Hidden As Colors, Crypto Seed Phrases Could Be Hiding In Plain Sight, Says Developer

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A new tool called BIP39 Colors turns Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto wallet seed expressions into colors, giving users a potentially new way to keep their funds in cold storage.

The developer, known only as Entero Positivo Spanish for positive integer, released BIP39 Colors on June 25, which translates a 12- or 24-word portfolio seed sentence into an unassuming and seemingly random.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Positivo said he created the tool because seed phrases will always need to be saved somewhere physically and someone seeing something with 12 or 24 written words is very obvious. […] Many people know what this means.

Where and how do I store my words? Written on paper? On a titanium plate? What if a thief thoroughly searches my house and finds the paper with 12 words written on it? he said.

Explaining how it works, Positivo said the tool converts BIP39 words from the long list of 2,048 words used to create seed phrases into either eight or 16 colors alongside their hex codes depending on whether a 12 or 24 words is used.

An example colormap generated using 12 random BIP39 words. Source: Enteropositivo.github.io

However, the hexadecimal color codes don’t just represent the word BIP39, Positivo explained. It also dictates the position of that word in the starting sentence.

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The colors are generated in such a way as to carry part of the information of the position occupied by the BIP39 words and information related to their position, he explained.

This allows the phrase to be saved haphazardly and in multiple different places, and since colors are everywhere, it can make storing a seed phrase less obvious to any hacker or thief gaining access to our home or to our computer.

AI-generated image illustrating what artwork designed using the Positivos tool might look like. Source: Stability.ai

To ensure the utmost security, Positivo suggested users not to use its tool on any internet-connected device. Rather, it should be downloaded and used offline, or better yet, the color swatch can even be created manually using a calculator.

Although it rarely happens, crypto users have already had their entire seed phrases exposed publicly.

In a video that went viral in late 2022, body camera footage of a Nevada police officer inadvertently spotted a suspects seed phrase written on a piece of paper. The images then became part of the public record, allowing anyone to see the phrase.

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