Questions
Questions people ask
The things people write to ask before they spend words they cannot take back. Answered plainly — and where the answer is no, it says no.
- What is Sealed Forever?
- We write your letter, word for word, into a Bitcoin transaction — the most permanent public record there is. You get a page to share, and proof on the blockchain that anyone can check.
- Do I need a crypto wallet, or to know anything about Bitcoin?
- No. You pay by card and we handle the chain entirely. You never touch a wallet, an exchange, or a seed phrase.
- Who can read my letter?
- Anyone. A letter written into Bitcoin is public by nature — that is what makes it permanent and verifiable. Write it as something you would be glad to have found, not as a secret.
- Can it be edited or deleted later?
- No, and that is the point. Once inscribed, your letter is carried by thousands of independent computers around the world. Nobody can alter or remove it — not us, not you.
- What if I make a mistake?
- Check it before you pay. You write and preview your letter first, and nothing is sent to the blockchain until the payment goes through. After that a typo is permanent, so take the extra minute.
- How long does it take?
- The transaction is broadcast within a minute or so of paying, and your shareable page works straight away. It is usually written into a block within the hour.
- What does it cost?
- $9 for a letter and $39 for wedding vows, paid once. There is no subscription and nothing to renew — the letter is not hosted, it is inscribed, so nothing is left to keep paying for. The Bitcoin network fee comes out of that price; you never pay it separately.
- How long can a letter be?
- 300 characters for a letter, 700 for wedding vows. The limit is a real one — every character is paid for in the transaction fee — and a letter that has to fit in that space is usually the better letter.
- What happens if Sealed Forever disappears?
- Your letter does not. It lives in the Bitcoin transaction, not on our servers — we keep a copy only so the page loads quickly. If this website went dark tomorrow, anyone could still read your words out of the raw transaction on a public block explorer, and the QR code on your certificate carries the transaction itself rather than our address, so it would still find them.
- Will my letter appear on your website for everyone to see?
- Sealed letters are shown in the gallery, and the letter is public on the blockchain in any case — that is inseparable from it being permanent. If you would rather yours were not in the gallery, write to us and we will take it out. Out of the chain we cannot take it, and neither can anyone else.
- Can I write in another language, or use emoji?
- Yes — anything you can type. The letter goes on chain as UTF-8, and the byte allowance is generous enough for accents, umlauts, ñ and emoji alike. The counter under the composer shows characters and bytes together, so you can see exactly what you are spending.
- Can I give one as a gift?
- Often that is exactly what it is. There is nothing to post: what you give is the letter and its page — the link, or the certificate printed, or the code from it engraved on something. If it needs to arrive on a particular day, write it a few days early. The chain is quick; you should not be.
- Can I get a refund?
- Until the transaction is broadcast, yes — write to us and we will refund it. After that the words are on the chain and the network fee is spent, so there is nothing left to undo, and that permanence is what you paid for. If something went wrong at our end, tell us anyway; we would rather hear it.
Still wondering something?
The questions we could not guess are the useful ones. Write to us — a person reads it, and a person answers.