Overview of the 12 to 24 Word Mnemonic Backup Phrase

What Is a Mnemonic Phrase?
A mnemonic is any word, acronym, or phrase used to help you remember something important.
For example: The phrase, “Lefty loosey, righty tighty.” Which refers to the direction of turning to loosen or tighten a screw or jar lid.
How is the Mnemonic Phrase Used For a Cryptocurrency Wallet?
The 12 to 24 word mnemonic backup phrase is the result of translating your wallet’s Private Key from binary, which is the language computers use, consisting of 1’s and 0’s into the language that you can understand and possibly memorize.
Visualizing the Process of Generating Private Keys from the Mnemonic Phrase
Imagine a key duplication machine, like you would use to make a copy of your car or house key.
The Master key or original key would represent the Mnemonic Backup Phrase. The duplicated key would represent the Private Key of the wallet that has been created from the Mnemonic Phrase.
Either key could be used to open the wallet!
Why Is the Mnemonic Phrase So Important?
1) It is essentially a text version of your wallet’s Private Key.
2) It is often the only way to recover a lost, damaged or stolen wallet.
3) It can be used to create a new copy of a wallet, with full access to the coins contained by the original wallet.
Wallet Creation Process
During the process of creating a new wallet, the Private Key is translated from a binary format into 12 to 24 readable words, which you record onto a recovery sheet. These words should be recorded in an offline fashion and printed in ALL CAPS, in order to make it easier to read when it is time to restore the wallet.
Wallet Restore Process
During the process of restoring or recovering an existing wallet, the Private Key is created from the 12 to 24 words, which you entered from the recovery sheet. These words are then translated into a binary form and stored by the wallet’s software. These words must be entered in the correct order or the recovery will fail. Words entered out of order may yield an empty wallet and not the wallet you wish to recover with your coins.
Something To Be Aware Of...
The Mnemonic Phrase can be entered into any compatible wallet to recover or duplicate a hardware or software wallet.
If you enter the Mnemonic Backup from a hardware wallet into a software wallet you will compromise the security of the hardware wallet! Hardware wallets keep the Private Keys offline, where the software wallet maintains the Private Keys within the application itself.
Steps to Protect the 12 to 24 Word Backup Phrase
• Laminate paper mnemonic backups to protect it from water damage.
• Use a steel case mnemonic backup, which will protect it from fire and water.
• Avoid connecting to the internet while working with the mnemonic backup.
• Keep the mnemonic backup stored in a secure location.
• Do not keep digital copies of the backup on the computer or on online cloud storage services.
• Do not expose the mnemonic backup phrase to any camera or recording device.
• Never use the Mnemonic Phrase as a means to log into a web wallet.
This method should only be used as a last resort, to access the wallet and move the coins to a new secure wallet.