What Is a Recovery Phrase?
Your “mnemonic phrase” may also be referred to as a seed, seed phrase, recovery phrase, or BIP-39 phrase, as well as various combinations of these terms.
It is an ordered list of words that contains all the information needed to recover your wallet, meaning it allows you to regain access to your Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency assets stored on the blockchain.
A single recovery phrase gives full access to the associated wallet. This is because the wallet’s private keys are mathematically derived from the recovery phrase, which is why keeping it secure is extremely important.
A recovery phrase, also known as a mnemonic phrase, is a user-friendly wallet backup method introduced in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 39 (BIP-39). Your recovery phrase essentially represents a random number, and all of your private keys and addresses are mathematically derived from that number.
Key Features of a Recovery Phrase
A recovery phrase is typically made up of 12, 18, or 24 words selected from a standardized list of 2048 words, arranged in a specific order.
When writing down your recovery phrase, you must record each word exactly in the order shown.
Protecting the privacy and security of your recovery phrase is essential, otherwise your crypto assets may be at risk.
Properly backing up your recovery phrase ensures that you can recover your crypto assets even if your device is lost, damaged, or experiences hardware failure.
Important Notice
The UKey team will never ask you for your recovery phrase.
Scammers may impersonate UKey team members on social media or other platforms in an attempt to trick you into revealing your recovery phrase and other sensitive information, such as your mnemonic phrase, PIN, or password.
Record and Safely Store Your Recovery Phrase
The physical security of your recovery phrase backup is even more important than the security of the device itself.
Your UKey hardware wallet usually comes with blank recovery phrase cards. During wallet initialization, you should write down your recovery phrase on these cards and store them in a safe place. This is an essential step when setting up your UKey device.
If your UKey is lost or stolen, there is no need to panic. Without your PIN code, it is extremely difficult for anyone to access the device itself.
However, if someone obtains your recovery phrase, they can easily restore your wallet on another device or wallet application and gain access to your crypto assets.
When Backing Up Your UKey Device, You Should:
Make sure that every word is spelled correctly and written in the correct order.
Never create a digital copy of your recovery phrase, including backups stored through Dropbox, email, encrypted files, notes apps, or photos.
Protect your recovery phrase card carefully to prevent it from being stolen, lost, damaged, or exposed.