**What is my seed?**

Think about your seed as the combined username and password that grants access to your bank account. If anyone obtains your seed, they can login and access your funds.

**Seed**: You must generate a random 81 character seed using only A-Z and the number 9. It is imperative that your seed be an 81 character random assortment of A-Z and 9. Use one of the options below to generate your seed:

Depending on your operating system, you can use onboard tools to generate such a seed:

**Linux - Terminal**: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/an-introduction-to-the-linux-terminal

>cat /dev/urandom |tr -dc A-Z9|head -c${1:-81}

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**Mac - Terminal**: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_(macOS)

>cat /dev/urandom |LC_ALL=C tr -dc 'A-Z9' | fold -w 81 | head -n 1

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**Windows/Linux -- with Keypass on PC**:

>A helpful guide for generating a secure seed on KeePass can be found [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b4dpnC6VWTQ3N7JHVU3SwYmwL_dt-QRD/view).

**Windows - PowerShell command**? The PowerShell method has been demonstrated to be insecure. Do not use it.

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**With Dice**: [Dice Roll Template](https://www.reddit.com/r/Iota/comments/7hos4t/secure_dice_roll_seed_generator_template/)

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**If you don't know how to run the above commands, then you can try a seed generator**:

>Open this page in your browser --> 

>https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmdqTgEdyKVQAVnfT5iV4ULzTbkV4hhkDkMqGBuot8egfA (based on knarz.github.io/seedgen)

>Turn off your Internet connection (go offline)

>Follow the instructions on the page to generate a seed

>Once a seed is generated, change a few of the generated letters (as an extra security precaution)

>Save your new seed in a secure location (example: a secure password manager, such as KeePass)

Source: https://matthewwinstonjohnson.gitbooks.io/iota-guide-and-faq/getting-started/dl-wallet/what-is-my-seed.html