Do you Create your Own Seed Phrase?
A mnemonic seed phrase represents a randomly generated number as a sequence of words.
You just purchased a shiny new hardware wallet or are configuring a new hot wallet. Do you trust the software to give you a seed phrase or do you just want to create one yourself? The Software will give you a 12 or 24 word seed phrase.
What if you simply browse to GitHub and create your own.
I will randomly pick 24 words.
Next, I will open MetaMask.io and choose to Import a new wallet.
I will now enter the words above to create my wallet.
It will FAIL to create my wallet. Your seed phrase is more than a bunch of randomly chosen words. It was generated using a specific standard known as the BIP39. The last word of BIP39 seed phrase is called a checksum.
The purpose of the last word (checksum) is to ensure the seed phrase is following the rules and structure described in the BIP39 standard.Â
Now do you see why you simply can’t chose any BIP39 words and have a valid seed phrase?
Mind-blowing.
Also, we as humans are terrible at randomness so creating your own seed phrase might not be the best idea.
So do you not trust the software to make the seed phrase? Trust this more below?
Coin Flipping
Use Dice
Play Hopscotch
Knee Slaps
Playing Cards
Count
Dominoes
Point is . . . . don’t do this.
I am not going to spend hours creating my own seed phrase. I will simply generate one using the Trezor command line on an air gapped machine in a secure fashion
In my next post, I will show you how.