SeedSticks or Seed Sticks allows you to draw your own personal seed phrase. You can be your own random generator and don't need to trust a software random number generator anymore. You can use the SeedSticks over and over again and therefore create an infinite number of Seed Phrases.
The set contains 1024 double-sided acrylic sticks with the complete bip39 word list carefully laser engraved and a handcrafted cloth bag for safe storage, proper mixing and convenient drawing of the seed words.
Five steps to ensure the randomness of your seed phrase:
-
Get your SeedSticks
Or create your own seedsticks. See FAQ below for more information.
-
Verify your SeedSticks
Don't trust. Verify. Check your received SeedSticks against the official bip39 word list here:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039/english.txt
-
Release your SeedSticks
Release the SeedSticks and put them into the bag.
Please note: To avoid splinters, please release your SeedSticks carefully as shown in the photo.
-
Draw your seed words
Blindly, one by one and write it down.
Please note: Since it is perfectly acceptable to have the same word twice, throw the drawn word back in the bag before drawing the next stick.
Important: Please follow the security guidelines. Check FAQ for more information.
-
Calculate checksum word
The last word of your seed phrase is a checksum word. You can't draw this word yourself, you have to calculate it.
Let your signing device do this for you. If your signing device can't do it, get a better one or check FAQ below.
FAQ
Is there any way I can make Bitcoin Seedsticks myself?
Sure, you can always print out bip39's word list at home, cut out the words and put them in a bag. However, in our experience, paper is unfortunately not as durable and practical. But give it a try.
Can't I just pick my favorite words from the bip39 word list?
No. Never. Don't even think about it. There are plenty of examples where wallets were sweeped because seed words were used that were easy to remember, resulted in a poem, or were otherwise not randomly chosen.
Then, with my eyes closed, can I randomly point to a word in the bip39 word list?
No. Seriously, don't do that. This has nothing to do with true randomness.
But I can think of a random number between 1-2048, look up the word from the bip39 word list to go with it?
No. The human brain is a very poor random number generator, various studies have shown.
But there must be other ways to get a seed phrase in a truly random way?
Yes. You can roll dice or flip coins. It's just more time-consuming and less comfortable. If you want to roll dice, please make sure you use casino dice.
Can I use the Bitcoin Seedsticks for software wallets as well?
If your software wallet supports calculating the checksum word (or you calculate it some other way), then yes. However, be careful with hot wallets as they store the private key on an online device. This is a serious security risk.
What to do if my hardware wallet does not support checksum word calculation?
First, tell them. Write a feature request. And then do the calculation yourself. There are numerous online tools that allow you to calculate the checksum word. Attention, these websites have to be downloaded and then run on a offline computer which will never go online again afterwards. If you can't ensure that, don't do it and stick to the signing device's random number generator.
Can I use SeedSticks for other things than Bitcoin?
SeedSticks are just a physical and handy representation of the wordlist defined in the Bitcoin standard bip39. If anything else follows this standard, you can probably work with SeedSticks there as well.