Author: Christopher Allen 2020-10-05 20:34:48
Published on: 2020-10-05T20:34:48+00:00
The response to a question regarding Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) related to turning a master seed into the master key has led to a discussion on the importance of interoperability and avoiding vendor lock-in. While some vendors wanted to use 128 bits of entropy instead of 256 bits, a compromise was made at that time. However, recent proposals such as SLIP-39 and Lightning Labs' seed mnemonics have caused interoperability and lock-in issues. The Blockchain Commons and a small community of airgapped wallet developers have worked on a closely related specification called SSKR that uses the same seed->master key technique as BIP32 to prevent lock-in. The issue with metadata in addition to the seed for Lightning Labs' mnemonics is also being addressed to maximize round-trip interoperability with multiple wallet vendors and tools for conversion to legacy formats. Despite potential alternative methods to derive additional keys hierarchically, the importance of preserving the process of turning a master seed into the master key remains crucial to avoid such issues.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T15:46:30.634570+00:00