[Ethereum] Can you get the seed phrase of a HD wallet from the private key of one of the wallets

encryptionhd-walletsprivate-keypublic-key

Let us say I have a HD wallet. Can I get it’s seed phrase from the private key of one of its wallets?

Also are seed phrases just easy to remember private keys? If so does that mean that from the seed phrase private key you can get a public key? And if this is true if I send cryptos to this public key in which HD wallet is it going to appear in? The first one?

Best Answer

A seed phrase is used to generate a master key and chain code for an HD wallet. These values can be used to generate many keys and addresses depending on how you want to set up your HD wallet.

There is no way to use any of the private keys to generate the master key or mnemonic. But the mnemonic can be used to regenerate the master key, chain code and any of the private or public keys.

You would never want to send crypto to a public key. You would send it to the address generated by the public key and it would appear in whichever wallet uses that key. An HD wallet can manage a very large number of addresses, and each one would have its own private and public key.

For more information, you could read about BIP 32, BIP 39 and BIP 44.

Related Solutions

[Ethereum] EthereumJS: How to get public key from private key

ethereumjs-wallet can be used to get public key from private key:

> const hdkey = require('ethereumjs-wallet/hdkey')
> const privateKey = hdkey.fromMasterSeed('random')._hdkey._privateKey
> const Wallet = require('ethereumjs-wallet')
> const wallet = Wallet.fromPrivateKey(privateKey)
> wallet.getPublicKeyString()
'0x11f2b30c9479ccaa639962e943ca7cfd3498705258ddb49dfe25bba00a555e48cb35a79f3d084ce26dbac0e6bb887463774817cb80e89b20c0990bc47f9075d5'
> wallet.getPublicKey()
<Buffer 11 f2 b3 0c 94 79 cc aa 63 99 62 e9 43 ca 7c fd 34 98 70 52 58 dd b4 9d fe 25 bb a0 0a 55 5e 48 cb 35 a7 9f 3d 08 4c e2 6d ba c0 e6 bb 88 74 63 77 48 ... >

Another option is to use ethereumjs-util (which is used by ethereumjs-wallet internally):

> const util = require('ethereumjs-util')
> util.privateToPublic(privateKey)
<Buffer 11 f2 b3 0c 94 79 cc aa 63 99 62 e9 43 ca 7c fd 34 98 70 52 58 dd b4 9d fe 25 bb a0 0a 55 5e 48 cb 35 a7 9f 3d 08 4c e2 6d ba c0 e6 bb 88 74 63 77 48 ... >

Yet another option is secp256k1:

> const secp256k1 = require('secp256k1')
> secp256k1.publicKeyCreate(privateKey, false).slice(1)
<Buffer 11 f2 b3 0c 94 79 cc aa 63 99 62 e9 43 ca 7c fd 34 98 70 52 58 dd b4 9d fe 25 bb a0 0a 55 5e 48 cb 35 a7 9f 3d 08 4c e2 6d ba c0 e6 bb 88 74 63 77 48 ... >

slice(1) is to drop type byte which is hardcoded as 04 ethereum.

[Ethereum] How to convert a 24 word seed into a 12 word seed (BIP39)

You cannot convert a private key into a seed.

The operation of deriving a public or private key from a seed is intentionally irreversible. The idea is to prevent someone who knows one of your public or private keys from discovering others.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Ethereum] EthereumJS: How to get public key from private key

[Ethereum] How to convert a 24 word seed into a 12 word seed (BIP39)

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