Nowadays, crypto wallets come as a secure and trusted storage of tokens. They are widely used together with e-wallets, with the main difference of storing funds — crypto wallets store altcoins. However, since we live in a digital era, where a great portion of purchases are made online, e-wallets for tokens are a handy solution.
Crypto wallets allow for transferring funds, making purchases, converting tokens, and gaining assets on the crypto exchange market. They boast high security, a fast speed of transfer processing, decentralized systems, and anonymity, which is why they are popular among crypto holders.
Yet, since such platforms deal with huge amounts of money and crypto funds, they can become a target of hackers and scammers. Thus, it’s essential to ensure the high security of your crypto wallet. A seed phrase is used as one of the measures to prevent unauthorized access to accounts and recover profiles when passwords are lost.
The Difference between Seed Phrases and Private Keys
To clarify the difference between both concepts, it’s necessary to understand what the seed phrase is. It’s a set of 12 or 14 randomly generated words. The phrase is senseless, and words do not have any relation to each other to avoid the probability of guessing. Usually, clients are suggested to keep or save it in a reliable place. This phrase is needed when the crypto wallet holder forgets his password and can’t get access to his account. In this case, he’s asked to enter this phrase.
Private keys are provided to users to prove their identities when initiating cryptocurrency transactions. They are used as the last step to confirm transaction processing.
Both methods are applied to safeguard crypto wallets and guarantee sufficient protection against illegal actions and money theft. However, each of them has a more specific designation and is used for different purposes.
How Does a Seed Phrase Work?
The seed phrase is generated upon new account registration. The algorithm of phrase generation is based on the BIP39 standard. It’s a protocol that describes how the algorithm works to form a mnemonic sentence from random words. These words are converted into a binary seed by a crypto wallet upon transaction processing. To put it simply, the BIP39 protocol consists of two components, namely, a binary seed and a mnemonic sentence.
The system has a catalog of about 2048 words and combines them randomly. Thus, seed phrases are generated randomly and have no meaning chains. The task of a crypto wallet holder is to remember the phrase. This step is crucial since if you forget the password, you’ll need this phrase. And if you don’t recall this phrase, the recovery process will be very complicated and time-consuming.
If you can’t recall the phrase or do not remember where you store it, it doesn’t mean that you can’t regain access to your account. Although the procedure is not an easy and quick one, it’s still possible to recover the crypto wallet. There is a crypto recovery company that offers high-quality certified services for effective wallet restoration. It uses advanced technologies, high-tech tools, and specialized software to detect possible combinations and identify correct passwords.
How to Store a Seed Phrase Safely?
Since the recovery phrase has such a big value for crypto wallet holders, it’s important to keep it safe. Experts provide crypto wallet holders with useful tips. The following methods help prevent loss:
- Keep it offline. Storing the phrase online or in linked devices increases the risk of hacking. It’s recommended to store the phrase on devices that do not have a connection to the Internet, which helps prevent cyberattacks and illegal actions.
- Write it down on paper and treat it as a valuable asset. This approach has both its pros and cons. Since it is kept completely offline, no hackers can get it. Moreover, it’s possible to keep it in a safe place, where no one can find it. Yet, paper can be easily lost. To cope with this problem, keep it in a secret place, to which no one has access. Find the best place to put a sheet of paper.
- Choose enhanced files and reliable passwords. If you still prefer to store the seed phrase in a digital device, make sure to insert it in a secure file or a closed folder and create a reliable password. Use access-control tools to prevent unauthorized access.
- Create backups. It’s advisable to make copies of the phrase and store it in different sources. This approach helps prevent troubles if you lose or forget the place of storage. Apply the above-mentioned rules to all copies, i.e. guarantee reliable storage to each backup.
After all, the first thing you should pay attention to is choosing a trusted platform for cryptocurrency wallet registration. A trusted provider of digital financial services guarantees compliance with seed phrase generation standards. Thus, the stage of selecting a trustworthy crypto platform is a vital step. Make sure that the provider has passed tests and audits; it should be highly recommended by the crypto community.
To summarize the information provided above, we would like to highlight the key advantages of seed phrase generation. Blockchain platforms widely implement this solution due to high protection against asset theft and loss of access to the account, user-oriented backup solutions, interoperability, cross-compatibility, and robust encryption.
To draw the line of the article, note that the seed phrase is one of the main aspects of crypto wallet registration. It’s important to write down the sentence from random words, remember it, and store it securely. If you lose the phrase, you’ll encounter lots of problems further if you forget the password and lose access to your assets.
