Bitcoin Forum

Everything I read suggests I use a random word generator...

Why is randomly picking words from a dictionary un advised?

Well, that is what a random word generator does. Why do you think it is unadvised?

The first and the second sentence are more or less the same thing (assuming the process of generating and picking are both actually random and it's not too short, e.g. 10 words from a set of 5k words is going to be more than enough)), but I'm going to have to assume we both have a different definition of "randomly picking words" - your method not having much to do with randomness.

The answer to your question is very simple - it is unadvised because >99% of people are going to be picking words non-randomly, oblivious to their biases.

If you use a dictionary, make sure you don't end up using them in alphabetical order just because you started at the beginning ;)

or mostly near the middle coz you think it's non-random to select the first or last pages

I don't understand why you would use a dictionary when there are perfectly good word generators?

That's what I was thinking!! I chose a large one lol.

It was the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Oxford_Dictionary , just flipped to random pages and chose from a location.

Because it does not have enough randomness. For one, there will be no numbers or symbols in dictionary words. It is like having a internet bank account protected by a short password consist of only alphabets.

Do not store large amount of coins on an address generated by brainwallet. It is easier to "guess" by hackers.

numbers or symbols not required.  picking random words from a dictionary is fine as long as you pick enough words.

if you pick them truly random then it is good , the thing that is not advised is using a phrase , or sentence because it can be guessed.

for example if you choose a catch phrase from a movie or something like that it can be in a dictionary used by a simple code to brute force the password and hack the private key.

And use dice.

sweet!!  No complete random, just going to random pages, no phases, the dictionary I used has over 200k words... LMAO!

agree.
Dice would add more security as it would ensure the page flipping and word selection is not biased.

It is unadvised mainly because it lacks true randomness. It can easily be guessed by hackers if they want to, especially if it's a common phrase, a sentence, a quotation or any saying. Never ever store large amounts of bitcoins in a brainwallet because they are more prone to hacking compared to a traditional bitcoin wallet.

It is actually better to use a smaller dictionary and more words, because it will be easier to remember.
If you have some weird words you're not familiar with, you could have trouble recalling them later.
Just a consideration.

As far as how many words you need, its pretty simple.  You want 128-160 bits of entropy.
Less than 128, you're risking a potential brute force attack, and more than 160 is overkill
because there's only 2^160 addresses.

2^128 ~= 3.4 x 10^39
2^160 ~= 1.4 x 10^49

So you follow the formula X^Y > 2^128, where X is the number of words in your
dictionary and Y is the number of words in your phrase. 

For example, if you have 200,000 words, as you say, then you should use 8 words.
200,000^8 > 2^128.

If you have a dictionary with 5,000 words, you should use 11 words.

probably you'll became an victim of 'dictionary attack' :P

The point of a BRAIN wallet is that you could, under any circumstances recover the wallet as long as the passphrase to generate the seed is inside your brain. This means that, if your pass it too complex its useless because you will forget it, if its too predictable its useless because you will lose it against a brute force attack of some sort. Randomly generated words are a good intermediate.

Wouldn't adding ╚  and ╔ to the front and back insanely increase the brute force attack time frame?

assuming each character is one of 128 possible ASCII characters,
then each one adds at most 7 bits of entropy if done in a random
manner.

adding specific characters in specific places that you mention
in a forum, less so.

*emphasis mine*

How can you tell you actually flipped to "random pages" and did not do it according to some pattern you're (so far) unaware of? Humans are too predictable to take them at face value when it comes to randomness.

Same goes for word selection on each chosen page.

As it has been mentioned above, I'd try to incorporating some dice into your page and word selection.

Its so easy to use dice for this. Count number of pages, find enough dice with the proper sides to map that number as close as possible. If you ever played pen&paper you probably are prepared for this. Repeat for words on that page.

Well one good way to choose random words, but still have it mean something to you. Use a mnemonic, something like "stinky pie" to remember than come up with a phrase using words you will remember.

S - Swedish
T - Tacos
I - Irradiate
N - Nicely
K - Kombined  (can be a form of a real word, more random)
Y - Yearly
P- Performance
I - Indicative
E - Earnings

So your paraphrase would be: swedishtacosirradiatenicelykombinedyearlyperformanceindicativeearnings

You can also add spaces, symbols and numbers to taste, maybe all e's become *, or perhaps every 3rd "e", and maybe every Fibonacci place is capitalized (1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34th place letters, etc.).

Important thing is something you can remember without having to write it down.

For shits and giggles, I just went page by page through the book on my desk and took the word at the top right of each page:
generalized tissue they do when irritating with single anxious perceived exhaustion