A seed phrase is a sequence of 12 or 24 words from which all of your wallet's private keys are mathematically derived. It is not a password that can be changed — it is the wallet. Whoever knows the phrase can take the money from any device, without your phone and without any password.
Rules with no exceptions
- No casino, exchange or support desk ever asks for it. Every such request is a scam, no matter how convincing the conversation.
- Do not keep it digitally. A screenshot, a cloud note, email and a password manager are all devices that can be compromised. On paper and outside the home is safer.
- Do not enter it on any page that promises to "restore", "verify" or "synchronise" a wallet. There are thousands of those pages and they look exactly like the real thing.
Why this matters especially at a casino
A crypto casino withdrawal goes to your wallet and from there on only you are responsible. In a bank a fraudulent transaction can be disputed, on a chain it cannot — a transaction is final from the moment it confirms. Losing the wallet means losing the money, full stop.
Practical advice for a player
Keep playing money in a separate hot wallet (hot wallet) and the rest in a cold wallet. That way the damage in the worst case is limited to the playing budget. The same logic works for keeping to a budget — see the limits guide.
How the phrase is built
Most wallets use the BIP-39 standard: the words are taken from a fixed list of 2048 words. Each word carries 11 bits, so 12 words are 132 bits (128 bits of randomness and 4 checksum bits) and 24 words are 264 bits (256 and 8). In practice this means guessing a phrase is not a realistic threat. The real threat is that someone learns the phrase: copies it, photographs it, asks you for it. General background is in Wikipedia: Seed phrase.
Storage practices
- Write the phrase word by word, in the correct order, on paper or a metal plate. The order is part of the phrase.
- Make two copies and keep them in different places, but not next to the device. A fire or flood must not destroy the only copy.
- Do not photograph it or type it into a computer, not even "temporarily".
- Before you put a larger amount into a wallet, restore the wallet from the phrase on a second device with a small amount. Only then do you know the backup works.
- Some wallets let you add a passphrase, which changes the addresses derived from the phrase. Losing the passphrase means losing the money, even if the phrase survives.
One phrase, many networks
One phrase usually gives access to addresses on many networks, so a leaked phrase endangers all the money at once, not a single address. For that reason keep a separate wallet with its own phrase for gaming: a hot wallet for play (hot wallet) and a non-custodial wallet or hardware device for longer-term storage. The link between network and address is explained under wallet address; practical options are described in the wallet article. The overall picture of crypto payments is in the freespin.ee article.