Cryptocurrency Explained: What is a Mnemonic phrase? [Understanding Bitcoin Ethereum Crypto Keys]

What is a cryptocurrency mnemonic phrase? How does it relate to a bitcoin or ethereum private key? Are they the same thing? Are seeds and mnemonics the same thing? Can someone guess my bitcoin private key or mnemonic? Watch this video to understand how mnemonic phrases work, why they're used in bitcoin, why they're considered secure. Hint: turn on closed captions to help you remember what's being taught.

Chapters
0:00 If a bitcoin private key is such a big number and you can never guess it, how does relate to mnemonic phrases?
1:03 Let's discuss what a mnemonic phrase actually is.
1:23 Cryptographic keys are just numbers. A bitcoin private key is just a number.
1:42 What is a mnemonic phrase?
2:10 Bitcoin Improvement Proposal or BIP39 is the standard for seed phrases
3:03 There are 2048 words in the BIP39 dictionary
4:00 How do you make a number out of words?
6:09 Example of how to take a number like a bitcoin private key and encode it in 24 words
8:06 Derivation function that allows you to take the mnemonic and generate the same sequence of keys
8:27 Summary of why a mnemonic phrase is as secure as a bitcoin private key written in decimal or binary

Learn more about bitcoin, ethereum, and other cryptocurrency private keys in these videos:

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Thanks for watching!

[Starkswildfire]

I can't thank you enough for all the Bitcoin information you've provide over the years. It was you that first introduced me to Bitcoin way back in 2013 and you're still the man I send people to when they want deeper information on the tech than I can provide in a short talk. My hats off to you Sir. Thank You.

[boycepoleonjr]

Dude I wish you where my math teacher in grade school.

[EmpireBuilding]

That was a question I had wondered myself. Where would we be without Andreas to explain these things to us.

[elizabethwoods]

my old brain hurts. Thank you aantonop

[alewa]

aantonop, is it safe to store all my bitcoin on electrum? people told me electrum is good... so i just use that... i hope you respond to comments

[antoniorioscortes]

Interesting, but, the dangerous part I think is the way a software code that is the same software installed in thousands of phones achieves to create a process to create "randomnes" (different random numbers), I know that there are processes ilke discharging a capacitor and measure the time of discharge each time that creates "randomnes" but how does a software accomplishes this?, is there an integranted chip in celular phones that does this?, regards Andreas.

[matthewmoon]

Actually, aardvark would come before 'about.' :)

[NinoGuariscoJR]

Thank you! 🙏🏼 This is the best teaching I’ve heard on a mnemonic phrase.

[thoth]

Wonderfully good and clean explained.
Although I wonder one thing. Are there duplicate words in a mnemonic phrase? If not, then it would actually be 2048*2047*2046*2045....

[InvestOrama]

Great strategic placement of books and mugs, but the t-shirt? Maybe the start of a mnemonic phrase

[quitaddiction]

Absolutely brilliant explanation as usual

[jcfertor]

Thank you for this very clear and most of all very important explanation of mnemonic phrases!! I am reading your books and have learned so much already from them!! And there is still a long way to go :)
Thank you

[jqwrrus]

Great video. Thanks for sharing. I learned a lot.

[jambouk]

WISE token now the #2 most liquid pair on uniswap
🦄 What do you think about it ?

[jordisoleer]

3 first letters of each word are what count

[drbennyboombatz]

Hey Andreas, are you concerned by the situation with “tether”, I can’t profess to totally understand it, it looks as though they may have been buying bitcoin and using it back their stable coin, how I (don’t) understand it is that if they are buying up bitcoin off exchanges in times of low liquidity they’re effectively creating a false scarcity as they drive up the price and then that gives them the ability to mint more tether. Then comes the question “what is stopping larger corporations or government pulling the same kind of trickery”, I know I have a lot of blanks in my understanding, I hope from this you can get the gist of what I’m trying to get at. I’m having one of those “could this kill bitcoin” moments. Love listening to you and love ya bee kind T-shirt hehe.

[brunomenezes]

Perfect, Andreas, thanks! But it made me feel that my 12 word seed is not so safe. Is it?

[bbledje]

an (simplified) example would be nice.

[TRRRVISIN]

This way my question from the livestream :) it's not quite a commit in the bitcoin GitHub but it's still cool :)

[zamboner]

What about passphrase(extra secret word) ? Simplified, if all none passphrase seed words correspond to a private key, does it mean secret words only rehash to end up with an equivalent private key already corresponding to another regular seed phrase with no extra word ?