What are the chances of a seed phrase being guessed or cracked?
In the world of cryptocurrencies, security plays a crucial role. Your seed phrase is one of the most important parts to protect your digital assets. But how big is the chance that someone guesses or cracks your seed phrase? In this blog, we dive into the statistics, discuss the risks and give tips on how to best secure your seed phrase, including the use of a passphrase.
What is a seed phrase?
A seed phrase, also known as a recovery phrase, is a series of 12, 18, or 24 words that your wallet generates when creating a new account. These words are often generated using the BIP-39 standard , which uses a word list of 2048 possible words. With a seed phrase, you can always access your wallet, even if you lose or damage your device.
The probability that a seed phrase is guessed
The chances of someone randomly guessing your seed phrase are extremely small. To understand this better, we need to look at the mathematics behind seed phrases:
A 24-word seed phrase has approximately
29,642,774,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible combinations. (2.96 x 10^79)
Even if every person on Earth (8 billion people) had 125 wallets, the chance of a brute force attack hitting an existing wallet would still be approximately
1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 in 10^68)
Even with a supercomputer that can test 10 billion combinations per second, it would
3,171,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years (3.17 x 10^42)
to find one active seed phrase. For comparison, the universe is only 13,800,000,000 years old.
Brute force attacks and reality
While these numbers are impressive, the theory of brute force attacks – where an attacker randomly tries combinations until they find the right one – continues to be discussed frequently. Even with the most powerful computers in the world, it would take billions of years to work through just a fraction of the possible combinations.
According to experts, cracking a 12-word seed phrase with current technology would take many trillions of years. In reality, this is practically impossible, especially if you also take into account the correct order of the words.
Using a passphrase
An often overlooked additional layer of security is the use of a passphrase. In addition to your seed phrase, you can set a passphrase (an additional password) to make your wallet even more secure. This is an optional feature supported by many wallets and ensures that even if someone has your seed phrase, they will still need the passphrase to access your funds.
Adding a passphrase creates an entirely new set of private keys, meaning your seed phrase is worthless without the passphrase. Even a simple passphrase of a few characters can increase security exponentially, making it even less likely to be cracked.
What is the safest way to protect your seed phrase?
While the chances of your seed phrase being guessed are extremely small, there are some steps you can take to further improve your security:
- Use a hardware wallet : Hardware wallets are one of the most secure ways to store your seed phrase and private keys. They store your information offline, making it virtually impossible to be hacked.
- Keep your seed phrase safe : Don't store your seed phrase digitally. Put it on a physical seed phrase backup and store it in a safe place, like a safe deposit box. Avoid photos or digital notes, as these are vulnerable to hacks.
- Use a passphrase : As mentioned earlier, a passphrase adds an extra layer of security. Make sure you remember your passphrase, because if you lose it, you won't be able to recover your wallet.
- Store your seed phrase in multiple locations : Consider splitting up your seed phrase and storing it in different secure locations. This makes it harder for malicious parties to find your full seed phrase.
Conclusion
The chance that someone will guess or crack your seed phrase is astronomically small. With current technology, it is practically impossible to crack a seed phrase via brute force. However, it is still important to store your seed phrase in a secure manner and possibly use a passphrase for extra protection.
Cryptocurrencies offer a lot of freedom, but with that freedom comes the responsibility to properly secure your digital assets. By taking the right precautions, such as using a hardware wallet and adding a passphrase, you can rest assured that your investments are protected from malicious parties. This way, you stay one step ahead of hackers and you can be sure that your cryptocurrencies are safe.
