Seed phrase
Recovery phrase · Mnemonic · Recovery seed
A seed phrase is a list of 12 to 24 words that encodes the random secret from which a wallet derives all of its keys, so that the words alone can rebuild the wallet on any compatible device.
The words come from a fixed list and, under BIP39, encode 128 to 256 bits of randomness plus a short checksum. The wallet turns them into a seed, and every key and address follows from that seed in a fixed order.
Because the seed phrase is the whole wallet, it is both the backup and the biggest risk. Anyone who reads it can take the coins; anyone who loses it, with no other copy, loses them.
It does not store balances or history. A restored wallet finds those again by deriving the same addresses and looking them up on the blockchain. See how to test a seed phrase backup.
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