Wealth Security Protocol
Go to Casa Home
  • 🗺️Overview
  • 💜Casa vs. Alternatives
    • Introduction
    • Option #1: Do-it-yourself
    • Option #2: Custodial Storage
    • Option #3: Commercial Systems
  • 🔑System Design Principles
    • Introduction
    • Minimal Knowledge
    • High Security
    • Usability is Security
    • Expert Support
    • Redundancy
    • Sovereignty
    • Incentive Alignment
  • 🚨Threat Overview
    • Introduction
    • Data and Credential Loss
    • Phishing
    • SIM Hijacking
    • Network Attacks
    • Malware
    • Supply Chain Attack
    • Physical Coercion
    • Child/Pet Attack
    • Internal Service Provider Attack
    • Platform / Hosting Provider Attack
    • Code Dependency Attack
    • Official Seizure
    • Inheritance Failure
  • 🔐Chosen Features
    • Introduction
    • Hardware Wallet Signing
    • Multi-signature
    • Multi-location
    • Heterogeneous Hardware and Software
    • Seedless Hardware Wallets
    • Emergency Recovery Key
    • PIN or Biometrics for Mobile Key only
    • PIN for every device
    • Sovereign Recovery Instructions
    • Emergency Lockdown Button
    • Health Check
    • Identity Verification for Account Recovery
    • Inheritance
  • ✅Chosen Key Schemes
    • 5-Key Vault
    • 3-Key Vault
    • Pay Wallet
  • ❌Rejected Key Schemes
    • Shamir's Secret Sharing
    • 2-of-2
    • 1-of-2
  • ❌Rejected Features
    • Biometrics General Usage
    • Brain Wallet -- Memory Based Solutions
  • 🔧Remaining Attack Vectors
    • Address Spoofing
    • Malicious Insider Key Theft
    • Extreme disaster scenarios
    • Extortion
  • 👨‍🚀Future Improvements
    • Taproot/MAST
    • Schnorr Signatures
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  1. ❌Rejected Features

Brain Wallet -- Memory Based Solutions

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Last updated 1 year ago

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A “brain wallet” is the practice of memorizing a seed phrase that is converted into a bitcoin private key. They present a major risk of theft and loss.

One major problem with brain wallets is a lack of true randomness. Attackers can guess and check many brain wallet seeds quickly in parallel. As of 2016 an active community of thieves checking brain wallets for balances and draining them within minutes of creation.

Brain wallets also present a significant risk of loss. Injuries or just forgetfulness can cause a seed to be lost forever. To be of comparable security as a normal bitcoin key, a brain wallet seed phrase has to contain a large number of words, such as memorizing a 12-word BIP39 seed phrase. If any of the words are missing or remembered out of order, it may be hard or impossible to recover.

researchers reported