Pips39: Seed from dice
Learn to roll a BIP39 seed
Only for iPhone
Free · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
iPhone
For an old iPhone you keep offline. Tap in your dice, read off the words, check what you copied. Nothing is stored.
Pips39 turns real dice rolls into a BIP39 word list. It is meant for an old iPhone you
take offline for good, and above all for understanding the method before you use it on
paper.
It is not a wallet. It stores nothing, derives no addresses, signs no transactions and
has no network code. Nothing stays behind when you close it.
THREE WAYS, SIDE BY SIDE
SHA-256: Exactly 99 rolls for 24 words, 50 for 12. The digit string is hashed.
Verifiable with shasum and any BIP39 tool.
Coleman: Bit for bit identical to iancoleman.io/bip39. Each roll stands for a varying
number of bits, which is why the roll count is not fixed.
Word table: Here the app does not compute, it replaces a sheet of paper. Five dice and
a coin pick one word; only the first three dice are typed in. The app shows 32
candidates and never learns which one you took.
WHAT THE APP SAYS ABOUT ITSELF
The first screen says not to use it for a seed that will hold real money. For that, use
dice, a printed table and paper in a room without electronics.
The app cannot prove a device is offline. iOS gives no app that ability. It states what
it can observe and never tells you that you are safe.
TRANSCRIPTION CHECK WITH ITS OWN KEYBOARD
After writing the words down you type them back, and the app confirms them one position
at a time. It brings its own letter keyboard, which only enables letters a BIP39 word
can continue with. The system keyboard learns words, autocorrects and can be replaced,
so it is no place for a seed.
HELP THAT EXPLAINS INSTEAD OF REASSURING
Six pages on what is behind the method: what a seed is, why the last word carries a
checksum, what the roll-pattern check can and cannot do, how long an attacker would
really need against 118 hidden bits, how to take the device offline, and how to build
the app yourself from source.
SOURCE OPEN
github.com/a6k/pips39
The computing core is a Swift package with no interface and can be checked against the
official BIP39 test vectors with swift test, no simulator needed.
Open source means the source is auditable. It does not mean the build from the App
Store is: Apple re-signs and encrypts it. If you want certainty, build it yourself.
The word table method comes from Shift Crypto AG's BitBox02 dice guide, published under
CC BY-SA 4.0. Pips39 is not affiliated with Shift Crypto.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
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The developer, Andreas Michael Kelm, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Andreas Michael Kelm
- Size
- 6.6 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.6 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 16.6 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 13.5 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English and German
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Andreas Kelm