed word stored. Only the owner of the wallet would know the correct 'x' amount to shift the pattern back to - to reference the correct seed word. The cipher can be shifted by the whole word, or via one digit.

There is no specific option or marking available for the user to 'note' the amount the pattern is shifted to, we will leave that up to the user. It is preferable not to show such information regardless.
See below photo for an illustrative explanation.