importing seed to another wallet

[nakisama]

When creating a new wallet I have the seed of 12 words generated.

I know that I can import them for the same wallet but can I do that as well with another wallet?
is the derivation path a way for doing it?

[1715087575]

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[pooya87]

when it comes to mnemonics (seed phrase) there are a couple of standards that different wallets use and they may not support other alternatives. for example wallets that support BIP39 don't support Electrum mnemonics but Electrum supports both, and nothing supports lnd seeds. even though the word lists are the same and the mnemonics look the same too.
this is the first difference in first step of converting a mnemonic to BIP32 seed (entropy).

then to convert that entropy to child key pairs there is derivation paths that can be different. some use hardened, some a mix, and the numbers in each path branch is different.

so it is best to always use open source wallets and try to figure out what type of mnemonic and what derivation path they are using so that you won't face any issues in the future.

[NeuroticFish]

I know that I can import them for the same wallet but can I do that as well with another wallet?

If you created the seed with Ian Coleman tool or a hardware wallet (or anything following the standards), it will work in other wallet too (eg Electrum), you'll just have to set that it's a BIP39 seed and set the correct derivation path.
If you created the seed with a recent Electrum it may not work with anything else because Electrum also adds extra info in the seed (eg version).  You can read more here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5203955

[nakisama]

which ones are considered as open source wallets?

[TryNinja]

which ones are considered as open source wallets?

It's in the name... If the source code of the wallet is open and available for anyone to see and edit, it's open source.

e.g Electrum, Armory, Bitcoin Core

[bL4nkcode]

You can consider using blocksteam green wallet, samourai wallet aside from the ones mentioned above, good for any platform devices.

[HCP]

When creating a new wallet I have the seed of 12 words generated.

I know that I can import them for the same wallet but can I do that as well with another wallet?

What wallet did you create the 12 word seed mnemonic in?

Answering that question will enable everyone to advise:
- what type of seed mnemonic it is
- what wallet(s) it is compatible with (if any)

[nakisama]

When creating a new wallet I have the seed of 12 words generated.

I know that I can import them for the same wallet but can I do that as well with another wallet?

What wallet did you create the 12 word seed mnemonic in?

Answering that question will enable everyone to advise:
- what type of seed mnemonic it is
- what wallet(s) it is compatible with (if any)

web based wallet

[hosseinimr93]

web based wallet

There are many web wallets and each of them has their own features.
If you use blockchain.info, it's possible to extract the seed phrase and import it into Electrum. But Most of web wallets are hosted wallets that don't allow you to recover your funds in other wallets.

[Dabs]

I'd suggest you create a new seed using either the Ian Coleman tool, or Electrum. Then use that as your back up or where you send all your new coins to.

Anything that is proprietary, you risk losing access to your coins if the seed format or word list is not supported anymore.

[Stedsm]

I'd suggest you create a new seed using either the Ian Coleman tool, or Electrum. Then use that as your back up or where you send all your new coins to.

Anything that is proprietary, you risk losing access to your coins if the seed format or word list is not supported anymore.

So that means that if I keep a backup of an HD wallet that allows me to use a new address every time to maintain my privacy while still having coins in that wallet and I leave it as it is, and I come back after ~15-20 years and see that the new wallet doesn't support the old keys, should I consider my BTC to be gone forever? Do I also need my private key/s during that time? Won't the backup seed work?

[TryNinja]

So that means that if I keep a backup of an HD wallet that allows me to use a new address every time to maintain my privacy while still having coins in that wallet and I leave it as it is, and I come back after ~15-20 years and see that the new wallet doesn't support the old keys, should I consider my BTC to be gone forever? Do I also need my private key/s during that time? Won't the backup seed work?

Not really. I believe in the future, figuring out the method each wallet used to derive the private-keys from the seed should be extremely easy. It's not like every wallet does an crazy technological encryption or math to figure out them. Most use the same BIP49, BIP39 or some shit like this which is compatible with many other wallets in the market (i'm dumb about this, so sorry about the bad wording ).

You don't need to actually have the private-key of each of your addresses (you may, but you probably don't need it). Maybe if it's proprietary and something out of the common, like said above, but I honestly doubt this is a major risk.

[pooya87]

I believe in the future, figuring out the method each wallet used to derive the private-keys from the seed should be extremely easy.

i actually believe that things could get worse in the future as more wallets are created. mnemonic related BIPs aren't that good, they have some downsides and lack certain functionalities that is why everyone keeps trying to improve it and create their own.

It's not like every wallet does an crazy technological encryption or math to figure out them.

check out lnd and come back to me the cryptography used (AEZ) is not even popular.

[HCP]

What wallet did you create the 12 word seed mnemonic in?

web based wallet

Not quite the information I had hoped for.

Can you be more specific about which web wallet you used? Was it blockchain.info/com or something else?

If you can't (or don't want to) tell which website it is, perhaps you can browse the help and/or support sections of the website and see if they have any info regarding how to "recover" the wallet and/or use the 12 word backup. If you see mention of BIP39 (or possibly BIP32 or BIP44), then odds are good you will be able to restore your wallet in some of the more common wallets (Electrum, Mycelium, Coinomi, Exodus etc)... Or maybe you could even contact the website support and ask them.

[bob123]

Is there a specific reason you decided to use a web wallet (you said "web based", did you mean "browser based" ?) instead of your computer to create the seed ?
There is literally not a single advantage over using traditional (reuptable) desktop or mobile wallets to create the seed.

Anyway.. it depends on what "kind of seed" has been generated. If it follows a BIP, you can always recover it in other wallets which support that.
However, if you used some unknown shady wallet, this has not to be the case.

I'd suggest to not use a web wallet or the seed generated by it (same applies to a browser based wallet).
Just download a desktop/mobile wallet and use that.
With desktop/mobile wallets the security relies on your device security. Same applies to web wallets, but they additionally have more attack vectors and are way less secure in general.

[Dabs]

Keep the seed, which is usually 12 to 24 words. You should also be able to see both the extended public and private keys, from which all wallet addresses and private keys are derived from, try to keep a copy of that as well as it's not much more information to copy somewhere and backup.

If you have this xpriv, ypriv, zpriv key, you'll always have access to all your coins in that HD wallet, even if you don't have the seed words.

I can't recommend Electrum enough, just get it from the official site and verify. You can also get it for Android devices and use the same wallet as your desktop uses.

I also use the Bitcoin Core desktop wallet, but that's a different kind, not always HD (new wallets are HD), and requires a lot of space (about 300 GB as of this post.) without pruning.

[pooya87]

If you have this xpriv, ypriv, zpriv key, you'll always have access to all your coins in that HD wallet, even if you don't have the seed words.

the extended key (xprv,...) must be the child extended private key at the last branch otherwise you may face a lot of difficulties while trying to restore your keys. because of the second problem i pointed out in my reply above: derivation paths.
usually wallets give you the master (parent) extended key (at path=m) and in order to derive a key you must know what the exact path is. and unless it is one of the popular ones, it is impossible to guess due to trillions and trillions of possibilities.

[vycl87]

Sometimes it can be dangerous such as xpub, zpub, xrpiv ... obtained from the wallet by exporting. After exporting these files from the wallet, you can mark that wallet as unsafe. Therefore, my advice is that we shouldn't play with the genetics of these wallets.

They are already a form of wallet that is normally not conducive to holding long-term assets. Therefore, you should use these wallets as long as you need and then transfer the assets in it to a suitable and secure wallet. For example hardware wallet safer than others.