Question about private keys vs 12 recovery word phrase

dogespeedminer

Hi! Newbie here.

I was looking for a wallet and I don't really understand one thing - most cryptocurrency wallets nowadays seem to not tell you private keys at all, they only give you 12 word phrases. After checking multiple most popular ones it seems that only Atomic Wallet shows you the private keys. I understand that 12 word phrase is used as a seed to generate private keys and wallet addresses, but I remember 8 years ago everybody had private key on a piece of paper.

What's even more confusing is that for example Elon Musk tweeted today "Any crypto wallet that won’t give you your private keys should be avoided at all costs"

And in the responses you can see Ledger and Trust wallet implying that their wallets give you private keys. But I have Trust wallet and it does not give you private keys, it just gives you 12 word phrase. Most mobile wallets I've tried don't let you export them. And if you google "ledger nano export private key" you also find that it is not possible{:rel="nofollow"} (I have no experience with Ledger so I can't say with 100% certainty, but google says its not straightforward "show me my keys" functionality)

So... can somebody explain to me why private keys are not exportable in most wallet apps? Should I avoid wallets that only give 12 word phrase?

I was following cryptocurrency long time ago and private key was the most important thing so I am confused as hell.

P.S. Tried posting this to r/CryptoCurrency but it got insta-banned.

dogespeedminer

I found the solution (at least in my case). You want to use the doughwallet recovery tool. It'll contain an HTML file. Open that, then on the page, you can recovery your private key and address. It'll be the first one generated. I really hope this helps! https://www.doughwallet.net/doughwallet-recovery.html.zip

dogespeedminer

The seed phrase is like a root key which produces all the individual private keys you could ever want to produce and you can use it across all supported coins.

So a wallet that uses a seed phrase is not just ok it is preferred. The older method of backing up individual private keys is prone to errors resulting in loss of funds.

If you have the seed phrase you don't need to backup, or write down any of the individual private keys because the seed phrase can be used to recreate all the private keys. Hundreds, thousands, millions of private keys can be produced from a single seed phrase.

For hardware wallets the private keys stay inside the hardware wallet always. That is intentional and a security feature. Put the seed phrase somewhere secure (fireproof safe would be ideal).

Some other security tips:

Seed phrase should be stored physically and offline (i.e. written on paper)
Don't backup your seed phrase online.
Don't store your seed phrase on your computer or phone.
Don't take a photo of the seed phrase with your smartphone.
Don't carry your seed phrase in a physical wallet/purse/billfold.
Ensure seed phrase is secured from fire and theft. Anyone with your seed phrase can instantly steal all your coins. Don't let friends or roommates know about it. A fireproof safe would be ideal.
If you have a hardware wallet (i.e. trezor or ledger) NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES enter your seed phrase ANYWHERE but directly into the hardware wallet itself. Ledger and Trezor will never ask for your seed phrase. Anyone asking for your seed phrase is a phishing attempt to steal all your coins. A common scam is to email smeone a spoofed url for malware pretending to be a firmware update or a wallet recovery. Then it shows an error and asks for your seed phrase to avoid loss of coins. If you give it them, everything you own will be instantly stolen. If you have a hardware wallet NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES enter your seedphrase ANYWHERE but the hardware device.

dogespeedminer

Gonna follow, just bought a Nano S