How To Recover A Hidden Wallet (Trezor, Ledger)
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
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In this video, I discuss how to recover a "hidden wallet" (seed plus passphrase) that has been set up on Trezor or Ledger, in an emergency situation where Trezor and Ledger have gone out of business and are no longer reachable.
I discuss 3 different recovery methods:
1) Link your Trezor or Ledger to Sparrow through the USB port
2) Enter your recovery seed plus passphrase into a Sparrow software wallet (more risky, since it's a hot wallet)
3) Do a recovery using a brand new wallet like the Coldcard or Blockstream Jade
Not investment advice! Consult a financial advisor.
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How To Recover Your Bitcoin If Trezor or Ledger Goes Bankrupt:
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BIP-39 word list:
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Neither Matthew Kratter's Bitcoin University, nor any of its directors, officers, shareholders, personnel, representatives, agents, or independent contractors (collectively, the “Operator Parties”) are licensed financial advisors, registered investment advisors, or registered broker-dealers. None of the Operator Parties are providing investment, financial, legal, or tax advice, and nothing in this video, on this UA-cam channel, or at www.Trader.University or www.BitcoinUniversity.com (henceforth, “the Sites”) should be construed as such by you. This video, channel, and the Sites should be used as educational tools only and are not replacements for professional investment advice. Trading or investing in new and volatile assets like Bitcoin can be risky.
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YT wont even let you comment under the scammers anymore ? who protecting us or them lol
Mathew you are the Bitcoin education GOAT. Very inspiring. Could you do a video going into the future of Bitcoin block rewards and why having even 1% of a Bitcoin today could translate into enormous value in the future, specifically as the block reward drops below 1 Million Satoshis per block and what that would mean for anyone holding more than 1M sats during that time.
Yes
Matt is undeniably the best Bitcoin educator I know of... which is why I'm boggled why he is getting this issue of hidden wallets on Sparrow wrong. I've encountered this with other large-subscriber channels... very resistant to listening to advice. I'm still holding out hope he will figure it out soon.
@@fsb2cool2care What did he get wrong?
@@pran10000 additional steps are necessary to import hidden/password wallet
@@fsb2cool2care What exactly did I get wrong? Are you confusing Sparrow wallet passwords with BIP-39 passphrases?
Thanks!
Thanks for your support!
In my experience this did not work when using a wallet that has both hidden and non-hidden wallets. For me it was necessary at 7:58 to enter my passphrase when prompted by Sparrow for whichever hidden wallet I want to access. You have to create a separate wallet in Sparrow for each. Hope this helps someone having the same issue.
I will be joining your membership very soon. Can't wait!
Awesome. Thank you Mathew. 🙏🏼
All very important information. Thank you Matthew 🙏
Thanks for following up on my question and curiosity
@Bitcoin_university001 ok but which country code I have to use? and when should I get in touch with you?
@Bitcoin_university001 and I am not sure you are legit as it looks like your account is fake
Another great video!!
Thank you
Thanks Matt. I think that people like myself who started off with a Trezor (and are happy with it), a good option maybe to have a “fresh” Jade as the backup. So, we should be OK in all three scenarios.
You might know that Trezor can make their wallets Bitcoin only and thereby reduce possible attack vectors. IDK, however.
Also, their mobile app is quite handy in that all wallets can be made viewable for balances but that Bitcoin receiving addresses can be generated. 🙏🏼
Yes, that's true, but it's also important to keep pushing yourself and learning. Try connecting your Trezor to Sparrow (connected hardware wallet) and playing around with it. You'll learn a lot in the process, and even get to view your UTXOs.
@@Bitcoin_University Yes, I did after following your first video. There were a couple of differences but I managed to get access to hidden wallets as well.
Would love to join your private member’s club but unfortunately circumstances not so great…
🙏🏼✊
There’s a way to connect trezor suite via your own node, if I’m not mistaken.
Yes, there is, but now imagine that Trezor Suite desktop and web app stop working
TY MK!
Thanks for sharing
I've heard Matthew on several occasions recommend using hidden wallets in combination with non-hidden as a decoy for potential thieves. If Matt really wanted to make a useful video for people, he'd show how to do this and how to import both wallets into Sparrow. The whole point is that the hidden wallet will not show up unless you enter the passphrase in the Sparrow password prompt.
I'll have to check this again, but the Trezor hidden wallet showed up for me in Sparrow without having to enter the passphrase into Sparrow itself when I connected Trezor through the USB. Maybe it was because I started with Trezor Suite open and had already switched to passphrase wallet inside of that?
@@Bitcoin_University Or perhaps because it was the only wallet? In my experience if you have multiple wallets... hidden and unhidden (which is the whole point in my opinion)... only the unhidden will show up without entering pw in Sparrow's prompt.
Great video
Question is the Teezor BTC only hardware wallet safer than the one that stores many coins?
Yes, it probably has a smaller attack surface
Maybe, depends how well the code was reviewed, and was it built from source correctly
How long do you recommend a passphrase should be?
Something equivalent in length to 4-7 English words stuck together. If you make it too long, you can't memorize it. If you make it too short, it could be guessed by a computer. So those are the tradeoffs
You don't need another app. You can easily change the Bitcoin node inside the app and use any other public Bitcoin node or even make your account own node (a bit more work)
Presumably if Trezor disappeared, their website would stop working, and thus the web app would no longer be available. Their desktop app might keep working, but who knows. Sparrow is much, much better than anything that Trezor Suite offers
This is amazing Matt, you always bring the best stuff explained in the better way. Thank you for the light!
Thanks for your support!
Is it possible to recover a multi share seed phrases wallet using any of those tools?
It's OK to use trezor btc only wallet?
Can you do this with the new Trezor safe 5 that uses 20 word seed phrase? Sparrow doesnt support 20 word seed phrase from what I can see in the video.
You have saved me in regard to UTXO management, much appreciated. However, I never hear a good UTXO figure to shoot for. In your opinion what would be the minimum UTXO size to shoot for? Maybe target UTXOs for a subcoiner, 1-2, 2+, or similar.
Probably 1 million sat UTXOs at minimum if possible
@@Bitcoin_University thank you!!
If you have a trezor model one you wouldn’t be able to recover this way correct? You have to have a way to type the passphrase
You could still recover using the seed plus passphrase in a Sparrow software wallet or new hardware wallet
Is SLIP39 seed phrases safer than BIP39? Can you recover it with Sparrow Wallet ? Newer trezors use SLIP39
The only difference from this video and the last one is that at 7:38 Matt says, "it's going to ask me to check my device and make sure my passphrase has been entered". The same "check your device screen" was in Matt's last video but he didn't add, "and make sure my passphrase has been entered". If this is the whole distinctive difference for creating a separate video I think it should have been emphasized more. Why no explanation for how you enter your passphrase on the device? Regardless, in my experience this still is not enough for Sparrow to save your hidden wallet correctly. I still believe it is necessary (at 7:58) to enter your passphrase when prompted by Sparrow for whichever hidden wallet you want to access.
No. 7.58 asks for a password to encrypt the wallet. Not a Pass phrase. Looks like pass phrase option only available when creating a hot wallet with seed words which Is not good.
Very relevant and useful video, Matt.
In your fair judgement would you say that Sparrow desktop wallet + Coldcard Q is currently the best and most secure option for single-sig BTC self custody?
It's definitely my favorite combination and about as secure as you can get
Any cold card plus sparrow are the best combination.
So, once the Trezor wallet (or any wallet) was restored using the seed phrase from the other wallet, since Sparrow was created with a different seed, are the funds, the bitcoin under the Sparrow seed phrase or they continue being under the Trezor seed phrase?
What about the SLIP39 standard that Trezor supports now? It uses 20 words.
I'm not a fan of any Shamir's Secret Sharing Schemes in general, but I should probably look into this more closely
I would love to see a video on How to confirm authenticity of trezor firmware to prevent dark skippy
2:25 not true about casino dice and perfect coin. Even if you lost 50 percent of your entropy, that means twice as much one side as the other, so you lost one bit of entropy. 12 words is 127 bit instead of 128 bit. It doesn't matter.
This only picks up your bitcoin wallet. What about the altcoins ?
im confused. isnt it enough to just buy a new hardware wallet and insert your old trezor/ledger wallet's recovery seed?
why transfer them using sparrow?
great video. my question is what if scenario 2 occurs, but you have other non-btc coins in the wallet. sparrow is btc only correct? is there another software which allows you to enter your 24 + passphrase that supports other coins? understand again this is only for emergency situation. thanks.
Day 95 of telling Matthew his uploads are appreciated!! Like 99% sure I commented on your last video but I think UA-cam deleted it for some reason.
Maybe make a video about surviving a five dollar wrench attack with a 25th word?
Taking into account any local cache information about your account on something like ledger live, which would display your balances to someone threatening you.
Question: if I have X BTC and a 24 word wallet and a passphrase wallet, which wallet should get the bulk of my BTC? For example, if I have 100 BTC (I wish!), should it be 90 to the 24 word wallet and 10 to the passphrase wallet, or vice-versa?
Matt, what’s your personal take on using 12 vs 24? I personally don’t think it matters but some seem to think 24 is superior. I think the numbers are so large that it’s essentially a rounding error.
Adam Back has a famous tweet where he says "12 words is enough" or something like that. 12 words is 128 bit security, 24 words is 256 bit security, but I believe that ECDSA (signing cryptography) only has 128 bit security
Hi Mathew, thanks for all the great content. I’ve a quick question on connecting an old Trezor to desktop sparrow wallet. I run my own full node and I have the desktop sparrow wallet connected through my node. I’ve tried connecting and old Trevor of mine to the sparrow wallet but the Trezor shows up empty. This wallet has a passphrase on it but neither the decoy (standard) or passphrase wallet show up after I import the xpub. Does this maybe have anything to do with the Script type? (Legacy vs Native Segwit vs Nested Segwit vs Taproot)?
I hope this question makes its way to you. I’ve been a subscriber to your channel paid courses and my subscription just expired. Would’ve posed this question in the chat forum instead.
If you consolidate UTXOs by sending it to a fresh new address, does that help with anonymity? Or is coinjoining the only solution if you have KYC bitcoin?
It's actually the opposite-- consolidating UTXOs lets people know that you probably control all of those UTXOs. So never consolidate non-KYC UTXOs with KYC UTXOs. Coinjoin will give you forward privacy, but will not magically turn your KYC into non-KYC BTC, since the record of your KYC purchase will still exist at the exchange and the IRS
Query - at about 11'40", the Sparrow wallet asks for your "BIP 39 passphrase" (you used 12345). But the passphrase is not from the BIP 39 list, is it? "12345" certainly isn't!
Did I miss something?
The BIP39 passphrase is different from the BIP39 seed phrase. The passphrase defines the hidden wallet. You should never use a word on the seed phrase list, and instead use something complex enough that nobody can guess (be it a mixture of symbols and cases, or itself a list of several random words)
The wallet you show at 3:53 does not appear to me to be a hidden wallet. You then proceed to import it on Sparrow without using any password at 7:58... Congrats, you just imported a non-hidden wallet.
I entered the passphrase on my Trezor before importing. I think you are confusing Sparrow wallet password and BIP-39 passphrases
@@Bitcoin_University Hidden wallets on my Trezor appear differently than what you show in the video. My suggestion is to create multiple wallets (with unique amounts) including a hidden one. Then import to Sparrow. Without using your passphrase in the Sparrow password prompt, your hidden wallet will not show up.
like and comment
I'm not convinced about the utility of the 25th word or "hidden" wallet in general. Now you have a seed phrase you have to manage and keep secret, but not so secret that it's lost to time, and then you have this password that you have to do the same but separately.
The only real utility is as a "decoy" wallet that you could reveal a recovery seed and passphrase to an attacker and give them access to your decoy wallet. To me it seems unlikely that someone going through the trouble of orchestrating a pipe wrench attack on you would know that the $5,000 wallet you gave them was not your "real" wallet.
Passphrase is an extra layer of protection in case your seed is discovered. You can hide a passphrase in plain sight, and people won't know what it is, unlike 12 or 24 words
For several years, I have been holding and using a wallet with 12 word seed. Is it a good idea to add the 13th word to it to create a new wallet, and transfer all the btc to this new wallet? It feels like more secure with one more seed word.
You're probably fine with just a 12 word seed. But you could experiment with very small amounts of BTC to test how a passphrase wallet works
Is it a good practice, in order to combat Dark Skippy, to have 2 hardware wallets that have identical recovery seeds so you can verify the signatures on both before proceeding; ie, when using a Coldcard Q in microSD air-gapped mode?
Jokes are over here comes a hard time firstly family secondly pets thirdly bitcoin greetings I wish you much success and good health sends Lukasz Cieszyn Poland
The complexity of this video clearly shows why bitcoin isn't and will not be more widely accepted any time soon
Self-sovereignty will always be difficult and involve more work than trusting your local banker. Those who value their freedom will put in the hard work. Those who don't will continue to lose purchasing power or lose their BTC
@@Bitcoin_University do you really think that, that there are only those two options possible? Vast majority people still don't use ATMs, let alone will ever learn to self-sovereign their sats. No way bitcoin will ever reach its potential with this custody setup
The complexity of driving a car is why it will never take off. The complexity of using the internet is why it will never take off. Be a responsible adult for once, stop looking for everything to be easy.
@@Bitcoin_University do you really believe those are only two options? Bitcoin will never teach its potential with this custody complexity asked from a common man
@@bisiriyutajudeen5728 Yes, exactly
Why not destroy your Ledger or Trezor and (as a Hodlr) and wait a few years to watch even more hardware wallets fall from favor? What is the risk besides lack of liquidity and lack of practice with hardware wallets?
You'll want to have a hardware wallet on hand in case you need to sign a transaction to move your BTC in an unplanned emergency. Also, hardware wallets are a good way to hide the seed inside
So no option for pass phrase when connecting a Trezor with hidden wallet to Sparrow. Only the enter seed words to create a new hot wallet in sparrow gives pass phrase option to show hidden wallet. Not good for security.
Using SEED phrase without a passphrase in today's world is not to smart thing to do. With the passphrase the wallet is unbreakable and much more secure but yet not too many people are using it
A 12 word seed is fine too-- it's incredibly secure
this vid just adds to the confusion. you are making out that the passphrase is not needed wheras i think it is