How to use Bitcoin Explorer (bx) for BIP39?

[Bitcoin]

How to use Bitcoin Explorer (bx) for BIP39?

Creating an HD wallet as per BIP39, adapted from O'Reilly's Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos

1. Generate pseudo-random number as 32 hex characters

$ bx seed > entropy

2. Convert random number to 12-word mnemonic "sentence" for backup

$ bx hd-mnemonic < entropy > words

• Q1 Presumably the checksumming was included?

$ bx mnemonic-decode < words

• Q2 Why would we need to go back?

3. Derive the root / master key, basis for BIP32 derivation of the hierarchy of keys

$ bx hd-new < entropy > master

• Q3 Why is the (supposedly optional) passphrase as salt left out?

  
  



• Q4 I do not have access to run the bx tools ATM, are there detailed docs that show the --help output text?

  
  



• Q5 Finally, is bx the canonical CLI tool for air-gapped tasks like creating new BIP39/BIP32 wallets, hashing / encoding different formats etc? I get a bit confused using the GUI / JS tools.

  
  

Source: How to use Bitcoin Explorer (bx) for BIP39?