as long as we're challenging conventional wisdom,
I would also argue that humans are capable of creating
high entropy passphrases.
I agree - and would like this topic to perhaps focus on *how* this can be achieved (in a general enough manner not to give away my own passphrase of course).
I am a fan of electrum and use the 12 word seed as a brain wallet.
Computer generated passphrases have measurable entropy and
will be shorter and this easier to memorize.
However, I can create a strong passphrase by using
random word association, my current surroundings,
and a little bit of creativity.
If I want to be on the safe side, let's say I want 160
bits of entropy (the highest applicable), then I should
choose 24 words given the very conservative estimate
that there's only 100 random words people would use.
100^24 ~= 2^160.
let's use a technique I call "2 mental hops".
right now I see some silver tinsel, so maybe I'll start
with the word silver. silver sounds like sliver which
reminds of a sliver of fish, so that's 2 mental hops
from silver to fish. so far I have "silver fish".
now I can either do another 2 mental hops from
fish, or choose a new word. let's say fish reminds me
of barrel, and barrel reminds me of cracker. but I'll
twist this further and spell it kracker.
so far I have fish silver kracker.
now I look at some ice in my glass, let's do 2 mental hops,
with a twist...ice reminds me of vanilla ice, which I saw
on YouTube. so, I'll spell it utoob. now I have silver fish kracker utoob.
etc etc
you can also do silly rhymes and include them too.
silver fish kracker utoob the noob with phat boobs.
you can see were getting into serious entropy already.
