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by Admin
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Updated on June 26, 2022
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5 mins read
CoinSutra » Wallets » What
Is A Brain Wallet & How To Create One For Yourself?
Not long ago on CoinSutra,
we talked in detail about Bitcoin wallets in our article – Best
Bitcoin Wallets. Here I have told you about different types of
Bitcoin wallets such as mobile wallets, cold wallets, web wallets, paper
wallets, etc.
And these wallets are available for
all cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin.
However, there is one more type
of Bitcoin/cryptocurrency wallet called a brain wallet which
I missed covering in my previous article.
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How Does A Brain Wallet
Work?
o
How To Create A Bitcoin
Brain Wallet?
What is a Brain Wallet?
Brain wallets, as apparent from
their name, are a type of wallet where the user memorizes the
mnemonic recovery phrase of their cryptocurrencies in their brain.
This mnemonic
recovery phrase is used to derive the private keys of cryptocurrencies.
It’s typically hard to remember or memorize private keys directly because
they’re a long string of alphanumeric numbers.
A brain wallet is where a user
remembers their mnemonic phrase/private key and never writes it down. And in
some cases, if the user forgets the mnemonic phrase or dies without
telling anyone or goes into a coma, then the associated bitcoins or
crypto-coins are lost forever.
How Does A Brain Wallet Work?
To explain the working of a brain
wallet, I will again use the example of Bitcoin for
simplicity.
Typically, any Bitcoin brain wallet
generator allows its users to key in random words (i.e. 4,6,8,12, or 24 words
long) which is called a passphrase. This passphrase, depending upon the type of
generator you are using, is hashed with SHA-256 or the Scrypt algorithm to
generate a Bitcoin private key and then a Bitcoin
public key.
The hash of these passphrases is
computationally impossible to reverse. That’s why if you have chosen a hard to
guess passphrase, it will be impossible for an attacker to steal your
funds. See our guide on “What is a Bitcoin Hash?“
So whenever you put a passphrase in
the brain wallet generator, it will hash it using algorithms such as SHA-256 or
Scrypt and provide you with a Bitcoin private key/Bitcoin public key pair.
Now, once you have the public/private
addresses, you can store your funds on them anytime without worrying. This
is because now your private keys will only be generated through the “brain
wallet” (which is in your head).
How To Create A Bitcoin Brain Wallet?
To create a brain wallet, you only
require a passphrase (i.e. a mnemonic phrase of 4, 6, 8, 12, or 24 words
long).
And that’s why it goes without saying
that the security of your funds is directly dependent upon the
strength/complexity/difficulty of the passphrase you choose. Because if someone
is able to guess your passphrase, you will lose all of your funds in an
instant.
Hence, users are advised by all brain
wallet generators to choose a passphrase which is hard to guess, even
by brute-force attack techniques.
Typically, a brain
wallet is chosen in 1 of 4 ways:
1. You can choose and key in a random passphrase of 4,6,8,12, or 24 words
long which you can remember or recall.
2. You can use Bitcoin wallet software
like Electrum, Armory, and Mycelium to generate
a passphrase and memorize it.
3. You can use a Bitcoin wallet software to generate a passphrase and
add “salt” to it to make your final passphrase even more complicated and harder
to guess
4. You can use a text file, excel file, doc file, or an image file and add
“salt” to it to generate a passphrase. In this case, you need to keep the
original file extremely safe.
Out of this, the first method of
putting in random words has proven to be vulnerable because human
beings are predictable. Humans generally choose such sentences or words
which are easy to guess or can be computed by highly sophisticated brute-force attack techniques. One such
instance where a user had kept a passphrase that he thought was difficult lost
4 BTCs. See this Reddit thread for
more details.
So to avoid such situations, some
brain wallet generators suggest passphrases of sufficient entropy. And it is
always advisable to use this in case you don’t have any complicated random set
of words ready to be used as a passphrase.
Making your Bitcoin Brain Wallet
from BitAddress
Making your Bitcoin Brain Wallet
from brainwallet.io
How to secure your Brain Wallet?
#1. Don’t use passphrases or brain wallets generated by humans as they
are predictable.
#2. Use Bitcoin wallet software like Electrum, Armory,
and Mycelium to generate a passphrase
and memorize it.
#3. Memorize the passphrase or mnemonic using the mnemonic pegging technique.
#4. Use a BIP32
generator for your brain wallet because it uses a slow hash which is much
harder to crack.
#5. Use your
hardware wallet’s (Ledger Nano X) recovery
seed or mnemonic as a brain wallet. You can do so
by memorizing your 12 or 24-word long recovery phrase (or recovery seed)
instead of recording it. This way you need not worry about changing your
address, and simultaneously you can control many public addresses at once.
Advantages & Disadvantages of
Brain Wallets
Using a brain wallet has its pros and
cons…
|
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|
Only
you know the mnemonic in your brain, so you just need to trust your memory. |
If you
suffer from any medical condition like amnesia or dementia, you will lose
your coin keys with you. |
|
There
is no written record or the possibility of an online hack. |
As there
is no written backup, if you forget your mnemonic phrase, then your funds are
lost forever. |
|
Your
brain wallet is always safe from hacking. |
If
someone knows you have a lot of money in your paper wallet, they can steal
that. But if someone gets to know that you have a lot of money in your brain
wallet, you can get kidnapped. |
Brain Wallets Generator For Different
Popular Cryptocurrencies
Here are a few links for popular
cryptocurrencies which allow you to generate a mnemonic for you to memorize and
use a brain wallet.
|
Cryptocurrencies |
Brain
Wallet Mnemonic Generators |
|
Bitcoin |
|
|
Ethereum |
|
|
Litecoin |
|
|
Dash |
|
Disclaimer: You should use brain wallets at your own risk. It can be highly
risky and dangerous because if you don’t use a sufficiently strong passphrase,
you stand at risk of being attacked. Moreover, there are 365 x 24 x 7
programs running that are clubbing frequently used words, common names, and
different combinations trying to figure out the passphrases.
Now it’s time to hear from you: What
are your thoughts on brain wallets? Are you using a brain wallet? Let me hear
your experiences in the comments below!