Wallet Best Practices

As cryptocurrency wallet technology has matured, certain common industry standards have emerged that make wallets broadly interoperable, easy to use, secure, and flexible. These standards also allow wallets to derive keys for multiple different cryptocurrencies, all from a single mnemonic. These common standards are:

• Mnemonic code words, based on BIP-39

• HD wallets, based on BIP-32

• Multipurpose HD wallet structure, based on BIP-43

• Multicurrency and multiaccount wallets, based on BIP-44

These standards may change or be obsoleted by future developments, but for now they form a set of interlocking technologies that have become the de facto wallet standard for most blockchain platforms and their cryptocurrencies.

The standards have been adopted by a broad range of software and hardware wallets, making all these wallets interoperable. A user can export a mnemonic generated in one of these wallets and import it to another wallet, recovering all keys and addresses.

Some examples of software wallets supporting these standards include (listed alphabetically) Jaxx, MetaMask, MyCrypto, and MyEtherWallet (MEW). Examples of hardware wallets supporting these standards include Keepkey, Ledger, and Trezor.

The following sections examine each of these technologies in detail.

Mnemonic Code Words (BIP-39)

Mnemonic code words are word sequences that encode a random number used as a seed to derive a deterministic wallet. The sequence of words is sufficient to recreate the seed, and from there recreate the wallet and all the derived keys. A wallet application that implements deterministic wallets with mnemonic words will show the user a sequence of 12 to 24 words when first creating a wallet. That sequence of words is the wallet backup, and can be used to recover and recreate all the keys in the same or any compatible wallet application. As we explained earlier, mnemonic word lists make it easier for users to back up wallets, because they are easy to read and correctly transcribe.

Mnemonic codes are defined in BIP-39. Note that BIP-39 is one implementation of a mnemonic code standard. There is a different standard, with a different set of words, used by the Electrum Bitcoin wallet and predating BIP-39. BIP-39 was proposed by the company behind the Trezor hardware wallet and is incompatible with Electrum’s implementation. However, BIP-39 has now achieved broad industry support across dozens of interoperable implementations and should be considered the de facto industry standard. Furthermore, BIP-39 can be used to produce multicurrency wallets supporting Ethereum, whereas Electrum seeds cannot.

BIP-39 defines the creation of a mnemonic code and seed, which we describe here in nine steps. For clarity, the process is split into two parts: steps 1 through 6 are shown in Generating mnemonic words and steps 7 through 9 are shown in From mnemonic to seed.

Generating mnemonic words

Mnemonic words are generated automatically by the wallet using the standardized process defined in BIP-39. The wallet starts from a source of entropy, adds a checksum, and then maps the entropy to a word list:

1. Create a cryptographically random sequence S of 128 to 256 bits.

2. Create a checksum of S by taking the first length-of-S ÷ 32 bits of the SHA-256 hash of S.

3. Add the checksum to the end of the random sequence S.

4. Divide the sequence-and-checksum concatenation into sections of 11 bits.

5. Map each 11-bit value to a word from the predefined dictionary of 2,048 words.

6. Create the mnemonic code from the sequence of words, maintaining the order.

Generating entropy and encoding as mnemonic words shows how entropy is used to generate mnemonic words.

Mnemonic codes: entropy and word length shows the relationship between the size of the entropy data and the length of mnemonic codes in words.

Table 1. Mnemonic codes: entropy and word length

Figure 2. Generating entropy and encoding as mnemonic words

From mnemonic to seed

The mnemonic words represent entropy with a length of 128 to 256 bits. The entropy is then used to derive a longer (512-bit) seed through the use of the key-stretching function PBKDF2. The seed produced is used to build a deterministic wallet and derive its keys.

The key-stretching function takes two parameters: the mnemonic and a salt. The purpose of a salt in a key-stretching function is to make it difficult to build a lookup table enabling a brute-force attack. In the BIP-39 standard, the salt has another purpose: it allows the introduction of a passphrase that serves as an additional security factor protecting the seed, as we will describe in more detail in Optional passphrase in BIP-39.

The process described in steps 7 through 9 continues from the process described in the previous section:

1. The first parameter to the PBKDF2 key-stretching function is the mnemonic produced in step 6.

2. The second parameter to the PBKDF2 key-stretching function is a salt. The salt is composed of the string constant “mnemonic” concatenated with an optional user-supplied passphrase.

3. PBKDF2 stretches the mnemonic and salt parameters using 2,048 rounds of hashing with the HMAC-SHA512 algorithm, producing a 512-bit value as its final output. That 512-bit value is the seed.

From mnemonic to seed shows how a mnemonic is used to generate a seed.

Figure 3. From mnemonic to seed

Tables #mnemonic_128_no_pass, #mnemonic_128_w_pass, and #mnemonic_256_no_pass show some examples of mnemonic codes and the seeds they produce.

Table 2. 128-bit entropy mnemonic code, no passphrase, resulting seed

Table 3. 128-bit entropy mnemonic code, with passphrase, resulting seed

Table 4. 256-bit entropy mnemonic code, no passphrase, resulting seed

Optional passphrase in BIP-39

The BIP-39 standard allows the use of an optional passphrase in the derivation of the seed. If no passphrase is used, the mnemonic is stretched with a salt consisting of the constant string “mnemonic”, producing a specific 512-bit seed from any given mnemonic. If a passphrase is used, the stretching function produces a different seed from that same mnemonic. In fact, given a single mnemonic, every possible passphrase leads to a different seed. Essentially, there is no “wrong” passphrase. All passphrases are valid and they all lead to different seeds, forming a vast set of possible uninitialized wallets. The set of possible wallets is so large (2512) that there is no practical possibility of brute-forcing or accidentally guessing one that is in use, as long as the passphrase has sufficient complexity and length.

The optional passphrase creates two important features:

• A second factor (something memorized) that makes a mnemonic useless on its own, protecting mnemonic backups from compromise by a thief.

• A form of plausible deniability or “duress wallet,” where a chosen passphrase leads to a wallet with a small amount of funds, used to distract an attacker from the “real” wallet that contains the majority of funds.

However, it is important to note that the use of a passphrase also introduces the risk of loss:

• If the wallet owner is incapacitated or dead and no one else knows the passphrase, the seed is useless and all the funds stored in the wallet are lost forever.

• Conversely, if the owner backs up the passphrase in the same place as the seed, it defeats the purpose of a second factor.

While passphrases are very useful, they should only be used in combination with a carefully planned process for backup and recovery, considering the possibility of heirs surviving the owner being able to recover the cryptocurrency.

Working with mnemonic codes

BIP-39 is implemented as a library in many different programming languages. For example:

python-mnemonic

The reference implementation of the standard by the SatoshiLabs team that proposed BIP-39, in Python

ConsenSys/eth-lightwallet

Lightweight JS Ethereum wallet for nodes and browser (with BIP-39)

npm/bip39

JavaScript implementation of Bitcoin BIP-39: Mnemonic code for generating deterministic keys

There is also a BIP-39 generator implemented in a standalone web page (A BIP-39 generator as a standalone web page), which is extremely useful for testing and experimentation. The Mnemonic Code Converter generates mnemonics, seeds, and extended private keys. It can be used offline in a browser, or accessed online.

Figure 4. A BIP-39 generator as a standalone web page

Creating an HD Wallet from the Seed

HD wallets are created from a single root seed, which is a 128-, 256-, or 512-bit random number. Most commonly, this seed is generated from a mnemonic as detailed in the previous section.

Every key in the HD wallet is deterministically derived from this root seed, which makes it possible to recreate the entire HD wallet from that seed in any compatible HD wallet. This makes it easy to export, back up, restore, and import HD wallets containing thousands or even millions of keys by transferring just the mnemonic from which the root seed is derived.

HD Wallets (BIP-32) and Paths (BIP-43/44)

Most HD wallets follow the BIP-32 standard, which has become a de facto industry standard for deterministic key generation.

We won’t be discussing all the details of BIP-32 here, only the components necessary to understand how it is used in wallets. The main important aspect is the tree-like hierarchical relationships that it is possible for the derived keys to have, as you can see in HD wallet: a tree of keys generated from a single seed. It’s also important to understand the ideas of extended keys and hardened keys, which are explained in the following sections.

There are dozens of interoperable implementations of BIP-32 offered in many software libraries. These are mostly designed for Bitcoin wallets, which implement addresses in a different way, but share the same key-derivation implementation as Ethereum’s BIP-32-compatible wallets. Use one designed for Ethereum, or adapt one from Bitcoin by adding an Ethereum address encoding library.

There is also a BIP-32 generator implemented as a standalone web page that is very useful for testing and experimentation with BIP-32.

Extended public and private keys

In BIP-32 terminology, keys can be “extended.” With the right mathematical operations, these extended “parent” keys can be used to derive “child” keys, thus producing the hierarchy of keys and addresses described earlier. A parent key doesn’t have to be at the top of the tree. It can be picked out from anywhere in the tree hierarchy. Extending a key involves taking the key itself and appending a special chain code to it. A chain code is a 256-bit binary string that is mixed with each key to produce child keys.

If the key is a private key, it becomes an extended private key distinguished by the prefix xprv:

xprv9s21ZrQH143K2JF8RafpqtKiTbsbaxEeUaMnNHsm5o6wCW3z8ySyH4UxFVSfZ8n7ESu7fgir8i...

An extended public key is distinguished by the prefix xpub:

xpub661MyMwAqRbcEnKbXcCqD2GT1di5zQxVqoHPAgHNe8dv5JP8gWmDproS6kFHJnLZd23tWevhdn...

A very useful characteristic of HD wallets is the ability to derive child public keys from parent public keys, without having the private keys. This gives us two ways to derive a child public key: either directly from the child private key, or from the parent public key.

An extended public key can be used, therefore, to derive all of the public keys (and only the public keys) in that branch of the HD wallet structure.

This shortcut can be used to create very secure public key–only deployments, where a server or application has a copy of an extended public key, but no private keys whatsoever. That kind of deployment can produce an infinite number of public keys and Ethereum addresses, but cannot spend any of the money sent to those addresses. Meanwhile, on another, more secure server, the extended private key can derive all the corresponding private keys to sign transactions and spend the money.

One common application of this method is to install an extended public key on a web server that serves an ecommerce application. The web server can use the public key derivation function to create a new Ethereum address for every transaction (e.g., for a customer shopping cart), and will not have any private keys that would be vulnerable to theft. Without HD wallets, the only way to do this is to generate thousands of Ethereum addresses on a separate secure server and then preload them on the ecommerce server. That approach is cumbersome and requires constant maintenance to ensure that the server doesn’t run out of keys, hence the preference to use extended public keys from HD wallets.

Another common application of this solution is for cold-storage or hardware wallets. In that scenario, the extended private key can be stored in a hardware wallet, while the extended public key can be kept online. The user can create “receive” addresses at will, while the private keys are safely stored offline. To spend the funds, the user can use the extended private key in an offline signing Ethereum client, or sign transactions on the hardware wallet device.

Hardened child key derivation

The ability to derive a branch of public keys from an extended public key, or xpub, is very useful, but it comes with a potential risk. Access to an xpub does not give access to child private keys. However, because the xpub contains the chain code (used to derive child public keys from the parent public key), if a child private key is known, or somehow leaked, it can be used with the chain code to derive all the other child private keys. A single leaked child private key, together with a parent chain code, reveals all the private keys of all the children. Worse, the child private key together with a parent chain code can be used to deduce the parent private key.

To counter this risk, HD wallets use an alternative derivation function called hardened derivation, which “breaks” the relationship between parent public key and child chain code. The hardened derivation function uses the parent private key to derive the child chain code, instead of the parent public key. This creates a “firewall” in the parent/child sequence, with a chain code that cannot be used to compromise a parent or sibling private key.

In simple terms, if you want to use the convenience of an xpub to derive branches of public keys without exposing yourself to the risk of a leaked chain code, you should derive it from a hardened parent, rather than a normal parent. Best practice is to have the level-1 children of the master keys always derived by hardened derivation, to prevent compromise of the master keys.

Index numbers for normal and hardened derivation

It is clearly desirable to be able to derive more than one child key from a given parent key. To manage this, an index number is used. Each index number, when combined with a parent key using the special child derivation function, gives a different child key. The index number used in the BIP-32 parent-to-child derivation function is a 32-bit integer. To easily distinguish between keys derived through the normal (unhardened) derivation function versus keys derived through hardened derivation, this index number is split into two ranges. Index numbers between 0 and 231–1 (0x0 to 0x7FFFFFFF) are used only for normal derivation. Index numbers between 231 and 232–1 (0x80000000 to 0xFFFFFFFF) are used only for hardened derivation. Therefore, if the index number is less than 231, the child is normal, whereas if the index number is equal to or above 231, the child is hardened.

To make the index numbers easier to read and display, the index numbers for hardened children are displayed starting from zero, but with a prime symbol. The first normal child key is therefore displayed as 0, whereas the first hardened child (index 0x80000000) is displayed as 0'. In sequence, then, the second hardened key would have index of 0x80000001 and would be displayed as 1', and so on. When you see an HD wallet index i', that means 231 + i.

HD wallet key identifier (path)

Keys in an HD wallet are identified using a “path” naming convention, with each level of the tree separated by a slash (/) character (see HD wallet path examples). Private keys derived from the master private key start with m. Public keys derived from the master public key start with M. Therefore, the first child private key of the master private key is m/0. The first child public key is M/0. The second grandchild of the first child is m/0/1, and so on.

The “ancestry” of a key is read from right to left, until you reach the master key from which it was derived. For example, identifier m/x/y/z describes the key that is the z-th child of key m/x/y, which is the y-th child of key m/x, which is the x-th child of m.

Table 5. HD wallet path examples

Navigating the HD wallet tree structure

The HD wallet tree structure is tremendously flexible. The flip side of this is that it also allows for unbounded complexity: each parent extended key can have 4 billion children: 2 billion normal children and 2 billion hardened children. Each of those children can have another 4 billion children, and so on. The tree can be as deep as you want, with a potentially infinite number of generations. With all that potential, it can become quite difficult to navigate these very large trees.

Two BIPs offer a way to manage this potential complexity by creating standards for the structure of HD wallet trees. BIP-43 proposes the use of the first hardened child index as a special identifier that signifies the “purpose” of the tree structure. Based on BIP-43, an HD wallet should use only one level-1 branch of the tree, with the index number defining the purpose of the wallet by identifying the structure and namespace of the rest of the tree. More specifically, an HD wallet using only branch m/i'/… is intended to signify a specific purpose and that purpose is identified by index number i.

Extending that specification, BIP-44 proposes a multicurrency multiaccount structure signified by setting the “purpose” number to 44’. All HD wallets following the BIP-44 structure are identified by the fact that they only use one branch of the tree: m/44’/*.

BIP-44 specifies the structure as consisting of five predefined tree levels:

m / purpose' / coin_type' / account' / change / address_index

The first level, purpose', is always set to 44'. The second level, coin_type', specifies the type of cryptocurrency coin, allowing for multicurrency HD wallets where each currency has its own subtree under the second level. There are several currencies defined in a standards document called SLIP0044; for example, Ethereum is m/44'/60', Ethereum Classic is m/44'/61', Bitcoin is m/44'/0', and Testnet for all currencies is m/44'/1'.

The third level of the tree is account', which allows users to subdivide their wallets into separate logical subaccounts for accounting or organizational purposes. For example, an HD wallet might contain two Ethereum “accounts”: m/44'/60'/0' and m/44'/60'/1'. Each account is the root of its own subtree.

Because BIP-44 was created originally for Bitcoin, it contains a “quirk” that isn’t relevant in the Ethereum world. On the fourth level of the path, change, an HD wallet has two subtrees: one for creating receiving addresses and one for creating change addresses. Only the “receive” path is used in Ethereum, as there is no necessity for a change address like there is in Bitcoin. Note that whereas the previous levels used hardened derivation, this level uses normal derivation. This is to allow the account level of the tree to export extended public keys for use in a nonsecured environment. Usable addresses are derived by the HD wallet as children of the fourth level, making the fifth level of the tree the address_index. For example, the third receiving address for Ethereum payments in the primary account would be M/44'/60'/0'/0/2. BIP-44 HD wallet structure examples shows a few more examples.

Table 6. BIP-44 HD wallet structure examples