slip39 12.0.0

Standards-compliant SLIP-39 cryptocurrency seed generation and recovery, compatible with Trezor hardware wallets

Creating Ethereum, Bitcoin and other accounts is complex and fraught with potential for loss of funds.

A BIP-39 seed recovery phrase helps, but a single lapse in security dooms the account (and all derived accounts, in fact). If someone finds your recovery phrase (or you lose it), the accounts derived from that seed are /gone/.

The SLIP-39 standard allows you to split the seed between 1, 2, or more groups of several mnemonic recovery phrases. This is better, but creating such accounts is difficult; presently, only the Trezor supports these, and they can only be created "manually". Writing down 5 or more sets of 20 words is difficult, error-prone and time consuming.

Hardware Wallet "Seed" Configuration

Your keys, your Bitcoin. Not your keys, not your Bitcoin.

---Andreas Antonopoulos

The python-slip39 project (and the slip39-app) exists to assist in the safe creation, backup and documentation of Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) Wallet seeds and derived accounts, with various SLIP-39 sharing parameters. It generates the new random wallet seed, and generates the expected standard Ethereum account(s) (at m/44'/60'/0'/0/0 by default) and Bitcoin accounts (at Bech32 derivation path m/84'/0'/0'/0/0 by default), with wallet address and QR code (compatible with Trezor and Ledger derivations). It produces the required SLIP-39 phrases, and outputs a single PDF containing all the required printable cards to document the seed (and the specified derived accounts).

On an secure (ideally air-gapped) computer, new seeds can /safely/ be generated (without trusting this program) and the PDF saved to a USB drive for printing (or directly printed without the file being saved to disk.). Presently, =slip39= can output example ETH, BTC, LTC, DOGE, BSC, and XRP addresses derived from the seed, to /illustrate/ what accounts are associated with the backed-up seed. Recovery of the seed to a trezor-model-t is simple, by entering the mnemonics right on the device.

We also support the backup of existing insecure and unreliable 12- or 24-word BIP-39 Mnemonic Phrases as SLIP-39 Mnemonic cards, for existing BIP-39 hardware wallets like the ledger-nano, etc.! Recover from your existing BIP-39 Seed Phrase Mnemonic, select "Using BIP-39" (and enter your BIP-39 passphrase), and generate a set of SLIP-39 Mnemonic cards. Later, use the SLIP-39 App to recover from your SLIP-39 Mnemonic cards, click "Using BIP-39" to get your BIP-39 Mnemonic back, and use it (and your passphrase) to recover your accounts to your Ledger (or other) hardware wallet.

Output of BIP-38 or JSON encrypted Paper Wallets is also supported, for import into standard software cryptocurrency wallets.

The SLIP-39 App for Generation and Backup

Download the SLIP-39 App from slip39-download for Windows (.msi) or macOS (.dmg).

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) also supports Linux:

$ python3 -m pip install slip39[gui]
$ slip39-gui

Generating SLIP-39 on the Command Line

$ python3 -m slip39 -v Personal      # or run: slip39 -v Personal
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           First(1/1): Recover w/ 2 of 4 groups First(1), Second(1), Fam(2/4), Frens(2/6)
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           1st  1 sister     8 cricket   15 unhappy
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                2 acid       9 mental    16 ocean
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                3 acrobat   10 veteran   17 mayor
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                4 romp      11 phantom   18 promise
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                5 anxiety   12 grownup   19 wrote
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                6 laser     13 skunk     20 romp
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                7 cricket   14 anatomy
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           Second(1/1): Recover w/ 2 of 4 groups First(1), Second(1), Fam(2/4), Frens(2/6)
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           1st  1 sister     8 belong    15 spirit
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                2 acid       9 survive   16 royal
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                3 beard     10 home      17 often
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                4 romp      11 herd      18 silver
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                5 again     12 mountain  19 grocery
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                6 orbit     13 august    20 antenna
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                7 very      14 evening
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           Fam(2/4): Recover w/ 2 of 4 groups First(1), Second(1), Fam(2/4), Frens(2/6)
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           1st  1 sister     8 rainbow   15 husky
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                2 acid       9 swing     16 crowd
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                3 ceramic   10 credit    17 learn
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                4 roster    11 piece     18 priority
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                5 already   12 puny      19 hand
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                6 quiet     13 senior    20 watch
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                7 erode     14 listen
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           2nd  1 sister     8 holy      15 revenue
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                2 acid       9 execute   16 junction
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                3 ceramic   10 lift      17 elite
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                4 scared    11 spark     18 flexible
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                5 domestic  12 yoga      19 inform
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                6 exact     13 medical   20 predator
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39                7 finger    14 grief
...
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           ETH    m/44'/60'/0'/0/0    : 0x8FBCe53111817DcE01F9f4C4A6319eA1Ca0c3bf1
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           BTC    m/84'/0'/0'/0/0     : bc1q6u7qk0tepkxdm8wkhpqzwwy0w8zfls9yvghaxq
...
2022-01-26 13:55:30 slip39           Wrote SLIP39-encoded wallet for 'Personal' to: Personal-2022-01-26+13.55.30-ETH-0x8FBCe53111817DcE01F9f4C4A6319eA1Ca0c3bf1.pdf

Recover from SLIP-39 Mnemonics

Later, if you need to recover the Ethereum wallet, keep entering SLIP-39 mnemonics until the secret is recovered (invalid/duplicate mnemonics will be ignored):

$ python3 -m slip39.recovery -v      # or run: slip39-recovery -v
Enter 1st SLIP-39 mnemonic: sister acid acrobat romp anxiety laser cricket cricket mental veteran phantom grownup skunk anatomy unhappy ocean mayor promise wrote romp
2021-12-29 13:24:25 slip39.recovery  Could not recover SLIP-39 master secret with 1 supplied mnemonics: Insufficient number of mnemonic groups. The required number of groups is 2.
Enter 2nd SLIP-39 mnemonic: a bc
2021-12-29 13:24:53 slip39.recovery  Could not recover SLIP-39 master secret with 2 supplied mnemonics: Invalid mnemonic word 'a'.
Enter 3rd SLIP-39 mnemonic: sister acid ceramic roster already quiet erode rainbow swing credit piece puny senior listen husky crowd learn priority hand watch
2021-12-29 13:24:58 slip39.recovery  Could not recover SLIP-39 master secret with 3 supplied mnemonics: Invalid mnemonic word 'a'.
Enter 4th SLIP-39 mnemonic: sister acid ceramic scared domestic exact finger holy execute lift spark yoga medical grief revenue junction elite flexible inform predator
2021-12-29 13:25:14 slip39.recovery  Recovered SLIP-39 secret with 3 (1st, 3rd, 4th) of 4 supplied mnemonics
2021-12-29 13:25:14 slip39.recovery  Recovered SLIP-39 secret; To re-generate, send it to: python3 -m slip39 --secret -
32448aabb50cb6b022fdf17d960720df

Finally, regenerate the Ethereum wallet, perhaps including an encrypted JSON wallet file for import into a software wallet; note that the same Ethereum wallet address 0x8FBC...3bf1 is recovered:

$ python3 -m slip39 --secret 32448aabb50cb6b022fdf17d960720df --json -
2022-01-26 14:06:14 slip39           It is recommended to not use '-s|--secret <hex>'; specify '-' to read from input
2022-01-26 14:06:14 slip39           ETH    m/44'/60'/0'/0/0    : 0x8FBCe53111817DcE01F9f4C4A6319eA1Ca0c3bf1
2022-01-26 14:06:14 slip39           BTC    m/84'/0'/0'/0/0     : bc1q6u7qk0tepkxdm8wkhpqzwwy0w8zfls9yvghaxq
JSON key file password:
2022-01-26 14:06:21 slip39           Wrote JSON SLIP39's encrypted ETH wallet 0x8FBCe53111817DcE01F9f4C4A6319eA1Ca0c3bf1                                                 derived at m/44'/60'/0'/0/0 to: SLIP39-2022-01-26+14.06.14-ETH-0x8FBCe53111817DcE01F9f4C4A6319eA1Ca0c3bf1.json
2022-01-26 14:06:21 slip39           Wrote SLIP39-encoded wallet for '' to: SLIP39-2022-01-26+14.06.14-ETH-0x8FBCe53111817DcE01F9f4C4A6319eA1Ca0c3bf1.pdf

The whole toolchain is suitable for pipelining:

$ python3 -m slip39 --text --no-card -q \
    | sort -r \
    | python3 -m slip39.recovery \
    | python3 -m slip39 --secret - --no-card -q
2021-12-28 10:55:17 slip39           ETH m/44'/60'/0'/0/0    : 0x68dD9B59D5dF605f4e9612E8b427Ab31187E2C54
2021-12-28 10:55:18 slip39.recovery  Recovered SLIP-39 secret with 4 (1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th) of 8 supplied mnemonics
2021-12-28 10:55:18 slip39           ETH m/44'/60'/0'/0/0    : 0x68dD9B59D5dF605f4e9612E8b427Ab31187E2C54

SLIP-39 Mnemonic Cards PDF

Here's an example of PDF containing the SLIP-39 recovery mnemonic cards produced:

If desired, you can output encrypted "Paper Wallets", compatible for import into standard software cryptocurrency wallets (BIP-38 for Bitcoin, etc., and standard JSON wallets for Ethereum):