An article to understand the Bitcoin mnemonic tool BIP39Colors

Just recently, Bitcoin developer Entero Positivo released an open source tool called "BIP 39 Colors", its main function is to convert BIP 39 mnemonic words into a set of colors, and it can also implement color-to-mnemonic inverse conversion. By converting mnemonic phrases into color combinations, it provides a more intuitive and easy-to-remember way to store and restore cryptocurrency wallets.

How does this tool implement the above functions? How will it affect the way mnemonic words are stored? This article provides a brief overview of the tool's information, its usefulness, and possible implications.

What is BIP 39?

BIP 39 was born in 2013 and later became the most popular and common mnemonic format. Its mnemonic is a phrase consisting of 12 to 24 words and supports 128-bit and 256-bit random numbers In addition, checksum and passphrase can be added to protect the private key. The word list is fixed and contains 2048 words in total.

The main purpose of BIP 39 is to improve the reliability and security of the mnemonic generation and recovery process. This standard stipulates how to generate mnemonic words from an entropy pool, and requires mnemonic words to meet certain entropy value and checksum requirements to ensure their security and uniqueness.

BIP 39 Colors What changes have been made to the mnemonic?

The developer said that the tool can convert mnemonic phrases consisting of 12 to 24 words into a set of hexadecimal color codes. The codes not only represent the original words, but also record the original word positions-this represents You can store these colors anywhere: the walls of your home, the background color of your blog, or even the scribbles of children, and you can store them in random order, and then restore the original BIP 3 mnemonic at any time. "A string of 12 or 24 written words is pretty obvious, at least now a lot of people know what that stands for."

The author also stated that in order to ensure security, users are advised not to use tools on networked devices, and provided a complete open source version of the code on Github for users to download, and even use their own computers to manually create colors.

Not just colors

In fact, the encryption method for mnemonics is not limited to color—although BIP 39 has word lists in 7 languages besides English, most people still prefer to use English mnemonics in actual use. This makes it possible to convert storage between languages for increased security.

Of course, you can also customize the conversion method to convert the mnemonic into anything that is easy to record, but the problem is often that once the method of recovering the mnemonic is forgotten/cracked, it is basically the same as losing the wallet.

Summarize

BIP 39 Colors redefines the conversion mnemonic based on color, providing a new cold storage method. Using BIP 39 Colors, users can convert mnemonic words into colors and store them in different places. This method is safer and more reliable than traditional paper backup or digital backup. In addition, BIP 39 Colors provides open source code for use in an offline environment, minimizing the possibility of tool developers doing evil on their own. Overall, BIP 39 Colors provides an innovative, easy-to-use mnemonic transformation that adds more options to Bitcoin wallet backup and restore.