What is a seed phrase?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 5 min
In short
A seed phrase is a list of 12 to 24 words that can regenerate every private key in a wallet. If your device breaks, the words rebuild the wallet. The flip side is that anyone who reads them owns your funds.
Key points
- A word list that restores every key in the wallet
- The BIP39 standard means other wallets can restore it too
- The exact order matters as much as the words
- Keep it offline, on paper or a metal plate
Definition
A human-writable backup that encodes a wallet's master random value as words from a fixed list. Every private key in the wallet is derived from it by a defined procedure.
Copying a raw private key by hand is impractical. BIP39 instead encodes the wallet's master value as 12 or 24 words drawn from a fixed list of 2,048. The words were chosen so that the first four letters identify each one unambiguously.
From that phrase, a defined derivation path produces key after key, which is why one phrase restores your Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses together. A MetaMask phrase entered into another wallet yields the same addresses because the procedure is a shared standard.
Most people write the phrase on the supplied card or a metal plate and store copies in two separate places, assuming fire and water damage. Photographing it, saving it in a password app or messaging it to family each create a single point at which everything can be taken.
Watch out for
- · No legitimate wallet or support agent will ever ask for your seed phrase
- · 'Enter it to sync your wallet' is a standard scam script
- · Splitting a few words across locations often just means you cannot restore it yourself