Twelve Word Seed Phrase

When setting up a Helium wallet through the Helium Hotspot app, you are prompted to write down the 12-word seed phrase. These are the mnemonic phrase generated from the private key of your wallet and the only way to access the wallet.

The 12-word seed can be used or imported on both the Helium Hotspot App and the Helium Wallet App. You cannot import a 24-word seed phrase in the Helium Hotspot App, these will only work in the Helium Wallet App. Hotspots sent to a 24-word wallet can only be managed/transferred by the Hotspot Maker app or the CLI Wallet.

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The 12-word can never be recovered if they are lost, and they are the sole key to accessing your wallet, the HNT it contains, and all access to your Hotspot and its rewards. Lose the 12-word, lose it all. You are not able to log into your account without them, nor can you transfer HNT or a Hotspot to a different account without them.

Twelve Word Security

A friendly reminder about those 12 words… When you first created an account in the Helium Hotspot App, those 12 words represent the private key to your wallet account.

What Does This Mean?

It means that those 12 words are the only way to access your Hotspots and HNT balance. Lose those 12 words and you lose your access to your HNT and your Hotspots and their future earnings. No one can help you recover them.

Luckily, there is an easy way to back up those 12 words. Write them down, save them, and back them up. Go to the Helium Hotspot App > … menu > Reveal Words.

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Do not log out of your phone wallet or uninstall the app without first writing down your 12-word

The only places you are required to enter your 12-word are:

1. The Helium Hotspot App - on your phone
2. The Helium Wallet App - on your phone
3. The CLI Wallet - on your computer
4. The Ledger Wallet - on your computer or phone NEVER enter them into a website.

When entering the 12-word make sure you:

1. Enter them in the right order
2. Get the spelling correct. Check words here for correct spelling: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039/english.txt

No Helium Support or Admin person will EVER ask for your 12 or 24-word or ask you to enter them into a website to fix a problem.

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Remember these important things.

1. Write them down and keep them safe, do it now if you are not sure.
2. Imagine they are cash, never give them to anyone you would not trust with the HNT value and Hotspot value.
3. Do not enter these in any app or website not on the list above. This includes vendor apps.
4. Do not store images of your words on cloud-based doc/file stores.