Bitcoin Forum

Newbie now learning about seed phrase generation.

I'm familiar with BIP 39 and its use in generating 12 and 24-word seed phrases. I'm also familiar with Shamir's Secret Sharing algorithm, which at least one company (Trezor) has implemented using a 20-word seed phrase based on SLIP 39. I'm not clear, however, on the relationship between BIP 39 and SLIP 39.

What I think I understand, however, is the following:

1. BIP 39 is still the official bitcoin standard.

2. BIP 39 is implemented across many hardware wallets. If you lose a hardware wallet manufactured by company A, you can buy a new hardware wallet from company B and rebuild your bitcoin keys from your 24-seed phrase.

3. SLIP 39, at present, is a company-specific (Trezor) standard.

4. If you lose your Trezor hardware wallet, you will have to buy a new Trezor hardware wallet to rebuild your bitcoin keys from your 20-work seed phrase.

Does this sound right?

Of course Op BIP 39 is the official and most common standard for generating seed phrases for Bitcoin wallets. BIP 39 is widely implemented across many hardware wallets that's why it's the most common though Electrum uses a different seed type.

SLIP 39 is more like an extension of BIP 39, developed by Trezor, to support more advanced features like Shamir's Secret Sharing. Although Trezor's implementation of the  SLIP 39 format  is kinda specific to their devices, the standard is open-source and can be adopted by others too but I kinda think the likelihood is thin

The key difference is that SLIP 39 adds an additional layer of security and flexibility, but it's not yet universally supported like BIP 39. Though it's similar to how ELECTRUM uses a specific algorithm for seed creation. So if you lose a Trezor wallet using SLIP 39 you might need to replace it with another Trezor device to restore your wallet using the 20-word seed phrase.

Slip39 is when seed phrase or private key or any character that has 128 bits to 256 bits +which is the standard) is converted to a share or shares that can be used to regenerate the seed phrase, private key or the 128 to 256 bits of characters.

It would be good for more than one shares and not necessary if the share is not more than one.

SatoshiLabs implemented Slip39. Electrum desktop wallet also supports Slip39.

Never heard of SLIP39 til now to be honest. Always thought people who use Trezor usually just import Electrum or whatever other wallet they have, guess I have to actually start using a hardware wallet one of these days to understand all this.

It feels like a terrible way to store something though, if you need another Trezor to restore access. I know Electrum also has its own seed implementation but at least it's open source and freely available to restore.

You can import slip39 into desktop Electrum

https://talkimg.com/images/2024/09/14/BgCtJ.png

There are other tools that you can use offline for it.

You are not wrong though as you can import it on electrum as already mentioned above.

That's how a product become unique, although one of the cons is its not universally supported/implemented yet so you can't import on any wallet unlike BIP39

BIP39 was also made by Trezor developers, and it is one of several BIP standards used for bitcoin seed words.

SLIP39 is also compatible with other bitcoin wallets so you don't have to worry about that.
Electrum and Blue wallet will work just fine with SLIP39, and I am sure other wallets are going to support it soon.

No, not even all Trezor wallets support SLIP39, only newer models.
You can recover to any other supported wallet, and you should find more information on Trezor website:
https://content.trezor.io/slip39

Yep, you’ve got it! BIP 39 is the standard used for most wallets, so you can restore your wallet on different devices with the same seed phrase. SLIP 39, used by Trezor, is more specialized and involves secret sharing.

Thank you all. Again, very helpful.

While BIP 39 is very popular, it is not the "official bitcoin standard". Strictly speaking, there are no "official standards" because there is no authority; however, a BIP implemented in the reference client might be considered to be an "official standard" for practical reasons

FYI, Bitcoin Core does not implement or use BIP 39.

While BIP 39 is a great feature, SLIP 39 is a major improvement. I hope that enough wallets eventually adopt SLIP 39 so that it becomes as ubiquitous as BIP 39, perhaps even replacing it.