Oddbean new post about | logout
 Hmmm, seems low entropy? 
 If someone finds your randomized grid yea. the shapes themselves should be low entropy. 

Imagine crossing a border with a grid and agents taking a picture of your list. Then after the fact they go home, enter the grid into their AI tool which tries to brute force with human friendly patterns. 

Perhaps you have some time to transfer out as long as you arent detained during this period. 
 So you have to secure your grid? 
 IMO yes. Picking a pattern is no different than picking a 12 word phrase from a 2048 word list. But the pattern isnt random, Its biased because you can remember the shape.

So the entropy is mostly in the randomized list. If your list gets out then I think you have a problem.
 
 That’s why every deterministic grid comes with a 12-word regeneration mnemonic. It looks and works exactly the same as a bitcoin seed phrase, so can be used a decoy/canary. This improves resistance to evil maid or border guard attacks. 
 Nice. Ive been thinking about putting this in hardware. Generation on an air gapped handheld with a big enough display. Options to store or not store the grid in a secure element. Any thoughts on this? 
 Airgapped generation FTW 🙌  - you could even do it with Tails. See here: https://twitter.com/borderwallets/status/1567821122602782721?s=46&t=iGiWjE-xvLW1ZAQS7DVEXA. Secure elements - I don’t see why not 
 128 or 19580 bits of entropy in the grid, so treat it like you would a seed phrase. With 128 bit, you can regenerate using a 12-word regeneration mnemonic which works exactly the same as a seed phrase - do can be used  as a decoy too. It is designed to prevent evil maid, border guard and Elizabeth Warren attacks.