How to keep your Radiant safe and secure

6 min readMay 13, 2023

One of the great advantages that BIP32 and BIP39 introduced in Bitcoin was the possibility to manage hundreds of addresses in a single alphanumeric key (BIP32) and to convert that huge private key into words that allow easy storage (BIP39).

BIP32 is a standard for hierarchical deterministic wallets (HD wallets). HD wallets allow users to generate an unlimited number of child keys from a single master key, which can be used to store Bitcoin or other coins like Radiant. This makes HD wallets more secure and convenient than traditional wallets, as users only need to remember a single master key to access all of their coins.

BIP32 Hierachical Deterministic Wallets (HD wallets)

BIP39 works by using a deterministic algorithm to generate a mnemonic phrase from a random seed. The mnemonic phrase can then be used to recreate the seed, which can then be used to generate the private keys for the cryptocurrency wallet.

This is an example of a mnemonic key (BIP39) and its corresponding master key (BIP32).

BIP39: social easy emerge also absorb castle 
       dust smile vivid rebel evoke warm

BIP32: xprv9s21ZrQH143K3wXYz52PM1DVFxqqQEuQXhgebxxJzb1c1Kf1og33iTeAD1AtEP92xqafw3yHSDHq9dojQ1QgxH38wGHsqdJDBh3iUH96NX8

ENTROPY Binary: 11001101111 01000101110 01001000101 00000111010 
                00000000110 00100011100 01000100010 11001100101 
                11110101001 10110011001 01001110000 1111011

ENTROPY HEX: cde8b92283a00c47111665f53665387b

Both mean the same thing, but the words in BIP39 allow for more effective backup and recovery.

Add more security with a passphrase

Electron Wallet and Chainbow allow the use of 12 or 24 words for the creation of the wallet, but in both cases there is the possibility of adding additional security by means of the Passphrase.

This option is somewhat hidden in both cases, but it allows you to add additional security to the backup you are going to make.

The passphrase together with the seed words allow to create other totally different addresses, thus allowing a thief to steal only the 12 or 24 words, not being able to access the funds that are there.

In the following image you can see how it works.

It is the same if we have the words but forget or lose the passphrase. This forces us to be very careful when saving this information.

In the example above, with only the seed we have the following addresses:

Only 12 words

Words: social easy emerge also absorb castle dust smile vivid rebel evoke warm

m/44'/0'/0'/0/0 1DcCSE793QcbUJUYt6Mcu3GpCXCfJADvXE
m/44'/0'/0'/0/1 1QJrUE5Ea4tFCym77kLaoG2zVmuYRjuLPX
m/44'/0'/0'/0/2 1Ct7ZH9zyruUCc15EYCkQfCCJ5v1UQ76Z5
m/44'/0'/0'/0/3 1EbadhKTv6UXbZeQMuTdJWTytgrkz2tw2z
m/44'/0'/0'/0/4 16Np6SpoWafTDSpTpGfbYdCs4eGPtotEDB

But if we add the passphrase Radiant, we get totally different addresses.

12 words + passphrase

Words: social easy emerge also absorb castle dust smile vivid rebel evoke warm
Passphrase: Radiant

m/44'/0'/0'/0/0 19LMe4apydch4fVrv2u7yjHrRGRbjpkHz9
m/44'/0'/0'/0/1 13fWcFNqdsJSQxkhmPfgx8W5JqLAwAbEpA
m/44'/0'/0'/0/2 1LQv6n9PLBJK2o1kmW3BPRAJaxt1ueeaRh
m/44'/0'/0'/0/3 1CdSmo99cf1RSE286UP6ioKSKkxhxT5DKp
m/44'/0'/0'/0/4 16BE6PNVGrMQZwqkY8oB6v5muESWskbqnT

You can see how the passphrase has modified the public addresses and with the same seed word it is possible to have multiple wallets with multiple different passphrases.

How to use passphrase in Electron Wallet

How to use passphrase in Chainbow

5 methods to store these words

When saving these words, it is very important to have some redundancy in the backup, we have already encountered on more than one occasion people who have not saved the words or wrote it on a piece of paper and lost it.

1/ Paper: Several copies can be made, protected with transparent tape and hidden in various locations.

2/ Metal: As it is more complicated, it can be combined with paper copies and hidden in another location. There are on metal plates, but there are also DIY methods easily accessible.

3/ Cloud storage: This idea may not be the best, but it is possible to securely save a seed word in a txt file and compress it with a password of more than 25 characters and upload it to some storage service. By having such a long password, it could not be hacked.

4/ Personal storage: Similar to the previous case, but stored in own units. Less insecure, but more likely to lose some of them or have the storage degrade over time

5/ Divide the seed word into several parts and save them in different places. With this way if someone accesses one of the parts they will not be able to steal anything. But if you lose one of the parts, you won’t have access to the funds either. Be careful with this method.

6/BONUS — Passphare. Our recommendation is to use a passphrase together with the seed words. If this is your case, remember not to save it together with the words when creating backups.

Their purpose is to save your funds if someone finds your words. Save it somewhere else and also redundantly.

A tip for creating this special word is to make it simple but complex to get it out. One possibility is to join 3 words that are known to you. Like this examples:

RadiantBestProject
SharkLionSpider
ParisLondonTokyo
StingMadonnaQueen
...

Conclusion

Backing up our wallet is the first and most important thing one must do when generating a new wallet. It is always important to have the copies redundantly backed up.

Don’t think that you are wasting your time, think that this way you will not lose your funds.

[1] More about BIP39: https://medium.com/geekculture/what-is-bitcoin-improvement-proposal-39-bip-39-9a95ed07cb03

[2] More about BIP32: https://medium.com/geekculture/what-is-bitcoin-improvement-proposal-32-bip-32-586a3f36a95c

[3] More about passphrase: https://vault12.com/securemycrypto/crypto-security-basics/what-is-a-wallet-passphrase

[4 Wallet with washers: https://blockmit.com/english/guides/diy/make-cold-wallet-washers

[5] Discord Radiant: https://discord.com/invite/radiantblockchain