Motel Maya Bitcoin Wallet is a brain wallet with a new twist. Most brain wallets encourage you to only use the standard symbols available on a typical keyboard. However, The Motel Maya Brain Wallet makes it easier to add additional symbols from the ASCII symbol set. By using a few of these extra symbols in your Brain Wallet, you can greatly increase the security of your passphrase.
The following symbols are safe to copy and paste into your passphrase. Note that there are spaces between symbols:
☺ ☻ ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ • ○ ♂ ♀ ♪ ♫ ☼ ► ◄ ↕ ‼ § ▬ ↨ ↑ ↓ → ← ∟ ↔
▲ ▼ € ƒ … † ‡ ‰ Š Œ Ž ™ Ÿ
¢ £ ¤ ¥ § © ª « ¬ ® ° ± ² ³ µ
¹ » ¼ ½ ¾ ¿ Å Æ Ö × Ø Þ ñ ÷
Brain Wallet Advantages
- A brain wallet is the ultimate way to hide wealth. Nobody can take it from you without your consent and cooperation.
- A brain wallet uses a passphrase to create a private key and a public address. You can use the public address to receive money, but without the passphrase to re-create the private key, nobody can access your money.
- There is no way to tell if a public address is associated with a brain wallet. This provides plausible deniability to ownership of your wealth.
- You can lose everthing including your clothes and still recover your bitcoins at some future date when your situation is safe again.
- You can cross borders with unlimited wealth stored in your mind.
- Involved in an ugly divorce or bankruptcy...use a brain wallet.
Security Tips
- You should be aware of the two greatest dangers with a brain wallet. The first is using a simple passphrase that can be discovered. The second is using a long obscure passphrase, then forgetting it.
- Go offline while creating your brainwallet. You can copy and save your public address. There is no harm in anyone having this. Make sure your passphrase is removed before going back online.
- Use a minimum of 21 characters in your passphrase. Recognizable words, regardless of length, only count as 3 characters. Common phrases only count as about 5 characters. For instance, the phrase "Goody two shoes" has 15 letters, but should be treated as about 5 letters for security purposes.
- Incorporate a large number that you are very familiar with in your passphrase.
- If you want to use several brainwallets, create your main passphrase, then append (or insert) a second set of passwords that you use with your passphrase. For instance "Passphrase♥1234:Alpha", "Passphrase♥1234:Bravo", Passphrase♥1234:Charlie" will allow you to create a set of brainwallets that are easy to remember.
- Ever hide something and forgot where you hid it? It happens to the smartest of us. One of the greatest dangers with a brainwallet is using a long obscure passphrase, then forgetting it. Write down some clues to help you recover it. For instance, "Passphrase♥1234" could be written down as "Passphraselove????" and this would help you to remember it later.
- If possible and your situation secure, occasionally check your passphrase using the brain wallet generator. Make sure the generated address matches the address where you are storing your bitcoins. If the addresses don't match, this will give you a chance to correctly recall it before time degrades your memory any further.
- In the event that this site goes offline, it is possible to use the ALT key with the numeric keypad to recreate the symbols on another brain wallet site.
- Even honest Websites can be hacked & compromised, the best way to test their integrity is to compare several brain wallet sites using the same word with each one. They should all return the same results. If the sites disagree, then at least one of them has been compromised. You can also double check the HASH-256 function used to create the secret exponent. Just do a google search of "SHA-256 Generator" and select a couple random sites to compare.
