Travelling with crypto: practical self-custody on the road
Travel changes your threat model. At home, your devices sit on networks you control, around people you know. On the road, your phone and laptop pass through airport trays, hotel rooms and café tables, where they get forgotten, stolen and occasionally inspected. That's no reason to give up self-custody while travelling, but a little preparation goes a long way.
This is general advice, not legal guidance. Rules on device searches and on crypto vary by country, so check them for wherever you're going.
Before you leave: prepare at home
A short checklist:
- Check your backups. Make sure the recovery phrases for every key you use are written down, legible and stored safely at home. Test a recovery now, not for the first time in a hotel room.
- Update your apps. Install pending updates for your operating system, browser and wallet apps before you go.
- Lock your devices properly. Use a strong passcode on your phone and laptop, turn on find-my-device, and know how to remotely lock or wipe each one.
- Decide what you're taking. Take only the devices you need, controlling only the money you need.
Never travel with your recovery phrase
Your recovery phrase is the whole wallet. Anyone who reads it can rebuild your keys anywhere. A paper copy in your luggage can be lost, photographed or found in a search. A photo on your phone is worse: it travels with the device it's meant to back up.
Leave recovery phrases at home. If a device is lost while you're away, you can restore it when you're back home. The whole point of a backup is that it isn't in the same place as the thing it backs up.
Keep a travel amount separate from savings
The simplest way to reduce risk on the road is to carry less. Many people keep a small "travel" wallet with enough for the trip, and leave long-term savings in a setup that never leaves home.
If a device is stolen, or someone pressures you to open a wallet, the amount at stake is the amount you chose to carry.
Discretion matters too. Don't talk about balances, show your portfolio in public, or wear crypto merchandise that marks you as a holder. Being selected is how most physical threats start.
Public Wi-Fi, shared computers and device checks
Public Wi-Fi. Airport, hotel and café networks are shared with strangers. The bigger risks are fake login pages, lookalike networks and prompts to install something. Use your mobile data or a trusted personal hotspot for anything wallet-related, and never install an app or extension because a network page told you to.
Hotel business-centre computers. Never use a shared or public computer for your wallet. A keylogger or malicious extension would see everything you type. Don't enter a recovery phrase, password or private key on any machine you don't control.
Device inspections. At some borders, officials may ask you to unlock a phone or laptop. How that works, and what your rights are, depends on the country, so look it up before you travel. A device with no recovery phrase on it, controlling only a small travel amount, has much less to lose.
How SSP holds up when a device goes missing
SSP is a 2-of-2 multisig: one key lives in the SSP Wallet browser extension, the other in the SSP Key app on your phone, and every transaction needs both.
If your phone is stolen, the thief has one key, not two. They can't move funds without your browser key too, and the reverse is true if your laptop disappears. SSP Key also asks for biometrics or its own password before it signs an approval, so a thief with an unlocked phone still faces another lock. SSP Wallet logs you out after ten minutes of inactivity, which helps if a laptop is taken while it's open.
If a device is lost, you restore that key on a replacement device from its recovery phrase. Recovering SSP when you lose your phone walks through the steps, and what happens if one of your keys is compromised explains what to do if you think a key was exposed, not just lost.
There are limits, though:
- Two devices in one bag can be lost together. If your laptop and phone are stolen at the same time, you lose both halves at once. Restore from your home backups, and consider carrying them separately: the phone on you, the laptop in the room safe or a different bag.
- A coerced user can approve on both. Multisig protects against a stolen device, not against someone forcing you to unlock both. Carrying a small amount is the real protection there.
If a device is lost or stolen abroad
- Stay calm. With one key missing, nobody can move SSP funds, so you aren't in a race.
- Lock or wipe the lost device using find-my-device.
- Check that your other device still works and that your funds haven't moved.
- Restore the missing key on a trusted replacement device once you're back with your home backup. Your funds can wait.
- If you suspect a key was exposed, not just lost, move funds to a fresh setup once you have both keys back.
For a broader routine, see your crypto opsec checklist.
The honest summary
Travelling with crypto is mostly about the boring things: backups at home, a tested recovery, updated apps, locked devices and a small travel amount kept apart from savings. On the road, avoid shared computers, be careful on public Wi-Fi and keep quiet about what you hold.
SSP's 2-of-2 design means one lost device isn't a lost wallet, and SSP Key adds its own lock to every approval. It can't help if both devices are taken together, or if you're forced to approve on both. For those cases, carrying less is still the best defence.
