Some links on SteelPhrase earn a commission if you buy through them. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not change what is written.
That second clause is easy to write and worth almost nothing on its own, so this page explains how the site is built so that it is actually true — and what you can check.
What earns a commission
- Hardware wallets — devices such as Trezor, Ledger, BitBox, Coldcard, Keystone, Blockstream Jade and Tangem.
- Metal backup products — steel plates and tile systems for recording a recovery phrase.
That is the entire list. If a product category is not named above, no link to it earns anything.
What earns nothing, deliberately
- No exchange referral links. These pay the most in this industry and they pay for deposits — which means being rewarded for sending you somewhere to put money in. That is the wrong incentive for a site about holding your own keys, so the category is excluded entirely.
- No token or investment promotion. No coin is recommended here, sponsored or otherwise.
- No sponsored posts or paid reviews. Nobody has paid for coverage, and nobody can.
- No products of our own. SteelPhrase makes and sells nothing.
How to check we mean it
Claims of independence are cheap. These are things you can verify by reading:
- The buying guides argue against buying. The hardware wallet guide ends with a section explaining when you should buy none of them, and the same argument closes Ledger vs Trezor and What Is a Hardware Wallet. A commission-driven site does not tell a reader to keep their money.
- Every recommendation names who it is wrong for. Including the expensive products.
- The cheapest option is often the recommendation. The $65 device and the $79 device are recommended over the $399 one for most people, despite paying less.
- You can make the backup yourself. The metal backup article explains how to build one from hardware-shop steel for a fraction of a branded kit — a section that costs the site money to publish.
Pages with no advertising at all
Articles written for people who have just been robbed or locked out of their own funds carry no advertising and no affiliate links. This covers seed phrase “generators” and recovery service scams.
Those readers are at the worst moment this subject produces. Monetising it would be indefensible, and the revenue foregone is negligible in any case.
Buy direct, whatever you decide
One piece of advice that overrides any link here: buy hardware wallets directly from the manufacturer. Never a marketplace listing, never second-hand, never “sealed” from a third-party seller. Supply-chain tampering is a real attack and a pre-loaded recovery phrase is the classic form of it.
If a link here ever points somewhere other than the manufacturer, ignore it and go direct. Your security matters more than this site’s revenue, and if those two ever conflict, the answer is not in question.
Questions about any of this: get in touch.