NIP-06: Basic key derivation from mnemonic seed phrase

Warning unrecommended: prefer a single nsec

NIP-06#

Basic key derivation from mnemonic seed phrase#

draft unrecommended optional

BIP39 is used to generate mnemonic seed words and derive a binary seed from them.

BIP32 is used to derive the path m/44'/1237'/<account>'/0/0 (according to the Nostr entry on SLIP44).

A basic client can simply use an account of 0 to derive a single key. For more advanced use-cases you can increment account, allowing generation of practically infinite keys from the 5-level path with hardened derivation.

Other types of clients can still get fancy and use other derivation paths for their own other purposes.

Test vectors#

mnemonic: leader monkey parrot ring guide accident before fence cannon height naive bean
private key (hex): 7f7ff03d123792d6ac594bfa67bf6d0c0ab55b6b1fdb6249303fe861f1ccba9a
nsec: nsec10allq0gjx7fddtzef0ax00mdps9t2kmtrldkyjfs8l5xruwvh2dq0lhhkp
public key (hex): 17162c921dc4d2518f9a101db33695df1afb56ab82f5ff3e5da6eec3ca5cd917
npub: npub1zutzeysacnf9rru6zqwmxd54mud0k44tst6l70ja5mhv8jjumytsd2x7nu

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mnemonic: what bleak badge arrange retreat wolf trade produce cricket blur garlic valid proud rude strong choose busy staff weather area salt hollow arm fade
private key (hex): c15d739894c81a2fcfd3a2df85a0d2c0dbc47a280d092799f144d73d7ae78add
nsec: nsec1c9wh8xy5eqdzln7n5t0ctgxjcrdug73gp5yj0x03gntn67h83twssdfhel
public key (hex): d41b22899549e1f3d335a31002cfd382174006e166d3e658e3a5eecdb6463573
npub: npub16sdj9zv4f8sl85e45vgq9n7nsgt5qphpvmf7vk8r5hhvmdjxx4es8rq74h