Your recovery phrase is a list of 12 words that stores all the information needed to restore your AQUA wallet.
Note: In other wallets, the recovery phrase is sometimes also known as a seed phrase, mnemonic backup, or recovery seed.
A recovery phrase looks something like this:
arrow describe merry polar equip forest dignity kick word seminar actual genuine
Your recovery phrase can be used to restore your wallet on any device running AQUA. The recovery phrase can be used to add access to the same wallet on multiple devices or to restore your wallet on a new device (e.g. you lost or broke the original device).
AQUA uses a single recovery phrase for both your Bitcoin and Liquid assets.
Warning: Anybody who knows your recovery phrase can access your funds. It is important to store your recovery phrase in a safe place; do not share it in public or with third parties.
How does the recovery phrase work?
When you create a wallet on AQUA, your app automatically generates a recovery phrase which you should write down as soon as you set up the wallet to protect your funds.
Bitcoin and Liquid wallets use a very large, secret number called a private key as a way to send and receive transactions securely. The recovery phrase represents your wallet's private key in a human-readable format. Representing the key as a series of words instead of a long string of letters and numbers minimizes the risk of errors when you write it down.
There are different recovery phrase formats used in the Bitcoin industry. AQUA uses the BIP39 standard to generate your recovery phrase.
