Using a BIP39 passphrase with your Arculus Wallet
BIP39 passphrases are an optional feature meant only to be used by advanced users who understand the significance of using a passphrase. A passphrase can add an additional layer of security to your wallet, but we would NOT recommend using a passphrase unless you have an understanding of how they work. At this time it is also not possible to create a wallet with a passphrase in your Arculus app, you can only restore an already existing wallet that has a passphrase already set.
What is a BIP39 passphrase?
A passphrase is an additional string of characters (letters or numbers, or both) added to the end of your recovery phrase that causes an entirely separate list of addresses to be generated than what you would get from just your recovery phrase by itself.
For example, if you had the following recovery phrase:
word1 word2 word3 word4 word5 word6 word7 word8 word9 word10 word11 word12
You could add the arbitrary passphrase word "default", which would change your recovery phrase to the following:
word1 word2 word3 word4 word5 word6 word7 word8 word9 word10 word11 word12 default
Please note that in the example above, the word "default" is just a random word chosen for the purposes of explanation. The word could be anything you choose, even a random string of letters and numbers.
Why would I want to use a passphrase?
Passphrases allow you to generate additional wallets with separate addresses while using the same recovery phrase. The original recovery phrase and the passphrase-added recovery phrase will both generate different addresses, so you can use unique passphrases appended to your original recovery phrase to generate new wallets.
A passphrase can also add an additional layer of security. For example, in the event your recovery phrase is compromised, an attacker would not be able to access your additional passphrase-secured wallets. Also in the event you were ever forced to reveal your recovery phrase, you could use the standard recovery phrase only wallet as a "decoy". By keeping the majority of your funds behind a passphrase-protected wallet, they would not be vulnerable in the event that your recovery phrase was compromised.
Why wouldn't I want to use a passphrase?
The main reason you would not want to use a passphrase is that in the event you were ever to forget or lose your passphrase, you would permanently lose access to your wallet, even if you still had your original recovery phrase.
Furthermore, if you were to ever need to restore your wallet on a different wallet platform from Arculus, there is no guarantee that the wallet platform you would choose would support the passphrase feature during the restoration process. This may limit your choice of alternative wallets.
How to use the passphrase feature in your Arculus Wallet
As mentioned previously, at this time new wallets can not be created with a passphrase; you can only restore a wallet that already has a passphrase set. In order to restore a wallet with a passphrase, you need to select the 'Restore' option during the wallet set-up process. Once you reach the recovery phrase screen during the restore process, you can click the '+' icon located in the top right of the screen. This will bring up an additional window where you can enter your passphrase.
Important reminder - passphrases are case-sensitive, spaces/blanks count as characters, and the passphrase must be less than 100 characters. We would also recommend not using any special characters/emojis/etc in your passphrase in order to avoid any potential issues with using that same passphrase on other platforms that may not support such characters.