Level-up your cold storage and migrate to COLDCARD®!
This tutorial takes a wallet seed generated by a Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet (origin wallet) and saves it to an empty COLDCARD (destination).
Depending on your device, or who you talk to, your wallet's seed words may be called a recovery phrase, recovery seed, seed phrase, mnemonic, backup phrase, etc. That list of seed words is what you'll transfer to your COLDCARD.
Video: Migrate from Ledger or Trezor to COLDCARD
Because you enter the seed directly on the COLDCARD, the only origin wallet information your COLDCARD holds after migration is the list of seed words the origin wallet generated.
Seed migration does not include:
After migration to the COLDCARD, you will be able to apply any existing passphrases to your seed words, specify custom derivation paths, and give your COLDCARD a nickname.
You should have working knowledge of:
Make sure you have a secure area where you can work alone and uninterrupted whenever your seed words are viewable. Do not let other people or any cameras see your seed words. Your seed words are the most important information about your wallet — anyone who has your seed words can take your Bitcoin.
Although the process is not complicated, allow yourself enough time so you don't rush. This is especially important when entering the seed words since you probably have 24 of them.
Optional, but helpful items in case you run into a problem:
Make sure the COLDCARD you are using does not have a seed set. This can be a new COLDCARD you just purchased, or a COLDCARD of yours where you have destroyed the seed. Do not migrate your seed to a previously-owned or previously-used COLDCARD with an unknown history.
An empty COLDCARD displays a Main Menu with the following choices after signing in:
Main Menu options change once a COLDCARD's seed is set.
If you have a brand new COLDCARD with no PIN set, please follow our Quickstart Guide through the Initial PIN section, and return to this tutorial once you reach the New Wallet or Import section. Do not pick a new seed words.
Your list should be 12, 18, or 24 words in length. If not, there is a mistake. Double-check your source. We cannot provide support for this issue.
If you have a Ledger device, you may be able to run their Recovery Check app to help figure out the error.
If you have a Trezor device, you may try running Check Backup on their app, or Advanced Recovery to help figure out the error.
If cannot figure out the mistake, but you can still access the device and make transactions, create a new wallet with your COLDCARD and send your Bitcoin to your new wallet.
Without access to the correct seed word list or a way to complete transactions with the origin wallet, you cannot recover your Bitcoin.
Import Existing
.k-
, select k-
. You will see kangaroo
, then kee-
and other words
beginning with K. Select kee-
. The only two remaining words are keen
and keep
. Select keen
and your word is entered. Your COLDCARD returns
to the alphabetical list and should see Word 2 in the upper right corner.The seed is now set.
Passphrases are not passwords. Applying a passphrase to a wallet seed creates an entirely new wallet and does not affect the default/standard wallet. If you have Bitcoin in your default (no passphrase) wallet and Bitcoin in a wallet with a passphrase, follow the instructions on entering a passphrase and perform separate verifications for each wallet.
Any passphrase(s) you used previously may be applied once the seed is set. Remember to apply the passphrase before trying to interact with a passphrase wallet.
You can use the Address Explorer and a watch-only wallet to verify the correct derivation path for receive addresses is in effect. If you have access to the origin hardware wallet's app, you should be able to view used receive addresses, or create a new one and compare what the app displays with what is shown in the Address Explorer.
Currently, both Ledger and Trezor use bc1q
addresses as defaults. Due to
differences in terminology, referring to address types by their beginning
characters helps reduce confusion.
For your reference, we provide a table containing address information according to the hardware vendor.
Wallet Maker | Address Type (Maker's Terms) | Begins With | Derivation Path | Also Called (in Maker's Docs) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Trezor | SegWit | bc1q |
m/84'/0'/0'/0/0 |
BIP-84, P2WPKH, Bech32 |
Taproot | bc1p |
m/86'/0'/0'/0/0 |
BIP-86, P2TR, Bech32m | |
Legacy SegWit | 3 |
m/49'/0'/0'/0/0 |
BIP-49, P2SH-P2WPKH, Base58 | |
Legacy | 1 |
m/44'/0'/0'/0/0 |
BIP-44, P2PKH, Base58 | |
Ledger | Native SegWit | bc1q |
m/84'/0'/0'/0/0 |
bech32 |
Taproot | bc1p |
m/86'/0'/0'/0/0 |
||
SegWit | 3 |
m/49'/0'/0'/0/0 |
P2SH | |
Legacy | 1 |
m/44'/0'/0'/0/0 |
Address Explorer calculates and displays receive addresses for the three most common address types:
1
, or Legacy addresses3
, or Wrapped SegWit addressesbc1q
, or SegWit addressesOther address options are given for advanced users (beyond this tutorial's scope).
Address Explorer
from the Main Menu. Read and follow the
instructions on-screen to continue.addresses.csv
. We'll use this file to check
your Bitcoin balance(s) by creating a watch-only wallet.A further check you can do is create a watch-only wallet with Electrum (or another software wallet) and make sure the amount of Bitcoin is what you expect.
If you didn't save addresses to a microSD card while using Address Explorer earlier, please do so now to set up your watch-only wallet.
addresses.csv
file in your computer's card reader.Create New Wallet
.Next
.Import Bitcoin addresses or Public Keys
.addresses.csv
file and click Open
.Next
button becomes clickable once the list of addresses is edited
correctly. Double-check your list looks correct and click Next
.After verifying your receive accounts and BTC balances, you can be confident the migration is complete and your COLDCARD is ready to use.
If you're new to COLDCARD and want to try out some simple transactions check out our tutorial Sending and Receiving Bitcoin for Beginners!
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