This page describes how SteelPhrase decides what to publish. It is written down so it can be checked, and so that failing to follow it is visible rather than invisible.
Every number is checkable
Quantitative claims here fall into exactly two categories, and nothing sits between them:
- Arithmetic you can reproduce from a published standard. When an article says a 12-word phrase carries 132 bits — 128 of entropy plus a 4-bit checksum — you can derive that yourself from BIP-39, which is linked. No trust required.
- Sourced facts with a date. Hardware prices, model names, breach figures and chain roadmaps carry a source and the date they were checked, because all of them decay.
Where something could not be verified, the page says so explicitly rather than smoothing the uncertainty away. “We could not verify this from primary documentation” appears on this site and is meant literally.
Product information is re-checked, never recalled
Hardware wallet lineups change and prices move. Every model name, price and specification in the buying guides was checked on the day it was written, and those pages carry the date. A guide quoting stale prices is worse than no guide, because it looks authoritative while being wrong.
If you are reading a buying guide months after its date, treat the prices as indicative and confirm before purchasing.
Recommendations say who they are wrong for
Every product recommendation here names the person it does not suit. Coldcard is a poor first device. Tangem’s lack of a screen removes a real protection. And someone holding a few hundred dollars of crypto should probably buy no hardware wallet at all — a position stated in three separate articles, including the ones carrying affiliate links.
This is the practical test of whether commercial links are influencing the writing. A site that only ever concludes “buy this” is telling you about its revenue model, not the product.
The rule that outranks the rest
No page or tool on SteelPhrase will ever ask you to enter a recovery phrase, private key or passphrase — not even client-side, and not with an assurance that the data never leaves your browser.
The reasoning matters more than the rule. Every serious theft in this field depends on persuading someone that entering their phrase somewhere is normal. A site that builds a genuinely safe “phrase checker” still teaches the habit that gets people robbed elsewhere. The technically-safe version of the tool is not worth the behaviour it normalises, so it does not get built.
This constrains what can be published here — some genuinely useful tools are off the table — and that is the intended cost.
Some pages carry no advertising
Pages written for people who have just been robbed, or who have just lost access to their own funds, carry no advertising. This applies to the articles on seed phrase “generators” and recovery service scams, both of which say so in their own text.
Those readers are in the worst position a person reaches in this subject, and monetising the moment would be indefensible.
Conflicts of interest are declared where they apply
The author builds OZO Hub, a project on Ozone Chain. Where that overlaps with something covered here, the disclosure appears in the body of the page, near the top, not in a footer — and the affiliated project is assessed at the strictest reading of its claims. See About, and the page where it actually applies.
What this site is not
- Not investment advice. No price predictions, no opinions on what to buy or hold, no tokens promoted.
- Not legal or tax advice. The inheritance articles describe general mechanisms; estate law is jurisdictional and a solicitor is not optional.
- Not a substitute for your own verification. Where money is at stake, check the primary source. They are linked for that reason.
Corrections
Errors get corrected in place, and material corrections are noted on the page rather than quietly edited away. If you find something wrong — particularly a number — please say so. On a subject where being wrong costs readers money, a correction is worth more than a defence.