Trezor Learn

If passphrase protection is disabled on your device, enable it in settings. To do so, visit suite.trezor.io and connect your device, as usual.

What is Trezor?

This is the first hardware wallet to launch in the market. With the launch of this wallet device and the application, there was a ruckus in the market. The attention of traders in the market was suddenly on this wallet. This wallet has some of those features that just uplift the trading experience of the users. Even the list of supported coins and tokens of crypto on Trezor wallet is more diverse than any other wallet out there. The list also varies from one Trezor device to another. The only thing common between them is that the supported list of assets is large and uses of software applications. It is essential to use trezor start or the mobile application to operate on this wallet.

What is passphrase and how does it work?

A passphrase as implemented in Trezor is an advanced feature which can be used to protect your accounts. When this feature is enabled, your Trezor device asks you to enter a secret phrase in addition to your numeric PIN every time you connect your device.

When you enter a passphrase, your Trezor combines the already existing randomness of your recovery seed with your own chosen input and computes a new wallet.

A practical example

Let’s say you have an initialized Trezor device, your recovery seed is properly backed up, and you have been using your PIN-protected Trezor to secure cryptocurrencies for a while. For whatever reason, you decided to take the safety levels a bit further by using a passphrase to protect your accounts.

Enabling passphrase protection

If passphrase protection is disabled on your device, enable it in settings. To do so, visit suite.trezor.io and connect your device, as usual. Once your Trezor is plugged in and unlocked, click on the gearwheel in the top-right to open the Settings menu. Then, click on the Device tab and scroll down to the Security section. Click the toggle next to Passphrase to enable it, as shown below.

Moving funds to a hidden wallet

This time, you decide to use your mother’s first name as your passphrase because you figure it would be easy to remember. You carefully type “Martha” in the respective box, hit enter and you are suddenly presented with an empty wallet. No accounts, no funds in sight.

Passphrase is case-sensitive and spaces count!

You sent the transaction to your new accounts, and now it is time to check whether everything is ok. You reconnect your device, enter the passphrase and… Nothing! No accounts, no transactions. What happened? This time, you managed to mistype the passphrase and use “martha” instead of “Martha”. Remember, every character matters. The only way to access your hidden passphrase-protected accounts is to enter every character exactly like before.