The
gas station
beckoned you to buy
bitcoin
at a kiosk inside. A decade ago Max had purchased a nontrivial amount. A friend had gotten him to buy this obscure entity at what seems today an absurdly low price. At the time he was confused by it all. First you needed to create a
key
. Some people called it a key. Others called it a
wallet
. Max never understood the difference.
His friend had to walk him through the process step by step. Explained novel information at each step that slipped through Max's understanding. Eventually at the final screen Max's friend covered up his eyes and said, "now this is very important. This is called a
seed phrase
. Never give this to anyone. Not even me. Write it down somewhere in paper. Better yet write it down in multiple parts in multiple pieces of paper."
Max found it silly. Seed Phrase. What was that anyways. And why was his friend treating it so holy? Whatever. He wrote it down on a piece of paper and stuffed it inside his pocket.
"Okay did you do it? Click next"
Max also saw the warning message on his wallet. "Do not ever lose this. If you lose this you will never be able to recover your funds!"
Max felt the weight of the crumbled up paper in his pocket with his seed phrase. And then he clicked the confirm button.