Wallets Recovery [DRAFT]

Giving users their seed phrase is not enough.

While great advances have been made in interoperability and recoverability, developers across the industry continue to build wallets that either:

• Don't implement BIP standard(s).
• Implement a BIP standard, but with important differences from other wallets that also implemented it.
• Implement a BIP standard, but one that has not been widely adopted (and perhaps only by them).
• Don't have clear documentation about their derivation paths, backup and recovery processes.

This list is meant to gather information about wallet defaults for external recovery. Wallets come and go, information gets lost and users are left with tears. Responsible wallet makers document external recovery.

Users should not have to read or dig through the source code of a wallet to figure out the Derivation Paths or Redeem Scripts.

If we went to your website and couldn't find it => ☠️☠️☠️ [EXTERNAL RECOVERY NOT DOCUMENTED].

This list is not an endorsement of the security or the quality of any of the wallets.

Status	Hardware Wallets	Supported Paths	BIP39 Pass	BIP74 PSBT	Note
✅	ColdCard↗︎	m/44'|49'|84'/0'/0' + Custom	Optional		Docs
✅	Ledger S/Nano↗︎	m/44'/0'/0'	Optional		Docs
✅	Trezor 1/t↗︎	m/44'|49'/0'/0'	Optional		Docs
✅	Opendime↗︎	WIF			Docs, Archive
✅	KeepKey↗︎	m/44'/0'/0'	Optional		Docs, xPub, Compatible Wallets
⚠️	BitBox01↗︎	Single Signer: m/44'/0'/0' Multisig: m/100'/45'/0'			Docs, ☠️ Hosted Insecure Recovery Tool
🛑	BitBox02↗︎				[EXTERNAL RECOVERY NOT DOCUMENTED]

Status	Wallet	Path and/or Script	BIP39 Pass	BIP74 PSBT	Note
️⚠️	Bitcoin Core↗︎	m/0'/0'	N/A		Github Issue
✅	Bitcoin Wallet app↗︎	BIP32 non 44 Compatible			Docs, Archive
️⚠️	Bisq↗︎	m/44'/0'/0'	N/A		Github Issue
🛑	Bither↗︎				[EXTERNAL RECOVERY NOT DOCUMENTED]
✅	Blockchain.com↗︎	m/44'/0'/n'			Docs, xPub
✅	Blockstream Green (GreenAddress)↗︎	Custom 2-of-2 Script	Optional (on restore)		Recovery tool
✅	BlueWallet↗︎	m/44'|m/49'|84'/0'/0'			Docs, Archive, Features
️⚠️	BRD (Bread Wallet)↗︎	m/0'	N/A		Github Issue, Reddit Post
🛑	BTC.com app↗︎				[EXTERNAL RECOVERY NOT DOCUMENTED]
⚠️	Casa Keymaster↗︎	m/49/0/X (X increments with each key rotation)			Unofficial Docs
🛑	Coin Wallet↗︎				[EXTERNAL RECOVERY NOT DOCUMENTED]
✅	Coinomi↗︎	m/44'|49'|84'/0'/0'			Export, Import
✅	Copay↗︎	m/44'|48'/0'/0'	Optional		Docs, Recovery tool,❌Endangered users by misrepresenting Bitcoin
✅	Eclair Mobile↗︎	m/49'/0'/0'	Optional		Docs
✅	Edge Wallet↗︎	m/44'|49'/0'/0'			Docs
✅	Electrum↗︎	Single Signer: m/44'|49'|84/0'/0' Multisig: m/45'/0/0/0|m/48'/0'/0'/1' |m/48'/0'/0'/2' Does not use BIP39 seeds but can import them	Optional	Yes	Docs
✅	JoinMarket↗︎	m/49'/0'/n'			Docs (not updated for BIP49)
⚠	Multibit HD↗︎	m/0'	N/A		Github Issue
✅	Mycelium↗︎	m/44'/0'/0'	Optional (on restore)		Docs
✅	OpenBazaar↗︎	m/44'/0'|1'|133'|145'/0'			Docs
⚠️	Rise Wallet↗︎	m/49'/0'/0'			[EXTERNAL RECOVERY NOT DOCUMENTED]
✅	Samourai↗︎	Deposit: m/44'|49'|84'|47'/0'/0'Post Mix: m/84'/0'/2147483646'	Required	Experimental	Docs, BIPs Supported
⚠️	Unchained Capital↗︎	m/45’/0’/0’/0/0 + Redeem Script			Docs, Archive, Script 404
✅	Wasabi↗︎	m/84'/0'/0' Very Deep Depths	Optional		Docs, BIPs Supported
✅	BLW (Bitcoin Lightning Wallet)↗︎	m/84'/0'/0' BIP32 non 44 Compatible	N/A		Docs

Notes:

• Hardware wallets don't care about derivation in certain modes.
• Wallets which have been frequently exploited, or which have endangered users by misrepresenting forked coins as if they are Bitcoin, may only be included with a warning.

Icon	Legend
🛑	Unknown. No obvious docs, research in progress
☠️	Not publicly available, or complex without a external tool available for the average user
⚠️	Known, but unofficially documented
✅	Documented + Link to doc

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Explainer: Wallet Types

• Paper wallets are not actually wallets, but rather private keys and addresses printed out on paper. While the keys and addresses can technically be generated non-deterministically or deterministically, the usability is basically the same or poorer than a non-deterministic software wallet. Paper wallets have a number of significant drawbacks, including encouraging address reuse, exposing keys to poorly secured networked devices (printer), and not handling change addresses. Paper wallets should not be confused with recovery seeds.
• Non-deterministic wallets randomly generate all private / public key pairs independent of each other. Keypool buffer was added to the Bitcoin-Qt / Bitcoin Core wallet in October 2010, which allowed the wallet to create a collection of unused addresses, rather than generating new addresses one by one upon use. While this feature allowed for less frequent backups than before, the non-determinism still carried the risk of key loss if the pool was exhausted and a new key was generated beyond what was saved in backup.
• Deterministic wallets are essentially any wallet where "you can backup once... because all future addresses are determined in advance," which was a massive improvement in recoverability. There are two different forms:
  • Sequential deterministic wallets take a single seed phrase / passphrase and repeatedly increment it in order to generate new keypairs. This meant that the system would only need to store addresses, and then re-generate the private keys when needed.
  • Hierarchical deterministic wallets take a single seed phrase and randomly generate a master private / public key pair, which is then used to derive child key pairs that generate addresses. This system allows for the generation of addresses to occur without the master private key, with only the public key.
• Multi-signature wallets require multiple signatures or parties to sign a transaction in order to spend bitcoin. An M-of-N BIP-11 address must first be generated in order to receive bitcoin for spending in multi-signature transactions. While the 2-of-2 and 2-of-3 schemes are the most common, the maximum number of public keys is higher, and this could increase much more in the future with Schnorr signatures and Taproot.

Explainer: Derivation Paths

In hierarchical deterministic wallets (BIP-32), a derivation path is a sequence of fields or levels through which a wallet organizes coins in a multi-currency, multi-account, and multi-address system. According to BIP-44, this hierarchy consists of five levels, in addition to the master extended private key ('xpriv') represented by m (alternatively, derivation paths for the master extended public key or 'xpub' use M).

m / purpose' / coin_type' / account' / change / address_index

• Purpose: This field, which was added through BIP-43, indicates which standard the derivation path follows. Possibilities include 0 or 44 referring to the default BIP-44 P2PKH / '1' legacy addresses [Double check your wallet, BIP44 is inconsistenly implemented], 45 referring to BIP-45 P2SH multi-party multi-signature wallets (proposed), 47 referring to BIP-47 reusable payment codes (draft), 48 referring to hardware multisignature wallets (no BIP or standard proposal), 49 referring to BIP-49 P2WPKH-nested-in-P2SH / '3' SegWit addresses, or 84 referring to BIP-84 P2WPKH / 'bc1' native SegWit addresses. Some wallet services are supporting more than one (as in, they can display both legacy and SegWit addresses derived from the same seed phrase).
• Coin Type: This field indicates which cryptocurrency is being used in a multi-currency wallet. All coins, including testnet bitcoin, are assigned a constant number. For example, a derivation path for a Monero (XMR) account would be m/44'/128'. Note that if finalized, BIP-45 would designate this level as the 'Cosigner Index' instead.
• Account: This field, in a multi-account wallet, indicates the identity or collection of addresses, which allows users to segregate funds for different things (ex. savings, donations). Note that if finalized, BIP-45 would not include this field. If BIP-47 is finalized, this level would be designated as 'Identity', though it is equivalent to 'Account.'
• Change: This field, if the constant 0 is present, indicates "external chain" (regular) addresses; if the constant 1, indicates "internal chain" (change) addresses. Note that if finalized, BIP-47 would designate this level as space for the notification keys and ephemeral payment codes.
• Address Index: This field indicates the specific address number in a sequence, within an account.

Note that many of the sequential fields start at zero (0), like how the first / ground floor of a building is level zero in the U.K. and Europe.

Practical Example: A user has a wallet that displays the derivation path sequence for a BIP-44 compliant bitcoin wallet, and wants to locate the second change address in their third account. The second change address in the third account would look like this: m/44'/0'/2'/1/1.

The meaning of "public" / unhardened versus hardened derivation, indicated in the fields by apostrophes, is explained here, here, and here.

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Did we get it wrong? Just let us know, and this will be updated. :)

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