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How to redact a crypto screenshot so nothing can be recovered

A wallet screenshot for a support ticket, an accountant or a forum post carries more than the number you meant to share. What to cover in a crypto screenshot, how to cover it on iPhone, Mac, Windows and Android so it stays covered, how to check the file before it leaves, and when to compose the screenshot instead.

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Cover every identifying item with a solid, fully opaque box, never blur, pixelation or a highlighter, then share a new copy of the image rather than the edited original. In a crypto screenshot that means the address, the QR code, transaction hashes, exact amounts and times, and anything that names the wallet.

Crypto wallet portfolio screen composed in My Larp Wallet: a wallet named Meridian, a total balance above a list of 5 tokens showing each holding and its change over the day, in a dark theme with a lavender accent.
A mockup, not a wallet, composed in My Larp Wallet. It holds no funds and connects to no blockchain.

Why a crypto screenshot is harder to redact

The reasons are ordinary. A transfer is stuck and support wants to see the screen. An accountant needs proof of a transaction date. A forum asks what a strange token in your wallet is. Or you just want to show friends a screen without showing them everything.

On a bank statement, redaction hides one number and the rest is harmless. A crypto screenshot works the other way: almost every element is a key into a public record. Bitcoin.org's privacy page says "anyone can see the balance and all transactions of any address." For a single transaction, ethereum.org lists what a block explorer shows: the hash, the time, the sender, the recipient, the tokens moved and the fee. It even notes that people are often advised to use several accounts "so that your assets and value can't be easily tracked." One uncovered item can undo that.

What to cover in a crypto screenshot

ItemWhy it identifies the wallet
The address, full or shortenedA full address is the account. A shortened one, next to an amount and a time, narrows the search to very few candidates.
Any QR codeIt encodes the address. QRcode.com, run by the code's inventor, explains that QR codes carry error correction "to restore data if the code is dirty or damaged", so a partly covered code may still scan. Cover all of it.
Transaction hashes and explorer linksOne hash opens the whole transaction, including both addresses.
Exact amounts and timestampsTogether they are a search query. Rounding the amount in a caption does not change what the image shows.
NamesAccount names, a .eth style name that points to an address, your profile picture if it is a unique NFT.
An unusual token listA rare token or a distinctive mix can be enough to pick one wallet out.
The edges of the screenNotifications, other tabs, the browser's address bar, bookmarks, the phone's lock screen widgets.

A recovery phrase or private key does not belong in a screenshot at all, redacted or not. Delete any such image and its copies in cloud backups. Kraken's support center warns that someone who gets remote access to a device can open and copy screenshots and wallet backups.

How to properly redact a screenshot, step by step

  1. Crop first. Keep only the part of the screen the reader needs. Less area means fewer items to cover.
  2. Cover with a solid shape. A filled rectangle at full opacity, in a flat color. Bishop Fox, after showing that pixelated text can be recovered, put it bluntly: "use black bars covering the whole text. Never use anything else. No pixelization, no blurring, no fuzzing, no swirling."
  3. Cover the whole item. The full hash, the full QR code, the full address line, with a margin around each.
  4. Share a new file, not the edited original. Export a copy, or open the redacted image full screen and take a new screenshot of it. A fresh capture holds only the pixels you can see.
  5. Check the copy. Zoom in on every box. Open the file in a different app. On a duplicate, push the brightness and exposure all the way up: anything that shows through was not covered.
  6. Mind photos of screens. A screenshot is cleaner than a photo of a screen. Apple's safety guide notes that photos can embed the location where they were taken, and that the people you share them with may be able to read it.

On iPhone

In Photos, open the screenshot, tap Markup, then Add Shape. Apple's guide says you can set a shape's fill color and opacity: choose a solid fill at full opacity. Do not rely on the marker. 9to5Mac tested it in 2018 and found it "slightly transparent" even after several coats, so lightening the image brought the text back. The pen and marker have their own opacity slider, which is one more reason to prefer a filled shape.

On Mac

After Shift-Command-4, click the thumbnail that appears in the corner to edit the screenshot, and draw filled shapes over each item. If the screenshot ends up inside a PDF, Preview has a dedicated Redact tool. Intego notes that once the document is saved, the redaction is permanent, so work on a copy.

On Windows

Snipping Tool can "Quick redact" text it recognizes, but Microsoft lists only email addresses and phone numbers. It does not know what a wallet address, a transaction hash or a recovery phrase is, so cover those yourself. Keep the app updated: in March 2023 Microsoft patched a flaw (CVE-2023-28303) in which Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch left cropped-out image data inside the saved file.

On Android

The same flaw, nicknamed aCropalypse, first hit the Markup tool on Google Pixel phones (CVE-2023-21036). BleepingComputer reported that roughly 80% of the original image could be recovered, and that images shared in the five years before the March 2023 fix remain exposed. On any phone, update first, then follow the steps above and share a fresh capture.

What redaction cannot fix

Perfect black boxes still leave the context. A screenshot posted on the day of a transfer, showing a token and a rounded amount, can be matched to the chain by someone patient (why redaction is weaker than it looks). The person you send it to also learns that this wallet is yours, which may be fine for an accountant and less fine for a public forum.

The original also stays behind: in your camera roll, in the recently deleted album, in cloud backups and in the chat where you first sent it to yourself. Redacting the copy does nothing to those.

For a screenshot meant to be shared, compose it instead

Support tickets and tax questions need the real screen, redacted and sent privately. Many screenshots are not like that. A post about a pump, a tutorial step, a reaction meme, a slide that shows what a wallet looks like: in all of them the numbers illustrate a point, and nothing on the screen needs to belong to you.

For those, there is a cleaner route than covering your own wallet. A larp wallet, also called a crypto wallet app simulator, is an app that shows a believable crypto wallet screen built from the balances you type in, for videos, skits, pitch decks and demos. It holds no funds and touches no blockchain.

A screen composed that way has no address to leak, no hash to look up and no original in your camera roll that tells a different story. There is nothing under the boxes, because there are no boxes. My Larp Wallet is one such app, a paid one that we make (how a larp wallet works). The same logic applies to video, where blur has to hold on every frame (blurring a wallet balance in a video), and to posts about gains (what one gains screenshot gives away).

Where the line is

Sources

Questions

How do you properly redact a screenshot?

Crop to what is needed, cover each sensitive item completely with a solid shape at full opacity, then export or capture a new copy and share that copy. Blur, pixelation and semi-transparent markers can be partly reversed, and a past bug in two screenshot editors left cropped pixels inside the saved file.

How do you redact a screenshot on iPhone?

Open it in Photos, tap Markup and add a rectangle shape with a solid fill color and full opacity over each item. Avoid the marker for this: a 2018 test by 9to5Mac found it slightly transparent, so lightening the image revealed the text beneath. Then share a fresh copy.

Is blurring enough to hide a wallet address in a screenshot?

No. Security researchers at Bishop Fox showed that pixelated text can be recovered and recommend solid black bars only. For a wallet address, even a few visible characters next to an amount and a time can help someone find it on a block explorer.

What should you hide in a crypto wallet screenshot?

The full or shortened address, any QR code, transaction hashes and explorer links, exact amounts with timestamps, account names or .eth style names, an unusual token or NFT that points to you, notifications, other tabs, and never a recovery phrase or private key, which should not be in a screenshot at all.

Can a cropped screenshot be uncropped?

On unpatched tools, sometimes. In 2023 a flaw named aCropalypse let parts of cropped or edited images be recovered from Google Pixel's Markup tool and from Windows Snipping Tool. Both were fixed that year, but images edited earlier may still hold the hidden data, which is why sharing a fresh copy is safer.

Everything included

Compose the screen instead of describing it

Your tokens, your amounts, your accent, laid out in the browser, then opened on your phone at your own address. A mockup, and we never pretend otherwise.

  • Unlimited tokens, amounts and accents
  • Add it to your home screen; it opens like an app
  • Live market prices that keep moving
  • Your own address, mylarpwallet.com/you

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