BIP 39: Add language identifier strings for wordlists

Summary:

In a recent email exchange, Aymeric Vitte expressed his dislike for BIP39 and BIP44, stating that they confuse people and cause dangerous situations when recovering wallets. He also criticized the use of mnemonics, arguing that it is easier to remember a seed rather than a set of words. Alan Evans challenged this statement, saying that BIP32 does not require a specific length, but recommends generating a seed byte sequence of 128-512 bits with 256 bits being advised. Furthermore, he claimed that BIP39 produces a 64-byte seed, which Aymeric argued was another misleading aspect of BIP39. Sjors Provoost added that although wallets validate English words, hardware wallets without a full keyboard may prevent users from freely typing characters. The conversation ended with Aymeric reiterating his view that BIP39 and subsequent BIPs should be eradicated while also acknowledging that he did not foresee certain issues that arose.The bitcoin-dev mailing list has discussed the need for language-specific word lists within the BIP-39 standard. Currently, very few wallets support languages other than English, which can lead to vendor lock-in and loss of funds if a non-English wallet disappears. While seed generation in BIP-0039 requires no dictionary, people can memorize things better in their native tongue, making supporting multiple languages useful. Sjors Provoost suggests creating a new standard where words are mapped to integers rather than literal strings. A mapping from original language words to matching English words would be published, allowing people to enter a mnemonic into an English-only hardware wallet. This proposal would not work with the current BIP-39 duress password, but this feature could be replaced by appending words. A replacement for BIP-39 could also produce a better English dictionary, with all words being 4-8 characters, all 4-character prefixes being unique, and no two words having edit distance. Wallets would need to distinguish between the old and new standard, so un-upgraded BIP-39 wallets should consider all new mnemonics invalid. To sort the new word list such that reused words appear first, wallets only need to know the index of the last BIP39 overlapping word.Nullius raised the issue that the current BIP-39 wordlist set does not specify canonical native language strings to identify each word list, instead identifying them only by their names in English. He proposed and requested that the BIP-39 standard be enhanced to include these strings to facilitate language identification in user interface options or menus. Should this proposal be accepted, he suggested that the specification of appropriate strings be made part of the process for accepting new wordlists, and that such strings be ascertained for the wordlists already existing.The context also provides a list of links related to passwords, anti-spying and private torrents, blocklists, and different wallets. The first set of links includes a 10M password list and dynamic blocklist options for anti-spies and private torrents. There is also a link to Peersm and torrent-live. Additionally, there are links to node-Tor and GitHub. The second set of links includes options for simplifying Bitcoin transactions and wallets, as well as the dynamic blocklist and password list previously mentioned. Overall, the context provides various resources related to privacy and security online, including tools for encrypting and protecting data.

Updated on: 2023-06-12T23:29:45.524578+00:00