HD Wallet
A crypto wallet that uses one seed phrase to generate and recover many related private keys and addresses.
An HD wallet, short for hierarchical deterministic wallet, is a crypto wallet that creates a whole tree of private keys and public addresses from a single starting point, usually represented by a seed phrase. Instead of generating unrelated keys one by one, it follows a predictable mathematical path, so the same seed phrase can recreate the same wallet structure on a compatible app or hardware wallet.
This matters because it makes backup and recovery much simpler: you typically need to protect one seed phrase rather than many separate private keys. HD wallets also make it easy to use a new receiving address for each transaction, which can improve privacy by reducing address reuse. For example, an older non-HD wallet might require a new backup after creating new addresses, while an HD wallet can keep generating addresses that are still recoverable from the original seed phrase.
Other terms in Wallets & Security
Address Poisoning
A wallet scam where attackers plant lookalike addresses in your transaction history so you might copy the wrong recipient later.
Approval Phishing
A scam that tricks users into granting a malicious wallet or smart contract permission to spend tokens from their wallet.
BIP-39
A standard for turning wallet backup data into a human-readable seed phrase, usually 12 or 24 words.
Crypto Wallet
A tool that stores and manages the private keys needed to access and use cryptocurrency on a blockchain.