Topic: Why Core does not allow to use words to "spawn" your wallet? - page 2. (Read 332 times)

Bitcoin Core makes HD wallets by default, which means you can generate all your private keys via the wallet's HD seed instead of using mneumonic words.

To get the HD seed, you can open the console and type "dumpwallet ", and it will be within the first few lines (this is a testnet wallet, but same principle applies for mainnet):

Code:

# Wallet dump created by Bitcoin v0.21.0  
# * Created on 2021-01-21T16:59:50Z  
# * Best block at time of backup was 1905234 (00000000e26170d0f846a334a1bfdfebe8da906c5),  
#   mined on 2021-01-21T17:05:05Z    

# extended private masterkey: tpR2efnJMh85ufpQcYSTwrrKrYJ
cTdH4SbvTR 1970-01-01T00:00:01Z label= # addr=mnb8RSpTqvhLh8Q6,2MudYFE2awqc,tbvhpur8zf35ql3yx5h9nu  
cRaKzuR9MCVwAxVa3aAZrVh15YbV 2019-08-26T01:19:00Z reserve=1 # addr=tb1q3qc52q hdkeypath=m/0'/0'/222'  
cT2ozo5xcj6iCe4dTfywan3qJnib 2019-08-26T01:19:00Z hdseed=1 # addr=tb1qzqtu25qsue0a5pp3hg8lkftclf8ds    <-- The first string of text on this line is the HD seed because it has 'hdseed=1'
cNb2K9tUhQaeXiVz2Jt2Wq9DMLdf 2019-08-26T01:19:00Z reserve=1 # addr=tb14d7lx hdkeypath=m/0'/0'/117'  

Then to restore it, you can create a new wallet (do not use an existing wallet) and open the console and run sethdseed .

In Electrum you can use 12 words and have your wallet pop up in any country of the planet including North Korea if you managed to install the software on a computer there. This is insanely useful when you need to cross borders as governments become increasingly tyrannical. People are getting stopped in airport and forced to decrypt already. So with Core you are carrying some wallet file and that puts you in danger, while with Electrum you can just remember 12 words and worry about nothing.

So considering how useful this is I ask: Why Core does not allow for this? As far as I know Core has been an HD wallet for years now, so it must be using some "seed" but it never shows it, and it may just be a random string of alphanumeric characters and not 12 readable words as Electrum shows. Why is that?

Im assuming the Electrum wallets are impossible to crack and the method is safe, so I don't get why Core does not allow this.

I don't want to use Electrum because at the end of the day Core software is by far the most peer reviewed software in Bitcoin so I trust it above the others, so im asking here if this could be implemented so we don't have to carry a file that constantly puts you in danger. And no I don't want to upload this file on some online cloud service even if temporarily to cross borders. You are leaving a copy even if encrypted somewhere on the net pretty much forever. There are no workarounds. Nothing is better than remembering 12 words and knowing your money is in there safe. The question, is it safe? or im missing some security compromises using Electrum's method?

I've seen this asked other times but I've never read a conclusive explanation as to why so im hoping some dev that browses this boardings can reply. Cheers.