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Concepts · The three secrets
The difference between a password, a phrase and a private key
Almost every message I get starts with «I lost my password» and half of them aren’t about a password. Telling these three apart is the first thing I do in any case, because it decides whether the problem takes five minutes or can never be fixed.
The building analogy
- The private key is the key to one specific flat. It opens that door and no other.
- The recovery phrase is the deed to the whole building. Every key to every flat, present and future, comes from it.
- The password is the safe at home where you keep the deed. It protects the paper, not the building.
Every consequence follows from that. If you lose the safe’s combination but have the deed elsewhere, nothing happens. If you lose the deed, the safe is irrelevant. And if someone reads the deed, they have the building, even if you still have the safe.
What each loss means
| What you lost | What happens |
|---|---|
| The password, but you have the phrase | Nothing: restore and set a new password |
| The phrase, but you have the password and the file | Workable: the phrase is inside the file |
| Both, but you still have the file | A recovery case: it depends on your memory |
| Both and no file survives | No way out |
| A single private key | You lose only that one address |
The second row surprises many people. If you can open your wallet but lost the paper with the words, you don’t have a problem: go into the app’s security settings, display the phrase and write it down today. It is the difference between a scare and a permanent loss.
How to tell which is yours
- If they are loose words — twelve or twenty-four — it is the recovery phrase.
- If it is something you invented and type each time you open the app, it is the password.
- If it is a long string of letters and numbers starting with 5, K, L or 0x, it is a private key. Which is which is in keys starting with 5, K or L.
- If it is a short number you type on a device, it is the PIN, and it only protects that device.
And the most important practical consequence: a password can be spoken aloud to whoever is helping you; a phrase never is. The first protects a file on your computer; the second opens your money from anywhere in the world.