📅 Original date posted:2018-11-06
📝 Original message:Hello everyone,
I just realized that BIP-0039 is language dependent. I was assuming the
other way till I looked closer. The way the seed is derived from a BIP-0039
entropy, as is shown below, depends on which language to generate the
mnemonic sentence:
Entropy <=> Mnemonic Sentence => PBKDF2 => BIP-0032 Seed
Therefore when a user choose a non-English mnemonic code he or she is stuck
with that language. Meanwhile only a few native languages are supported.
SLIP-0039 does not solve this issue in a user friendly way by providing
only an English wordlist. That's understandable as it aims to provide SSS
capability. However those users who do not speak English or recognize
English words will suffer.
What I am trying to bring to attention of the community is that, no matter
if we make a new version of BIP-0039, or a new BIP (with SSS support), or
to enhance SLIP-0039, we really need to address this language issue.
Here are what I propose:
1. The mnemonic code should be only a representation of underlying entropy
or (pre) master secret, seed, whatever. In this way, the same seed/secret
could be displayed in English or in Chinese or other languages. Then there
could be 3rd party conversion tools to support translations in case any
wallet software or device does not support all specified languages. Now it
looks like:
Mnemonic Sentence <=> Entropy => PBKDF2 => BIP-0032 Seed
2. Given that only 8 languages are supported in BIP-0039, we should allow
the seed/secret to be represented in decimal numbers, each ranging from 0
to 2047. So those who cannot find a native language support yet having
difficulty coping words in other languages could choose to just use numbers.
So far I don't have a preference how this should be implemented. I'd like
to hear from community first.
Thanks,
Weiji Guo
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/attachments/20181107/88677440/attachment.html>;
Weiji Guo [ARCHIVE] /
npub1ad…3jwsm
2023-06-07 18:15:07
in reply to nevent1q…hnmh
Author Public Key
npub1adg6ahtzmcat8uds2yer787cyywssa6zjh730t94gd9hz5jmh47qf3jwsmSeen on
wss://relay.nostr.bandPublished at
2023-06-07 18:15:07Event JSON
{
"id": "fe4fac516f53b90b48183097d744af10550724cfb26e7128c70c9022f5e8f794",
"pubkey": "eb51aedd62de3ab3f1b051323f1fd8211d08774295fd17acb5434b71525bbd7c",
"created_at": 1686161707,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"1d3a872724bbe9c6791f24658601d16f3205f533f66a2d71c87f020bb50deded",
"",
"reply"
],
[
"p",
"a23dbf6c6cc83e14cc3df4e56cc71845f611908084cfe620e83e40c06ccdd3d0"
]
],
"content": "📅 Original date posted:2018-11-06\n📝 Original message:Hello everyone,\n\nI just realized that BIP-0039 is language dependent. I was assuming the\nother way till I looked closer. The way the seed is derived from a BIP-0039\nentropy, as is shown below, depends on which language to generate the\nmnemonic sentence:\n\n Entropy \u003c=\u003e Mnemonic Sentence =\u003e PBKDF2 =\u003e BIP-0032 Seed\n\nTherefore when a user choose a non-English mnemonic code he or she is stuck\nwith that language. Meanwhile only a few native languages are supported.\n\nSLIP-0039 does not solve this issue in a user friendly way by providing\nonly an English wordlist. That's understandable as it aims to provide SSS\ncapability. However those users who do not speak English or recognize\nEnglish words will suffer.\n\nWhat I am trying to bring to attention of the community is that, no matter\nif we make a new version of BIP-0039, or a new BIP (with SSS support), or\nto enhance SLIP-0039, we really need to address this language issue.\n\nHere are what I propose:\n\n1. The mnemonic code should be only a representation of underlying entropy\nor (pre) master secret, seed, whatever. In this way, the same seed/secret\ncould be displayed in English or in Chinese or other languages. Then there\ncould be 3rd party conversion tools to support translations in case any\nwallet software or device does not support all specified languages. Now it\nlooks like:\n\n Mnemonic Sentence \u003c=\u003e Entropy =\u003e PBKDF2 =\u003e BIP-0032 Seed\n\n2. Given that only 8 languages are supported in BIP-0039, we should allow\nthe seed/secret to be represented in decimal numbers, each ranging from 0\nto 2047. So those who cannot find a native language support yet having\ndifficulty coping words in other languages could choose to just use numbers.\n\nSo far I don't have a preference how this should be implemented. I'd like\nto hear from community first.\n\nThanks,\n\nWeiji Guo\n-------------- next part --------------\nAn HTML attachment was scrubbed...\nURL: \u003chttp://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/attachments/20181107/88677440/attachment.html\u003e",
"sig": "d44d622284224d888ef9967565495940fab6d158dd7725871f9ddaddbbd9118228efc4a582424697d426a6363f1d52378c8894675cde96c34b871cfceb9a78ad"
}