Author: Neill Miller 2015-03-12 11:51:37
Published on: 2015-03-12T11:51:37+00:00
The discussion in this context revolves around the usage of BIP39 seed phrase. Neill has recently added BIP39 to libbitcoin, but their implementation would fail with an arbitrarily new word list because they validate the user provided word list before converting it to a seed. This means that changing the word lists will invalidate any existing mnemonics. However, changing the wordlist merely allows new mnemonic phrases to be generated, but it has no impact on previously generated mnemonics unless one is trying to rebuild from entropy which is not recommended.In real-world scenarios, one can have a word list of total rubbish in BIP39 as long as it is 2048 words long. The word list is only used to generate a mnemonic; after that, it has no role in seed generation, so one can change it anytime without affecting future mnemonics.Thomas V believes that BIP39 should not be followed because it reproduces two mistakes he did when he designed the older Electrum seed system. The first problem he has with BIP39 is that the seed phrase does not include a version number. Wallet development is still in an exploratory phase, and we should expect even more innovation in this domain. In contrast, Electrum v2 seed phrases include an explicit version number that indicates how the wallet addresses should be derived.The second problem he sees with BIP39 is that it requires a fixed word list. When you write a new standard, it is important to keep this standard minimal given the goal you want to achieve. A fixed word list is unfortunate because it means that BIP39 will probably never leave the 'draft' stage until all languages of the world have been added. Once you add a word list for a new language, you cannot change it anymore because it will break existing seed phrases. It leads to a first-come, first-served situation that might not be sustainable in the future. In order to support the old Electrum v1 seeds, all future versions of Electrum will have to include the old wordlist. In addition, when generating new seed phrases, Electrum now has to avoid collisions with old seed phrases because the old ones did not have a version number.The email in this context is a notification about the Bitcoin-development mailing list. It directs recipients to the lists.sourceforge.net website, where they can access information about parallel software development on the Go Parallel Website. The Go Parallel Website is sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media. It offers a variety of resources related to parallel software development, including weekly thought leadership blogs, news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Interested parties are encouraged to explore the website and join the conversation.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T18:14:10.277947+00:00