Error in seed phrase generation on Coinomi???

[Sutters Mill]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone can help me out here??? I just generated a new coinomi wallet and it gave me two of the exact same words back to back in my 24 word recovery phrase. The penultimate two words before the last one in my phrase are the exact same. I thought that was weird as I was under the impression that they're meant to be randomly generated and the odds of that happening must be astronomical. Then when it asks me to confirm my seed on the next page I get all the way to the last three and when I click on the first same word both of them disappear when I click one of them but only one is logged which then leaves me with the last word, but when I click that it won't let me proceed, so I'm guessing this is an error. I can skip the step but if I've got a faulty seed then obviously that's very bad, so does anyone know whats gone wrong here??? Hope that makes sense. Thanks.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I thought that was weird as I was under the impression that they're meant to be randomly generated and the odds of that happening must be astronomical.

There are no rules against the same word appearing twice in a seed phrase, and nothing in the BIP39 code to stop it from happening. On average, about one in every eight (12.65% to be precise) 24 word seed phrases generated will have a duplicate word. It's a bit more uncommon for them to be next to each other, but certainly not astronomical nor impossible.

Then when it asks me to confirm my seed on the next page I get all the way to the last three and when I click on the first same word both of them disappear when I click one of them but only one is logged which then leaves me with the last word, but when I click that it won't let me proceed, so I'm guessing this is an error. I can skip the step but if I've got a faulty seed then obviously that's very bad, so does anyone know whats gone wrong here???

This does sound like an error on Coinomi's part. If you are unable to properly verify the seed phrase due to the duplicate word, then I would scrap the whole thing and start again. Do not proceed with a seed phrase you cannot verify.

[Upgrade00]

Seed phrases are taken from a limited number of words at random, so there is a possibility of having one word appear twice in a 24 seed phrase.

I can skip the step but if I've got a faulty seed then obviously that's very bad

This should definitely be a fault from the wallet. Seed phrase is the unique identity of the wallet and it shouldn't be possible to skip the process if the word list is not valid, except it corresponds to that of another wallet. The odds of this are impossible I would assume, cause afaik, only 12, 18 and 24 word seed phrases can be generated basically, and you should have a 23 word phrase with one missing.

As suggested above you should drop that address as the phrase is faulty.

[hugeblack]

It does not matter whether the words are repeated or not, because the attacker will need the same amount of effort in both cases.
The important thing is the initial/first word order, but you don't have to worry.
I did not remember that someone reported about two words that were repeated so it might have been a Coinomi bug.

There are no rules against the same word appearing twice in a seed phrase, and nothing in the BIP39 code to stop it from happening. On average, about one in every eight (12.65% to be precise) 24 word seed phrases generated will have a duplicate word. It's a bit more uncommon for them to be next to each other, but certainly not astronomical nor impossible.

1-((2048!)/(2048^18*(2048-18)!))

source https://www.wolframalpha.com/

[o_e_l_e_o]

The odds of this are impossible I would assume, cause afaik, only 12, 18 and 24 word seed phrases can be generated basically, and you should have a 23 word phrase with one missing.

BIP39 seed phrases can be 12, 15, 18, 21, or 24 words long. Each 3 words encodes for 32 bits of entropy.

As suggested above you should drop that address as the phrase is faulty.

The phrase is not faulty, provided the checksum is correct. There is nothing inherently faulty about a phrase with a duplicated or even triplicated word. If Coinomi will not allow the phrase to be verified, it's because of a bug with Coinomi, not the phrase.

1-((2048!)/(2048^18*(2048-18)!))

Correct, except replace the two "18"s with "24"s since we are dealing with a 24 word phrase. It is essentially a modified birthday paradox.

[pooya87]

Each 3 words encodes for 32 bits of entropy.

each word is only 11 bits (2¹¹=2048) so each 3 words represent 33 bits of entropy except the last word that is part entropy part checksum.

P.S. i suggest not using Coinomi at all unless you have absolutely no other choice. it is closed source and nobody knows what it does in the background with your seed or what bugs it has.

[o_e_l_e_o]

each word is only 11 bits (2¹¹=2048) so each 3 words represent 33 bits of entropy except the last word that is part entropy part checksum.

When you take the seed phrase as a whole, then yes, each word encodes 11 bits of data. What I meant was that for every additional 3 words extra in length that you use, you gain an additional 32 bits of entropy to your seed phrase, because there is 1 bit of checksum per 32 bits of entropy.

it is closed source and nobody knows what it does in the background with your seed or what bugs it has.

Good point. Until I read that I had forgotten about the critical bug where Coinomi were found to be sending user entered seed phrases to Google's spell checking service unencrypted.

[sunsilk]

I advise you to talk to Coinomi's representative on their official Telegram channel and address this issue. They're more responsive there, they have active staff but be careful of those scammers and imitators who copies the name of their official staff. They have reminders as you join that they'll never ask you for your seeds and they won't be the first to PM you.

https://t.me/coinomi_official

It's a closed-source wallet so they can explain what's happening if you'll let them know this.

[HCP]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone can help me out here??? I just generated a new coinomi wallet and it gave me two of the exact same words back to back in my 24 word recovery phrase. The penultimate two words before the last one in my phrase are the exact same. I thought that was weird as I was under the impression that they're meant to be randomly generated and the odds of that happening must be astronomical.

The words are simply encoding 11 bits of data... so out of your groups of 11 bit sequences, if you have two that are identical, you'll get the same "word" shown in your mnemonic.

It's not that uncommon... I helped a fellow out a while back who only had 23 words written down out of a 24 word seed mnemonic. Turned out, after my script managed to bruteforce the correct seed mnemonic, that the missing word was identical to the one next to it, which explains why he missed it out when writting it down!


The thing to be more concerned about is that Coinomi is broken! Yet another reason to avoid it at all costs   Definitely contact their support and let them know...

[Sutters Mill]

P.S. i suggest not using Coinomi at all unless you have absolutely no other choice. it is closed source and nobody knows what it does in the background with your seed or what bugs it has.

I just need an easy to use phone/android wallet to use that lets you scan QR codes to send money to. I was using blockchain.com's wallet and it's fine enough but I keep getting requests to use segwit and that seemingly doesn't use them. Does anyone have any recommendations of ones that can do this???

Hi. I was wondering if anyone can help me out here??? I just generated a new coinomi wallet and it gave me two of the exact same words back to back in my 24 word recovery phrase. The penultimate two words before the last one in my phrase are the exact same. I thought that was weird as I was under the impression that they're meant to be randomly generated and the odds of that happening must be astronomical.

The words are simply encoding 11 bits of data... so out of your groups of 11 bit sequences, if you have two that are identical, you'll get the same "word" shown in your mnemonic.

It's not that uncommon... I helped a fellow out a while back who only had 23 words written down out of a 24 word seed mnemonic. Turned out, after my script managed to bruteforce the correct seed mnemonic, that the missing word was identical to the one next to it, which explains why he missed it out when writting it down!


The thing to be more concerned about is that Coinomi is broken! Yet another reason to avoid it at all costs   Definitely contact their support and let them know...

It's a bit alarming for sure. A newbie could easily lose their coin if they're not careful, or at least think they've lost them.

[HCP]

I just need an easy to use phone/android wallet to use that lets you scan QR codes to send money to. I was using blockchain.com's wallet and it's fine enough but I keep getting requests to use segwit and that seemingly doesn't use them. Does anyone have any recommendations of ones that can do this???

If you are just wanting to transact using Bitcoin, and QR codes is important, then I would suggest either Electrum or Mycelium. The UI on Mycelium is subjectively better/easier... but I personally think Electrum is a better wallet.

Both support SegWit addresses.

[pooya87]

P.S. i suggest not using Coinomi at all unless you have absolutely no other choice. it is closed source and nobody knows what it does in the background with your seed or what bugs it has.

I just need an easy to use phone/android wallet to use that lets you scan QR codes to send money to. I was using blockchain.com's wallet and it's fine enough but I keep getting requests to use segwit and that seemingly doesn't use them. Does anyone have any recommendations of ones that can do this???

unless you own an iPhone you can use Electrum (since it only has an Android version as far as i know). it is the same backend as the desktop app so it is similarly safe and compatible with desktop app and does support SegWit.
bitcoin.org also has a good list of reviewed wallets for all platforms that you can check out https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

[Sutters Mill]

I just need an easy to use phone/android wallet to use that lets you scan QR codes to send money to. I was using blockchain.com's wallet and it's fine enough but I keep getting requests to use segwit and that seemingly doesn't use them. Does anyone have any recommendations of ones that can do this???

If you are just wanting to transact using Bitcoin, and QR codes is important, then I would suggest either Electrum or Mycelium. The UI on Mycelium is subjectively better/easier... but I personally think Electrum is a better wallet.

Both support SegWit addresses.

I just downloaded both. Mycelium seems a bit easier to use and more user friendly. Electrum seemed a little laggy/unresponsive as well. Took a while of me tapping the password input box to confirm my password before it popped up to allow me to do so.

When logging into mycelium on another device is there no log in details? It didn't seem to give me any so do I just log in with my seed?

[ranochigo]

I just downloaded both. Mycelium seems a bit easier to use and more user friendly. Electrum seemed a little laggy/unresponsive as well. Took a while of me tapping the password input box to confirm my password before it popped up to allow me to do so.

When logging into mycelium on another device is there no log in details? It didn't seem to give me any so do I just log in with my seed?

What do you mean by log in? MyCelium is a mobile wallet and there isn't any way for you to log in using an email and password. Your private keys are recovered using the seed. If you need extra security, you can add a passcode to protect anyone from accessing your MyCelium wallet. The seed won't be protected using any pass code.

[fer_coinomi]

I just generated a new coinomi wallet and it gave me two of the exact same words back to back in my 24 word recovery phrase.

As noted by other replies here, there's nothing wrong with having repeated words on the phrase. It's uncommon but not astronomically rare.

Then when it asks me to confirm my seed on the next page I get all the way to the last three and when I click on the first same word both of them disappear when I click one of them but only one is logged which then leaves me with the last word, but when I click that it won't let me proceed

This problem is only during verification. You can skip it and restore the phrase again to check that it's correct. This is known issue on the desktop version that is fixed and ready to be deployed on our next update, we apologize for the inconvenience.