Generating a seed and/or a key from live biometric indicia, such that all the information necessary for generating the seed and/or the key is not stored, is provided. A method comprises receiving and enrolling a biometric template from a user; assigning an optimization value to the enrolled biometric template; encrypting an item of test data using the optimization value, such that the optimization value is an encryption seed; storing the encrypted item of test data on the storage medium; destroying the encryption seed after encrypting the item of test data; receiving a live biometric template; comparing the templates and determining an interval based on a probability that the templates are specific to the same user; iteratively testing values within the interval to identify the value in the interval for decrypting the encrypted item of test data; and generating the key using the seed.