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Understand the Slip39 wallet backup standard
20 Oct 2018

BIP39 is the most common wallet backup standard. It uses a single recovery phrase of 12 or 24 words to restore your wallet accounts.

SLIP39 ↗ is a standard for creating more secure and flexible backups of crypto wallets. Instead of giving you one recovery phrase, with SLIP39 you can split your recovery phrase into parts. You decide how many parts you want, and how many are needed to recover your wallet accounts.

You can distribute these parts among people you trust or store them in different locations. This ensures that even if some parts are lost or compromised, you can still recover your wallet accounts.

caution
Losing one part may not cause immediate loss of funds, but you must still keep every recovery phrase safe and private. The Keycard team will never ask you for this information, and anyone who does is trying to steal your funds.

AspectSLIP39 backupBIP39 backup
Recovery phraseSeveral parts of 20 words eachOne phrase of 12 or 24 words
Number of phrases generatedCustomizable (1-16)One
Phrases needed for recoveryCustomizable (set your own threshold)One
Backup redundancyMultiple parts stored across people or placesRisk for single point of failure
Wallet supportLimited support compared to BIP39, especially outside BitcoinWidely supported in hardware wallets and wallet apps
note
SLIP39 offers enhanced security through multiple fragments and redundancy, while BIP39 is more established and easier to use for most wallets.

With Keycard and Keycard Shell, you can create and import SLIP39 wallet accounts. The process is similar to that of BIP39 backups.

  • Generate wallet accounts with SLIP39: When generating the recovery phrases, choose how many parts to create and the threshold for recovery. For example, if you want six parts with a threshold of three, Keycard Shell generates six recovery phrases, each 20 words long. You must record all of them, but any three are needed to restore the wallet accounts.
  • Import a wallet account with SLIP39: When importing, enter one recovery phrase for each required part. For example, if your threshold is three, you enter any three sets of 20 words from your recovery phrases.
note
Keycard and Keycard Shell work with a wallet app. If you use SLIP39, choose a wallet app that supports both Keycard and SLIP39, such as Rabby, Sparrow, or BlueWallet.

Should I choose SLIP39?

Choose SLIP39 if you want more flexibility and redundancy in your wallet backup. You don't have to be a technical expert to use it. Just make sure you keep all parts safe and accessible.

What happens if I lose some parts?

As long as you still have the required number of parts, you can restore your wallet accounts. If you lose more parts than the ones you need to restore your wallet (your threshold), you lose access to your wallet accounts permanently.

Can I convert my existing wallet account into a SLIP39 wallet account?

No. Keycard and Keycard Shell don't support converting a BIP39 backup into SLIP39. To use SLIP39, you must create a new wallet account with SLIP39 backup and transfer your assets into it.

Is SLIP39 the same as multisig?

No. A SLIP39 wallet account uses a single key. A multisig wallet account consists of multiple keys.

Last edited
20 Oct 2018