Question: How is it possible that a wallet like electrum can generate a new seed offline? How does it make sure that this seed isn’t used by somebody else? Is it just unlikely or is there an other mechanism ensuring that the same seed is not generated twice at two different points in time?

This topic has 2 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 2 months, 1 week ago by jcoinner.

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Thursday, December 1st, 2022 at 00:04 #414540
futureisbright2031
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Question: How is it possible that a wallet like electrum can generate a new seed offline? How does it make sure that this seed isn’t used by somebody else? Is it just unlikely or is there an other mechanism ensuring that the same seed is not generated twice at two different points in time?
Thursday, December 1st, 2022 at 00:13 #414541
Mr_P_Nissaurus
The seed is 256 bits. The wallet can electronically “flip a coin” 256 times and generate the seed – without being online.
You can be sure that your seed is unique because there are 115792089237316195423570985008687907853269984665640564039457584007913129639936 possible seeds.
Thursday, December 1st, 2022 at 00:14 #414542
jcoinner
A seed is a representation of a very large random number. There is no mechanism for making sure it’s not used, no central database – it is large enough that such is not needed as the statistical likelihood of collision is so low. This goes for all wallets that use seeds, and for any bitcoin private keys as well. You can’t have decentralization if you have a central registry to check against.
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