<p>As Julian has stated correctly the Trezor is  a heuristic deterministic (HD) wallet as most modern wallets are these days.That means that it generates a tree of pairs of secret keys/public keys(addresses) when its  initialised(to be more accurate it actually does this on the fly) from a 12, 18 or 24 word passphrase.
So if you have written down(on the card provided by trezor) this passphrase and have it locked away in a safe deposit box you can recover your entire wallet even if you have lost the trezor.
DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON......
If you have also used a password(not the pin) you will need this too... else all you will see on your recovered trezor is an empty wallet..
Its a great extra security feature if someone manages to steal your 24 word passphrase but can also be very dangerous.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ;)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T11:45:39.913Z
2017-07-02T11:45:39.913Z
Paul Williams
<p>If I remember correctly, the Trezor uses deterministic wallets, as specified in BIP 0032.  That means that the device will give you a sentence that the wallet can be regenerated from, in case it's lost.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-07T18:43:35.580Z
2013-05-07T18:43:35.580Z
Julian Goldsmith
<p>Trezor is one of the leading implementation of a <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardware_wallet" rel="nofollow">hardware wallet</a>. Its first generation won't support multisig ... because the Bitcoin network itself doesn't have strong multisig support.</p>

<p>What happens if a Trezor is lost or stolen? Where are the private keys it guards backed up? Is a password required to release funds stored on it?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-01T14:38:26.897Z
I will just add (since this question is from 2013) - as of 2017, Trezor supports multisig, through Copay Chrome app.
Karel Bílek
<wallet><hardware-wallet><trezor>
What happens when a Trezor is lost?
ripper234
# What happens when a Trezor is lost?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-05-07)

Trezor is one of the leading implementation of a [hardware wallet](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardware_wallet). Its first generation won't support multisig ... because the Bitcoin network itself doesn't have strong multisig support.

What happens if a Trezor is lost or stolen? Where are the private keys it guards backed up? Is a password required to release funds stored on it?

**Tags:** wallet, hardware-wallet, trezor

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I will just add (since this question is from 2013) - as of 2017, Trezor supports multisig, through Copay Chrome app.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2013-05-07. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

If I remember correctly, the Trezor uses deterministic wallets, as specified in BIP 0032. That means that the device will give you a sentence that the wallet can be regenerated from, in case it's lost.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2017-07-02. Score: 1

As username_3 has stated correctly the Trezor is a heuristic deterministic (HD) wallet as most modern wallets are these days.That means that it generates a tree of pairs of secret keys/public keys(addresses) when its initialised(to be more accurate it actually does this on the fly) from a 12, 18 or 24 word passphrase.
So if you have written down(on the card provided by trezor) this passphrase and have it locked away in a safe deposit box you can recover your entire wallet even if you have lost the trezor.
DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON......
If you have also used a password(not the pin) you will need this too... else all you will see on your recovered trezor is an empty wallet..
Its a great extra security feature if someone manages to steal your 24 word passphrase but can also be very dangerous.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ;)


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