Create a Wallet

You explicitly create (or import) your RougeChain wallet, and onboarding then asks you to set a password (at least 8 characters). The password is required: on the web, the wallet is saved in your browser only once it's encrypted with it. Here's what you need to know about your wallet.

Wallet Components

Your Address

RougeChain uses compact Bech32m addresses with the rouge1 prefix, derived from your ML-DSA-65 public key:

address = bech32m("rouge", SHA-256(signing_public_key))

Example address:

rouge1q8f3x7k2m4n9pvj5dz6ywl2cg8hs0kw9...

Addresses are ~63 characters — much shorter than the raw 3,904-char hex public key. The wallet, extension, and explorer all display this format.

Note: Some API endpoints still require the raw hex public key (see Address Format). The rouge1 address is for display, sharing, and QR codes.

Backup Your Wallet

CRITICAL: Your private key is only stored locally. If you clear browser data or lose your device, you lose access to your funds.

Encrypted Backup (.pqcbackup)

All RougeChain wallets use password-protected encrypted backups. Plaintext key exports are disabled across all platforms.

How to Export

How to Restore

1. Go to Wallet page (or Settings in the extension)
2. Click Restore or Import Wallet
3. Select your .pqcbackup file
4. Enter the password you used when exporting
5. Your wallet keys are decrypted and restored

Seed Phrase (Mnemonic)

Wallets also support 24-word BIP-39 mnemonic backup (256-bit entropy for post-quantum security):

1. Go to Settings → Reveal Seed Phrase
2. Write down all 24 words in order
3. Store securely — anyone with your seed phrase has full access to your wallet

Important: The seed phrase restores your signing key and address (and so your funds). Wallets created or imported from the phrase on rougechain.io (since 2026-10-01) or in Qwalla also get a messaging/mail encryption key derived from the phrase, so the phrase alone restores it — the same key in both apps. Wallets created on the website before that change have a random encryption key that the phrase cannot restore: keep their .pqcbackup file, which contains both keys, to read earlier messages and mail. The browser extension still generates a random encryption key, so keep a .pqcbackup for extension wallets too.

.pqcbackup File Format

The encrypted backup file uses industry-standard cryptography:

File Structure

{
  "version": 1,
  "salt": "<hex-encoded 16-byte random salt>",
  "iv": "<hex-encoded 12-byte random IV>",
  "ciphertext": "<hex-encoded AES-256-GCM encrypted wallet data>",
  "algorithm": "PBKDF2-SHA256-AES-256-GCM"
}

How It Works

1. Your password is stretched with PBKDF2-SHA256 (600,000 rounds) using a random salt
2. The derived 256-bit key encrypts your wallet data with AES-256-GCM
3. The salt, IV, and ciphertext are bundled into a .pqcbackup JSON file
4. Without the correct password, the file cannot be decrypted

Warning: There is no password recovery. If you forget your backup password, you can restore your address and funds from your seed phrase; your old messages and mail come back too only if the wallet's encryption key is seed-derived (see above).

Security Best Practices

1. Never share your private key or seed phrase
2. Backup your wallet immediately after creation
3. Use a strong, unique password for your .pqcbackup file
4. Store backups in multiple locations (password manager, USB, etc.)
5. Never screenshot your seed phrase or keys
6. Verify addresses before sending

Technical Details

Key Generation

// 24-word mnemonic (256-bit entropy — post-quantum safe)
const mnemonic = bip39.generateMnemonic(256);

// Derive 32-byte seed via HKDF-SHA256
const seed = hkdf(sha256, mnemonicToSeed(mnemonic), undefined, "rougechain-ml-dsa-65-v1", 32);

// Signing keypair (ML-DSA-65 / FIPS 204)
const signingKeypair = ml_dsa65.keygen(seed);

// Encryption keypair (ML-KEM-768 / FIPS 203) — derived from the phrase, identical to Qwalla.
// (No phrase, e.g. a private-key import: the signing private key hex is used instead.)
const kemSeed = sha512(utf8(`${mnemonic || signingPrivateKeyHex}|rougee-gram|kem-v1`)); // 64 bytes
const encryptionKeypair = ml_kem768.keygen(kemSeed);
// Wallets created on the website before 2026-10-01 keep their original random key.

Key Storage

Once you set a password, keys are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM (PBKDF2, 600,000 iterations).

On the web, a new or imported wallet is held only in the tab's sessionStorage until you set its password; nothing is written to localStorage before that, so if you close the tab during the recovery-phrase or password step the wallet is not kept (restore it from the recovery phrase). Setting the password stores the encrypted blob in localStorage. While the wallet is unlocked, the decrypted wallet is kept in sessionStorage, which the browser clears when the tab closes. Keep a .pqcbackup as well.

Older versions of the site saved a wallet without a password to localStorage unencrypted. If you still have such a wallet, rougechain.io asks you to set a password before you can keep using it (you can back it up first); the wallet is then encrypted and the unencrypted copy is deleted.

Terminal EVM Wallet (tools/evm-cli)

For Base/EVM operations there's a companion terminal wallet, rougechain-evm (tools/evm-cli). It derives your Base account from the same 24-word mnemonic (read from the ROUGECHAIN_MNEMONIC env var) and supports new, address, balance, send-eth, and send-token.