What is a mnemonic phrase? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 261 - by cryptohunt.it

What is a mnemonic phrase?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

When you create a new crypto wallet, you’ll often be asked to write down a mnemonic phrase. Well, isn’t that a mouthful?

As usual, crypto people make easy things complicated, and the term mnemonic phrase is no different. It’s actually really simple. This phrase is just a bunch of ordinary, short words in a particular sequence, for example: “disagree”-”jealous”-”apple”.

It may sound stupid at first, but those mnemonic phrases are a simple, yet effective solution to a common problem: Complex passwords are too hard to remember or even write down without making mistakes.

But remember our phrase “disagree”-”jealous”-”apple”? By now, you can probably remember it, because that’s how your brain works.

In crypto wallets, these phrases also act as your key to unlock everything and are usually either 12 or 24 words long, and each come from a list that contains just over 2000 possible words in total.

So: You must be thinking now - 3 words are easy to remember! So it might be easy to guess my mnemonic phrase? Well, do we have a surprise for you! There are almost 9 million possible phrases for just 3 words. For 12 words, which is the minimum in crypto wallets, the number is so large, you’d have trouble counting the zeros. For 24 words, it’s astronomical.

So let’s do this one more time, together:

“Disagree”

”Jealous”

”Apple”

Funny, how our brain sometimes works, isn’t it? So next time you see a phrase like that, think of this podcast and give us a smile!

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.