<p>The way BIP 39 wallets are created is to combine the passphrase along with the seed phrase (12/24 words) to generate a master key, which is then used to derive a hierarchical series of private and public keys. In Bitcoin, you are allowed to do all of what you are asking including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Large number of characters (theoretically limitless)</li>
<li>Special Characters</li>
<li>Sequence of spaces (2 or more spaces back to back)</li>
</ul>
<p>Although Bitcoin itself does not have constraints as to what you can include as a passphrase, many implementations of BIP 39 wallets do. You may encounter passphrase length limits based on the wallet implementation, such as Trezor allowing around 50 characters and some other wallets permitting more or fewer characters. It’s recommended to check the documentation of the specific wallet you’re using before creating your passphrase. Generally, software wallets like Sparrow and Electrum will have fewer constraints than hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger. Also, given that most hardware wallets do not store the passphrase, it may be tedious to re-enter a 250+ character passphrase every time you want to access your bitcoin.</p>
<p>Passphrases provide an extra layer of security that is compelling to anyone serious about keeping their bitcoin safe. That's because without the passphrase, an attacker cannot access your funds even if they have the seed phrase. It’s important to make sure that your passphrase is secure and memorable and/or safely stored, because losing it means permanent loss of access to the funds tied to the wallet derived with that passphrase. The seed phrase alone will not be enough to recover the wallet. As previously mentioned, it's the combination of the seed and pass phrases that creates the wallet, so the seed phrase alone (or the seed phrase along with a different pass phrase) will create a new (most likely empty) wallet with a different master seed and different addresses, etc.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-07T18:50:17.147Z
so the seed phrase alone should create new addresses but not new seeds. your last line is the seed phrase alone will create a new empty wallet with a different master seed and new addresses. can you tell me the difference between mnemonic and seed phrases and master seeds. am I missing something? Thanks for your reply. it cleared up my query.
Anuj Sanghvi
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-07T19:58:27.573Z
Public and private keys in Bitcoin are just really really big numbers. Because of this, they are often encoded as hexadecimal representations. BIP 39 is just a way of encoding these large hexadecimal numbers even further into a human readable string: each word corresponds to a number between 0 and 2047. Seed phrases on their own are sufficient to create new wallets as they represent these large numbers hence public keys, however when you add a pass phrase, you must hash the seed phrase and pass phrases together to create a new large number/public key - this is a brand new wallet
Myles Sherman
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-08T02:37:49.617Z
So my understanding is this

'abc' set of seeds + 'random' passphrase will create a wallet with 'asd456' wallet address

The same 'abc' set of seeds entered without the passphrase will show 'uisd7888' wallet address.

The 12/24 words seedphrase remain the same throughout whether I put the passphrase or not or even different passphrases to have multiple hidden addresses. But the primary 12/24 word seeds always remain the same which may or may not be complemented with the passphrases.

Thanks for clarifying.
Anuj Sanghvi
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-07T16:21:55.970Z
2024-09-07T16:21:55.970Z
Myles Sherman
<ol>
<li><p>To set up the passphrase can I use a passphrase that has alphabets, numbers and special characters mixed together?</p>
</li>
<li><p>Also how many characters in the passphrase does the blockchain allow?</p>
</li>
<li><p>Can I set up the passphrase using words separated by spaces? or does it have to be one long word?</p>
</li>
<li><p>If the above answer is yes i.e I can use words separated by spaces then can I use 10 words separated by 5 spaces between each word? just an example.</p>
</li>
<li><p>If I set up a wallet with a seed phrase and a passphrase and deposit 1 BTC, then later delete that wallet and set it up again without the passphrase, will the new wallet that I see have the same address as the seeds with passphrase or not? IMO that should be a different address than the one with seeds + passphrase.</p>
</li>
</ol>

<passphrase>
How can I set up the passphrase
Anuj Sanghvi
# How can I set up the passphrase

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-09-07)

1. To set up the passphrase can I use a passphrase that has alphabets, numbers and special characters mixed together?
2. Also how many characters in the passphrase does the blockchain allow?
3. Can I set up the passphrase using words separated by spaces? or does it have to be one long word?
4. If the above answer is yes i.e I can use words separated by spaces then can I use 10 words separated by 5 spaces between each word? just an example.
5. If I set up a wallet with a seed phrase and a passphrase and deposit 1 BTC, then later delete that wallet and set it up again without the passphrase, will the new wallet that I see have the same address as the seeds with passphrase or not? IMO that should be a different address than the one with seeds + passphrase.

**Tags:** passphrase


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-09-07. Score: 0

The way BIP 39 wallets are created is to combine the passphrase along with the seed phrase (12/24 words) to generate a master key, which is then used to derive a hierarchical series of private and public keys. In Bitcoin, you are allowed to do all of what you are asking including:

* Large number of characters (theoretically limitless)
* Special Characters
* Sequence of spaces (2 or more spaces back to back)

Although Bitcoin itself does not have constraints as to what you can include as a passphrase, many implementations of BIP 39 wallets do. You may encounter passphrase length limits based on the wallet implementation, such as Trezor allowing around 50 characters and some other wallets permitting more or fewer characters. It’s recommended to check the documentation of the specific wallet you’re using before creating your passphrase. Generally, software wallets like Sparrow and Electrum will have fewer constraints than hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger. Also, given that most hardware wallets do not store the passphrase, it may be tedious to re-enter a 250+ character passphrase every time you want to access your bitcoin.

Passphrases provide an extra layer of security that is compelling to anyone serious about keeping their bitcoin safe. That's because without the passphrase, an attacker cannot access your funds even if they have the seed phrase. It’s important to make sure that your passphrase is secure and memorable and/or safely stored, because losing it means permanent loss of access to the funds tied to the wallet derived with that passphrase. The seed phrase alone will not be enough to recover the wallet. As previously mentioned, it's the combination of the seed and pass phrases that creates the wallet, so the seed phrase alone (or the seed phrase along with a different pass phrase) will create a new (most likely empty) wallet with a different master seed and different addresses, etc.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: so the seed phrase alone should create new addresses but not new seeds. your last line is the seed phrase alone will create a new empty wallet with a different master seed and new addresses. can you tell me the difference between mnemonic and seed phrases and master seeds. am I missing something? Thanks for your reply. it cleared up my query.  
> **username_1**: Public and private keys in Bitcoin are just really really big numbers. Because of this, they are often encoded as hexadecimal representations. BIP 39 is just a way of encoding these large hexadecimal numbers even further into a human readable string: each word corresponds to a number between 0 and 2047. Seed phrases on their own are sufficient to create new wallets as they represent these large numbers hence public keys, however when you add a pass phrase, you must hash the seed phrase and pass phrases together to create a new large number/public key - this is a brand new wallet  
> **username_0**: So my understanding is this  'abc' set of seeds + 'random' passphrase will create a wallet with 'asd456' wallet address  The same 'abc' set of seeds entered without the passphrase will show 'uisd7888' wallet address.  The 12/24 words seedphrase remain the same throughout whether I put the passphrase or not or even different passphrases to have multiple hidden addresses. But the primary 12/24 word seeds always remain the same which may or may not be complemented with the passphrases.  Thanks for clarifying.  

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