Seed phrase

A 12 or 24-word phrase that backs up your entire wallet. Lose it, lose your sats. Share it, lose your sats.

A seed phrase (also called a recovery phrase or mnemonic) is a list of 12 or 24 words that encodes the master key for a Bitcoin wallet. From this single phrase, the wallet can derive every private key, every public key, and every address it has ever generated.

The seed phrase is the most important thing to back up. Lose it and your wallet is unrecoverable — there is no central authority to ask for help. Share it with anyone (including someone claiming to be customer support) and they have full control of your sats.

Best practice: write the seed phrase on paper or stamp it on metal, store it somewhere only you can access (a safe, a safety deposit box), and never type it into any website or take a photo of it. Make at least two physical copies in different locations to protect against fire, flood, or loss.

ExampleA 12-word seed phrase: "wisdom slogan boy unable cherry exhaust knee horror dinner aisle leader rescue".

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Related terms

Glossary

Private key

The cryptographic secret that authorises spending Bitcoin. If someone gets your private key, they can spend your sats.

Glossary

BIP39

The standard for generating a wallet from a 12 or 24-word seed phrase.

Glossary

Self-custody

Holding your own Bitcoin private keys. Nobody can freeze, seize, or lose your sats — except you.

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