The seedtool utility allows you to generate and recover BIP-32 HD wallet master seeds using BIP-39 and SSKR formats. In addition, it supports viewing extended keys and addresses in different formats.
This guide assumes you have successfully completed with Seedtool Installation Instructions.
There are 4 ways to insert a seed into the seedtool:
A - Generate seed with Dice
B - Restore seed from BIP39
C - Restore seed from SSKR
D - Complete a randomly constructed BIP39 sentence
By rolling dice and typing the values, you can gather enough auditable entropy to generate a secure master seed. Rolling 50 dice gathers roughly 128 bits of entropy.
If you press C, 128 bits of TRNG entropy will be mixed in:
You can insert a key into the seedtool by entering its BIP-39 recovery mnemonic passphrase. From there you can generate SSKR shares.
If you possess enough shares of a SSKR set, you can recover the master seed with seedtool. From there you can generate the BIP-39 mnemonic passphrase which will allow you to use it with most wallets.
This is a way to generate your own seed without relying on hardware or software. See instructions
Once you have a seed through any of the prior flows, you can create BIP-39 and SSKR mnemonic passphrases. In addition, you can view extended public and private keys, wallet addresses etc.
The BIP-39 phrase is displayed and can be backed up in a secure offline fashion (e.g., hammering into metal).
SSKR requires some configuration choices to determine total number of shares and the required number of shares present to recover.
You can choose among different formats:
Extended public and private keys (XPUBs and XPRIVs) can be shown in different formats (base58, UR, QR) with different options: slip132, with derivation path and privkey. If privkey is selected, an extended private key (XPRIV) is shown. Derivation path can be manually set or chosen among standard ones: native segwit, nested segwit and cosigner. Cosigner is the one that can be used in multisignature setups.
You can choose to export seed in UR or QR-UR format.
A wallet can be exported in the 4 different formats (text, QR, UR and QR-UR):
By pressing 1 in Seed Present menu, you can choose among mainnet, testnet and regtest:
There are several common key management workflows that seedtool is useful for.
By using dice to generate a BIP-39 mnemonic passphrase, you can avoid trusting a particular hardware vendor's hardware. See: RNG subversion
To execute this flow with seedtool:
- Generate a new master seed using 50+ die rolls.
- Record your master BIP-39 backup in a secure manner (hammer into metal). This BIP-39 backup may be restored into most other wallets for common use.
- Optionally create a SSKR sharded backup set which can serve as long-term cold storage.
If you've already got a wallet in use, and have the BIP-39 backup for it, you can generate a SSKR backup set as well:
- Restore your seed in seedtool using your BIP-39 backup.
- Create a SSKR sharded backup.
If you need to recover your master seed and have enough shards from a SSKR backup set:
- Recover the master seed from the SSKR shards.
- Create a BIP-39 mnemonic which may then be directly restored into most wallets for use.