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python-mnemonic

Reference implementation of BIP-0039: Mnemonic code for generating deterministic keys

Maintained by Trezor. See the GitHub repository for source code and issue tracking.

Abstract

This BIP describes the implementation of a mnemonic code or mnemonic sentence -- a group of easy to remember words -- for the generation of deterministic wallets.

It consists of two parts: generating the mnemonic, and converting it into a binary seed. This seed can be later used to generate deterministic wallets using BIP-0032 or similar methods.

BIP Paper

See BIP-0039 for the full specification.

Installation

To install this library and its dependencies use:

$ pip install mnemonic

Usage examples

Import library into python project via:

from mnemonic import Mnemonic

Initialize class instance, picking from available dictionaries:

  • english
  • chinese_simplified
  • chinese_traditional
  • french
  • italian
  • japanese
  • korean
  • spanish
  • turkish
  • czech
  • portuguese
mnemo = Mnemonic(language)
mnemo = Mnemonic("english")

Generate word list given the strength (128 - 256):

words = mnemo.generate(strength=256)

Given the word list and custom passphrase (empty in example), generate seed:

seed = mnemo.to_seed(words, passphrase="")

Given the word list, calculate original entropy:

entropy = mnemo.to_entropy(words)

Command-line interface

The mnemonic command provides CLI access to the library:

$ mnemonic create --help
$ mnemonic check --help
$ mnemonic to-seed --help

Generate a new mnemonic phrase:

$ mnemonic create
$ mnemonic create -s 256 -l english -p "my passphrase"
$ mnemonic create -s 256 -l english
$ mnemonic create -P                  # prompt for passphrase (hidden input)
$ mnemonic create --hide-seed         # only output mnemonic, not the seed
$ MNEMONIC_PASSPHRASE="secret" mnemonic create

Validate a mnemonic phrase:

$ mnemonic check abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon about
$ echo "abandon abandon ..." | mnemonic check

Derive seed from a mnemonic phrase:

$ mnemonic to-seed abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon about
$ mnemonic to-seed -p "my passphrase" word1 word2 ...
$ mnemonic to-seed -P word1 word2 ...   # prompt for passphrase (hidden input)
$ MNEMONIC_PASSPHRASE="secret" mnemonic to-seed word1 word2 ...