Create a wallet

Intended reader: someone setting up their first Universe Wallet. Goal: a funded-ready wallet whose recovery phrase is written down on paper. Prerequisites: the extension installed. Pen and paper. Ten quiet minutes. Chain and network: all chains. Defaults to Bitcoin mainnet. Safety: the phrase you are about to see is the wallet. Nobody is keeping a copy.

Do this where nobody can see your screen

Not on a shared machine, not on a call, not while screen recording, not in a coffee shop with your back to the room. A phrase seen once is a phrase gone forever.

Steps

1. Open the extension and choose to create a new wallet.
2. Set a password. This encrypts the vault on this device. It is not recoverable and it is not your backup. Use something long that you will still know in a year.
3. Read the recovery phrase. The wallet generates a 12-word BIP-39 phrase. Write the words on paper, in order, numbered. Do not photograph it. Do not type it anywhere.
4. Pass the confirmation check. The wallet asks you to put selected words back in place. This exists so that a phrase you never actually wrote down cannot silently become the only copy.
5. Choose an address type. Native SegWit is the default and is right for most people. If you are going to hold inscriptions, read Payment and asset addresses first, because Taproot is where artifacts conventionally live.
6. Finish. The wallet opens on an empty account.

Expected result

• A wallet with one account, no balance, and an address you can receive to.
• A paper record of 12 words, in order, stored somewhere you would still find after a house move.

How to verify

Before you put real money in, prove the backup works:

1. Note your first receiving address.
2. Lock the wallet, or use a second browser profile.
3. Restore from the phrase you wrote down.
4. Confirm the same first address appears.

If a different address appears, either a word is wrong, the order is wrong, or the address type differs. Fix that now, while the wallet is empty. See Backup and recovery.

Common failures

What happens	What it means	What to do
The confirmation check rejects your words	The written copy does not match	Start over rather than guessing. An empty wallet costs nothing to redo.
You wrote the words but not the order	BIP-39 order is part of the secret	Redo the creation. Order matters.
A restore shows a different address	Wrong address type, not a wrong phrase, in most cases	Switch address type and compare. See Address types.
You closed the window before writing anything down	Nothing is lost yet, because nothing is funded	Delete the wallet and create a new one.

Recovery path

While the wallet is empty, every mistake is free. That is the only time this is true, so use it. Once funds arrive, the phrase on paper is the only path back.

Related

• Back up your recovery phrase
• Backup and recovery
• Locking and passwords