How to Hide Your Private Keys with Colors

@alfredodecandia

Author of "Mastering EOS" & "Mastering DeFi" blockchain specialist, android devel...

Credibility

The security and proper storage of private keys for blockchain addresses are essential for protecting users’ funds and personal information. Private keys are critical elements that allow access and control over a specific blockchain address. Therefore, it is essential to take appropriate measures to prevent unauthorized access and possible losses.

One of the best practices to ensure the security of private keys is to generate them offline and on secure devices such as hardware wallets or dedicated cryptographic devices. These devices offer an isolated and protected environment where private keys can be generated and stored away from potential external threats such as malware or hackers.

Furthermore, it is advisable to use strong and complex passwords to protect private keys. These passwords must be long, unique, and contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. It is important to avoid passwords that are easy to guess or related to personal information.

Another important security measure is to create backups of private keys. The backups must be kept in secure locations, preferably in non-digital formats such as paper or metal. This reduces the risk of losing keys due to hardware failures or cyber-attacks.

The BIP39 Colors Tool and Its Benefits

The BIP39 Colors tool allows you to convert your BIP39 seed phrase into colors and vice versa, and this innovative solution offers several advantages and features that make the use of a seed phrase more secure and convenient.

One of the main strengths of BIP39 Colors is its full compatibility with the BIP39 standard. This means that you can use colors as an alternative to the traditional BIP39 seed phrase without worrying about incompatibility with other wallets and BIP39 tools. Thanks to this compatibility, you can easily switch from one system to another without losing access to your funds or cryptographic information.

Another significant advantage offered by BIP39 Colors is the addition of an additional layer of obfuscation. By representing your seed phrase as colors instead of words, it makes it harder for hackers or thieves to easily identify your seed phrase and access your funds. In fact, colors can be found in many different sources, such as website source code, artist color palettes, or images, making it much more difficult for malicious actors to identify your mnemonic and steal your funds.

An interesting aspect of BIP39 Colors is that the order of colors is not important since the application allows you to randomly store seed components, eliminating the need to remember the exact order. Additionally, you can mix and store colors in any preferred sequence, and you will still be able to retrieve your original BIP39 seed phrase.

Furthermore, BIP39 Colors is an open-source project available on GitHub, which means that the source code is accessible to everyone and can be verified to ensure its security and reliability. The fact that the application does not rely on third-party JavaScript libraries or CSS frameworks adds further transparency and personal data protection guarantees.

To ensure a higher level of security when working with your real seed phrase, BIP39 Colors recommends using the application offline. It is possible to download a copy of the application from the GitHub repository or use it locally on your device, which avoids potential security threats associated with online access and better protects your sensitive data.

Finally, BIP39 Colors provides libraries in both Python and JavaScript programming languages, allowing developers to easily integrate BIP39 Colors functionality into their applications and projects, expanding usage and customization options.

How BIP39 Colors Works

Understanding its operation and what it offers, let’s now see how it works with a small example, and to do so, we need to connect to the following website.

The interface is straightforward, and to convert our seed phrase, we need to paste it into the corresponding field and then press the “Generate colors” button:

Hide seed

At this point, we will have both the number codes and the color palette, which we can use at our discretion with anything, such as logos, websites, and more:

BIP30 colors

Of course, the reverse process to recover the original seed phrase, where moving to the “Colors to BIP39” menu, we must enter the codes (including the # symbol), and we will have our seed phrase in clear:

Reveal seed

Conclusion

In conclusion, BIP39 Colors is an innovative tool that simplifies the conversion of your BIP39 seed phrase into colors and vice versa, offering compatibility with the BIP39 standard, adding an additional layer of obfuscation through the use of colors, allowing recovery of your seed phrase regardless of color order, and providing an offline usage option for increased security. With its supported libraries, BIP39 Colors also provides ample opportunities for integration and usage in custom projects.