If your HD wallet uses Chinese or English mnemonic phrases and you’re having trouble finding your Bitcoin when restoring it in another wallet, you can use this tool to convert the mnemonic phrase format in order to recover your Bitcoin. This issue often arises because older wallets (like BRD, also known as Breadwallet, and imToken) use outdated protocols that may not be supported by newer wallets. Don’t worry, your coins are still there.
First, let’s understand the underlying principles:
In Bitcoin, BIP32, BIP44, BIP49, BIP84, and BIP141 are five interrelated standards used for generating and managing wallet addresses. The main differences among them are how they derive child keys from a master key.
BIP32 is a standard for generating hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets. It allows you to derive an unlimited number of child keys from a master key, which can be used for different addresses and accounts. BIP32 utilizes a tree structure to organize keys, where each child key has a unique identifier called a “path.”
BIP44 is a standard for deriving specific types of addresses from a BIP32 master key. It defines standard paths for different cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. The format for a BIP44 path is as follows:
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Where:
m
represents the “master key”44'
indicates “BIP44”coin_type'
specifies the cryptocurrency type, for example,0'
represents Bitcoinaccount'
is the account index, starting from 0change
denotes the address type, with 0 for external addresses and 1 for internal addressesaddress_index
is the address index, starting from 0
BIP49 is a standard used to derive Segregated Witness (SegWit) addresses from a BIP32 master key. It is similar to BIP44 but uses different paths for deriving SegWit addresses. The format for a BIP49 path is:
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BIP84 is a standard for deriving native SegWit addresses from a BIP32 master key. It is similar to BIP49 but uses distinct paths for deriving native SegWit addresses. The format for a BIP84 path is:
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BIP141 is a standard for the Segregated Witness (SegWit) soft fork. It activates SegWit and allows Bitcoin nodes to validate and accept SegWit transactions.
The main differences between these standards are as follows:
Standard | Purpose |
---|---|
BIP32 | Generate hierarchical deterministic wallets |
BIP44 | Derive specific types of addresses from a BIP32 master key |
BIP49 | Derive SegWit addresses from a BIP32 master key |
BIP84 | Derive native SegWit addresses from a BIP32 master key |
BIP141 | Activate SegWit soft fork |
Summary:
- BIP32 is a standard for generating hierarchical deterministic wallets.
- BIP44, BIP49, BIP84, and BIP141 are standards for deriving different types of addresses from a BIP32 master key.
- BIP141 is a standard for activating the SegWit soft fork.
Please Note:
- These standards are interrelated, but they can be used independently.
- You can choose to use a mnemonic phrase to generate a BIP32 wallet.
- You can choose to use BIP44, BIP49, BIP84, or BIP141 to derive addresses from a BIP32 master key.
Mnemonic phrase conversion project address: https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39
For your wallet’s safety, please download the project for offline use.