BIP-39: Add shortcomings section, drop comments headers. #2184

pull ajtowns wants to merge 1 commits into bitcoin:master from ajtowns:202605-bip39-unanimity changing 1 files +18 −2

ajtowns commented at 7:07 AM on May 31, 2026: contributor

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BIP-39: Add shortcomings section, drop comments headers. 9444507916
ajtowns force-pushed on May 31, 2026
ajtowns commented at 7:10 AM on May 31, 2026: contributor

cc @scgbckbone @prusnak ; ref #1677 (review)
in bip-0039.mediawiki:146 in 9444507916
```
 141 | +Some shortcomings have been identified with this proposal:
 142 | +
 143 | + * Generated seed depends on the wordlist used for the mnemonic. Because
 144 | +   the "mnemonic to seed" process uses the mnemonic sentence directly
 145 | +   rather than the original entropy, translating the mnemonic to a
 146 | +   different wordlist necessary creates a completely different seed.
```
prusnak commented at 8:49 AM on May 31, 2026:

Maybe I'd add that this shortcoming has been addressed by wallets by not-allowing generating seeds in other languages than English to maximize compatibility across wallets.

ajtowns commented at 3:13 AM on June 1, 2026:

Never attempting to translate to a different wordlist avoids the problem, sure, but it's still a shortcoming given the BIP includes 10 different wordlists. It's your doc, so happy to reword if you prefer, but I think "despite supporting different languages, you can't actually translate mnemonics" is a real shortcoming.

in bip-0039.mediawiki:151 in 9444507916

 146 | +   different wordlist necessary creates a completely different seed.
 147 | +
 148 | + * No versioning scheme. When originally introduced, there was no way to
 149 | +   distinguish the address format that should be used for a BIP-0039 key.
 150 | +   This is now largely mitigated by using descriptor wallets (BIP-0380)
 151 | +   in addition to a seed however.

prusnak commented at 8:50 AM on May 31, 2026:

I still do think this is a feature not bug, allowing the seed to be future proof which has proven to be very useful.

ajtowns commented at 3:16 AM on June 1, 2026:

Any suggestion for rewording it?

jonatack added the label Proposed BIP modification on May 31, 2026
jonatack added the label Pending acceptance on May 31, 2026

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Proposed BIP modification Pending acceptance