Author: devrandom 2015-03-12 16:39:29
Published on: 2015-03-12T16:39:29+00:00
The discussion revolves around BIP39, which is a standard for mnemonic phrases used in Bitcoin wallets. The main issue is about the wordlist used in BIP39. It is noted that a static wordlist is required for real-world usage of BIP39 and changing the wordlist will invalidate any existing mnemonics. However, it is argued that changing the wordlist only allows new mnemonic phrases to be generated but has no impact on previously generated ones, unless one is trying to rebuild from entropy.A user can have a word list of total rubbish in BIP39 as long as it is 2048 words long. The word list is merely to generate a mnemonic, after that, it has no role in seed generation so it can be changed at any time. Another issue with BIP39 is that it does not include a version number, which could lead to financial losses for users who are unaware of these technicalities. In contrast, Electrum v2 seed phrases include an explicit version number that indicates how the wallet addresses should be derived.Additionally, BIP39 requires a fixed wordlist, making it difficult to innovate in the wordlist itself. The fixed wordlist also means that BIP39 will probably never leave the 'draft' stage until all languages of the world have been added. To support old Electrum v1 seeds, all future versions of Electrum will have to include the old wordlist. 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. This is painful enough, and the same errors should not be repeated twice.Electrum v2 derives both its private keys and its checksum/version number using a hash of the seed phrase. This means that wordlists can be added and modified in the future without breaking existing seed phrases. The post is a call to action for developers to visit the Go Parallel Website sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media. The site is a hub for all things parallel software development, featuring weekly thought leadership blogs, news, videos, case studies, tutorials, and more.The post encourages readers to join the conversation and explore the website. The post also includes a mailing list announcement for the Bitcoin-development mailing list, which is hosted on SourceForge.net. The announcement includes a link for interested parties to sign up for the mailing list.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T18:09:27.850486+00:00