Chapter 2: Practice With Testnet Makes Perfect

In this chapter, you will learn what a bitcoin seed phrase is and what the words represent. You will learn how to create a bitcoin testnet wallet and how to revover testnet bitcoin on a different wallet. Real bitcoin transactions are sent over the main network, also known as mainnet. Testnet bitcoin is has no real world value so it gives us a low-stakes way of learning how to create bitcoin wallets. . Padawan Wallet is a testnet only wallet. Green wallet has a testnet option. Since testnet bitcoin is recorded on the testnet bitcoin blockchain, both wallets will display the same information in the same way you see the same people on Damus or Amethyst. If you have never made a bitcoin transaction or are unsure how it works, hopefully you will find this chapter helpful. If you are a Cypherpunk ninja, please share this. Constructive criticism is also welcome.

There are 2048 words in the BIP 39 wordlist Each word represents 4 digits from 0000 - 2047. The first 4 letters of each word are unique.

abandon = 0000

bacon = 0138

zoo = 2047

Before we move on, let's disect another bitcoin wallet with 12 words like a pig in a high school biology class. Scan this screen shot of a QR code Keith Mukai drew with a pen and paper template with your phone. It should be obvious that you will never take a picture of a key you hold bitcoin with on your cell phone. Don't do that. When you scan the hand drawn QR code with a mobile phone, this number will appear on your screen:

113501140662064312980397197212600826068006871766

Try it yourself.

4 digits in this number translate into a word on the BIP39 wordlist. There are 48 digits. 48 / 4 = 12. This is a 12 word seed phrase with 128 bits of entropy.

1. 1135
2. 0114
3. 0662
4. 0643
5. 1298
6. 0397
7. 1972
8. 1260
9. 0826
10. 0680
11. 0687
12. 1766

We don't need to buy a rasberry pi and create our own Seed Signer to obtain the key from this QR code. We can obtain the seed words by looking them up on the Bip39 wordlist and subtracting 1 to get the word.

1. 1135 = misery
2. 0114 = asthma
3. 0662 = famous
4. 0643 = expand
5. 1298 = pear
6. 0397 = cousin
7. 1972 = wagon
8. 1260 = outer
9. 0826 = grunt
10. 0680 = feel
11. 0687 = fiber
12. 1766 = symptom

We can verify this by typing the words into Ian Coleman's BIP39 Tool.

1135 -1 = 1134. Therefore misery is word 1134 on the BIP9 wordlist

0680 - 1 = 689 feel because it is word 679 on the BIP39 wordlist. Notice how the zeros count because it is part of a longer number.

We do this becase it is easier for humans to remember these 12 words than it is to remember 113501140662064312980397197212600826068006871766. The 12 words are just a mnemonic to make it easier to write down or remember if you become a refugee.

Now that we understand what a bitcoin wallet is, let's create our first bitcoin testnet wallet. Remember: bitcoin on the testnet network has no real world value. Take the time to carefully follow the instructions to learn how bitcoin wallets work, but if you make a mistake, you won't lose any real money. If you have bitcoin IOU's on an exchange because you are too afraid of using bitcoin, you have no reason to be afraid of making a testnet wallet.
Step 1) Download the Padawan Wallet.

Don't think different. Think adversarial. Apple might make the phones all the cool kids want for Christmas. They might have the Bitcoin White paper hidden in their computers, but they also banned bitcoin wallets in 2014 and nostr zaps in 2023. You can pick up a used Google Pixel 4 for less than a hundred bucks on swappa.com. You could also install the Padowan wallet on Google Play, but think adversarial. Download the APK file on github in case Google bans you. If they ban downloading APK files, install Graphene OS and Obtanium. These tools are a little complicated for a book entitled the Easy Way To Take Self-Custody of Your Bitcoin, but keep these options in mind in case you need them. It may not be as easy as Google Play, but it's not that hard either.

Step 2) Tap Menu > Recover Phrase. You will see 12 words that look something like this:

Your words will be different, of course, but these are the words you will use to recover your wallet later. This seed phrase is 12 words. Each word represents a four digit number from 0000 to 1247. To show you how this works, we can use Ian Coleman's BIP39 tool. Before we begin, you must solemnly swear to NEVER ENTER A BITCOIN SEED PHRASE MEANT FOR COLD STORAGE INTO A WEBSITE. Hot wallets are necessary for coinjoins and we will go over this later. Far too many people have recieved phisshing emails that say their bitcoin is at risk, please put your seed phrase into this website to recover it. They panic. "Oh no. I don't want to lose all my bitcoin. I should put my ledger seed words into this very professional looking website. The email is from ledger.com so it must be legit. DON'T DO IT! IT'S A TRAP! You will lose all the bitcoin you controlled with that wallet.

You can enter a testnet seed phrase into the Internet though because the testnet Bitcoin has as much value as monopoly money. When we enter these 12 words into the mnemonic code converter, we can look deep inside the anatomy of our practice bitcoin wallet. The first sentence on this website tells us:

Notice how we can't just type 12 random words into the Mnemonic Code Conveter. This helps us enter the words correctly. The words for my Padawan Wallet are:

theory pen whale unique inch include emerge light obscure avocado battle vacant

Write Down your words .

Hardware wallets often come with cardboard cards with numbers and branding on them. The author does prefers to use index cards. You could make an argument for acid free paper, but I like to engrave my seeds in steel and place them in a security envelope with the index card. I find the index card easier t read. Pro Tip: Take your time. Right legibly. I once had a wallet with the word "store" that I couldn't recover for a couple years because my poor penmanship made the word look like "stove."

What if I read the eleventh word "bacon" instead of "battle" by accident?

As you can see, these 12 words to do not create a valid bitcoin wallet.

There is no address associated with these words.

This is because a bitcoin seed phrase is a random number, but the last 4 digits are calculated to prevent such accidents.

According to Yan Pritzker, in the book Inventing Bitcoin:

"Guessing the entire key would be similar to guessing a specific atom in the universe, or winning the Powerball 9 times in a row:
One chance in 115,792,089,237;316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936."

The numbers must be in the exact order and the last four must be caulculated. It's not like you can just enter 12 random words from a forutne cookie. They need to be specific words from the BIP39 wordlist and the last word must be calculated as a checksum. Next we will get some testnet bitcoin, but first--Double check the words. When you create a real bitcoin wallet, you should triple check.

Get Some Testnet BitCoin

**

2) Click Get Coins.
You should get 75,000 testnet sats, but since I did it twice, I got 150,000 testnet sats,

Go back to the main menu

Click the menu button

Click Send testnet coins back

4. You will see a testnet wallet address. Copy the testnet address. Then navigate back to the wallet, paste the address and click send.

Confirm the amount.

The transaction should confirm soon. If it hasn't in about ten minutes, click sync. Write down your balance. We will use this to verify our wallet is correct in the next section

Delete The Padawan Wallet From your Phone.

Padawan does not give you an option to restore your wallet. Wallets do break. I have had a real bitcoin wallet fail me. This was stressful, but I was able to recover my sats. Bitcoin is not stored on a hardware wallet. The key is stored on the hardware wallet. That is why many bitcoiners refer to wallets as a signing device. It's a better term, but I'm old school. Whatever you call it, bitcoin is stored on the bitcoin time chain. It's like a mailbox in the sky. Anyone can place an envelope in a mailbox in the same way anyone can send bitcoin to a bitcoin address. Only the mail carrier with the key can open the mailbox can send the envelopes inside. In the same way, only the person with the key can send bitcoin associated with the addresses calculated for that wallet,

Install Green Wallet by Blockstream

Green Wallet is a mobile wallet developed by Blockstream, a company nuilding bitcoin infrastructure. It is founded by Adam Back, who you might remember from the last chapter. He is the guy who discovered hashcash and Satoshi cited hashcash in the White Paper. You can download this wallet on F-Droid. It's also available on Google Play and the app store if you're into that sort of thing, and I already told you how I feel about these walled gardens, but I won't waste anymore time preaching.

Step 1) Install and update the app

Step2) Check the "I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Click on app settings in the lower right-hand corner.

Step 3) Toggle enable testnet button. Then navigate back to the first screen.

Step 4) Tap Add Wallet

Step 5) Tap Restore Wallet

Tap Testnet under the Select Network Menu

Step 6) Enter the 12 recovery words you wrote down when you first set up your Padawan Wallet These are the words you wrote on an index card.

Notice how the words auto- populate as you type. If you type 4 letters, you will only see one word. Click Continue when finished.

You'll need to set a PIn. Then you will need to verify the PIN. Click Continue once you are done. Write this PIN down and keep it with the seed. Your PIN is a secret, but if someone finds your seed words, you're PIN doesn't matter. Blockstream did not let me take a screen shot of the PIN setting process, but it's self-explantory.

Step 7) Verify this is your wallet

We have 0.0006569 Testnet Bitcoin or 65,690 sats. This is exactly how much we had in our Padawan Wallet.

Two Tesnet Wallets, One Seed Phrase

How did this happen? Maybe Green Wallet and Padawan Wallet colluded somehow, but that seems unlikely. If we wanted to verify this the hard way, we could check the addresses and set up an air gapped computer, but this is the easy way. The most likely explanation for these two amounts matching is math that was verified on the bitcoin testnet network and the nodes verified the transactions associated to this public key. Therefore, we conclude that our seed phrase is correct and we can be sure to have access to these testnet sats as long as we have our 12 words. We were not able to recover our testnet bitcoin on Padawan once we deleted the wallet, but still recovered our testnet bitcoin using green wallet. Most Hardware Wallets are Interoperable There are a few exceptions like Muun Wallet or Tap Signer, but if your hardware wallet goes out of business or breaks you will be able to recover it on any other wallet.(Even the tap signer, but it's more complex) This is because our bitcoin is not inside the wallet. It is on the thousands of computers around the world. I just demonstrated this with testnet, but bitcoin works the same way. Michael Saylor compares this to an inpenatrable safe deposit box in the sky. You might think the money is on the Internet, but that's not the whole story. It is on an inpenatrable network. Transactions can be broadcast via satellite *too. Only the person with our key can spend these testnet bitcoin. This is why you must keep your keys safe. Anyone with your seed phrase has access to your safe deposit box in the sky.

Although testnet bitcoin has no real-world value--they are still hard to come by. Therefoere, if you don't plan on using these testnet sats again anytime soon, please send the testnet sats back to the padawan wallet.

Now that you know how to create and recover a testnet bitcoin wallet, it's time to take the next step: Set Up A Cold Card

Blogging Bitcoin
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