Recovering Missing Words from Seed Phrases: Up to Four Words Feasible, Beyond That Impractical
Jul 17, 2024
Recovering missing words from a seed phrase is feasible but challenging, with industry experts suggesting that up to four words can be recovered with current computational tools. Seed phrases, typically 12 or 24 words long, are essential for accessing cryptocurrency wallets and are designed to be highly secure. They are derived from a standardised list of 2,048 words under BIP-39, making brute-forcing the entire seed phrase impractically difficult. However, recovery of up to three or four missing words can be attempted using tools like BTCRecover or ChatGPT. The process becomes exponentially more complex as more words are missing, and recovering more than four words is generally considered impractical due to the enormous computational power required. To ensure security, it is crucial to maintain complete and accurate backups of seed phrases, considering metal backup solutions to prevent accidental loss.
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