Technical Whitepaper

What MannaSeed Is

MannaSeed is two things working together.

First, the complete King James Bible has been permanently written onto the Bitcoin network — the same global, tamper-proof record that Bitcoin itself runs on. Once something is written there and confirmed, it cannot be edited, deleted, or taken down by anyone — not a company, not a government, not even the person who built this project. This part is already done and live today.

Second, there is a small handheld device — about the size of an old handheld game console — that you build yourself from off-the-shelf parts and free, published plans. It lets you read that Bible privately, protected by twelve secret words that only you know. This part is still being finished. The software is nearly done, and the physical device has not yet been assembled or tested in real life.

Why This Exists

Throughout history, the Bible has been banned, burned, or confiscated somewhere in the world at almost every point. In several countries today, owning one is still illegal or dangerous.

This project is not a claim that any country is about to do this. It is a simple question: if a place ever did crack down on Bible ownership, what would need to already exist beforehand to keep the text safe and privately available? Building something like that ahead of time is far easier, and far safer, than trying to build it after the fact, under pressure.

The Two Parts, In Plain Terms

Part 1 — The Permanent Copy

All 66 books of the Bible have been written onto the Bitcoin blockchain, one book at a time. Anyone, anywhere, can retrieve any book directly from the Bitcoin network itself, without needing MannaSeed's device at all. This copy is not private — anyone can look it up — but it is essentially indestructible. As long as Bitcoin exists, this copy exists.

Part 2 — The Private Reader

The handheld device is a separate thing. It keeps its own copy of the Bible, locked with encryption, that only opens with your own twelve secret words. It does not need the internet, and it does not need Bitcoin to work day to day, once it is set up. The permanent copy on the blockchain exists as a backup, and as a way for anyone to independently check that the text is accurate.

What the Device Actually Is

It is built from a small number of off-the-shelf parts:

• A small, inexpensive computer (a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W — the same tiny computer used in countless hobby electronics projects)
• A black-and-white e-ink screen, like the kind used in e-readers. It needs no backlight, is easy to read in direct sunlight, and uses very little power
• A rechargeable battery
• A five-way directional button and a single back button — that is the entire input surface. No touchscreen, no keyboard, no camera
• A 3D-printed case, shaped like a small handheld game console

Total parts currently cost under $250. There is no company selling a finished, assembled version. You build it yourself from free, published plans — or find someone who has and ask them to help.

Setting It Up: Twelve Words

The first time you turn the device on, it walks you through a one-time setup:

1. You help generate randomness, either by pressing a button at your own irregular pace about thirty times, or by rolling a physical six-sided die fifty times. This makes sure the randomness behind your secret words is not something a compromised device could predict in advance — a real failure that has happened to a major hardware wallet company, resulting in over $100 million in losses before it was caught.
2. The device shows you twelve words, drawn from a standard list used across the Bitcoin world. You write them down.
3. You then re-enter all twelve words from memory, using the buttons, to confirm you wrote them down correctly.
4. You may optionally add one more secret word or phrase of your own choosing, for extra protection.
5. The device uses those words to lock its own copy of the Bible. From that point on, the twelve words — plus your extra phrase, if you added one — are the only way in.

Every time you turn the device on after that, you must enter those words again. There is no fingerprint unlock, no remembered login, and no "stay signed in." If you enter the wrong words, the device simply returns you to the entry screen without indicating which part, if any, was correct — so guessing gives no useful hints.

If you lose your twelve words, there is no way back in. Not through customer support — there is no customer support — and not through any kind of backup or reset process. This is deliberate: any way to restore access without the original words would also be a way for someone else to get in without them.

What This Device Does Not Do — Stated Plainly

The device does not hide what it is. Turning it on shows a screen that plainly names the project. There is no decoy, no fake calculator screen, and no hidden secondary mode.

This means: if someone takes this device and forces its owner to unlock it, they will see exactly what it is and exactly what is on it. There is nothing built in to protect against that specific situation. This was a deliberate choice, not an oversight. A disguise or decoy carries its own risks — a decoy already known about protects no one, and a disguise examined closely enough can fail — and this device is meant to be a dedicated, single-purpose tool rather than something hidden inside an everyday phone. But it is a genuine, meaningful tradeoff, not a small one. Anyone whose situation specifically requires being able to hide the device's existence or present a fake version of its contents under pressure, should understand clearly that this device does not offer that.

What it protects well: a device that is lost, stolen while powered off, or examined by someone who does not already have the twelve words. In any of those situations, everything on it is meaningless, scrambled data without those words.

It Can Also Handle Bitcoin

The same twelve words that unlock the Bible are generated using the same standard method used by Bitcoin wallets, so the device can also hold and send Bitcoin.

Before signing any transaction, the device shows the full details on its own screen — the destination, the amount, and the fee — and signs only after an explicit confirmation. There is no way to sign in bulk or skip reviewing a transaction.

Anyone who wants the Bible and any Bitcoin funds protected by two separate secrets, instead of one shared secret, can set the device up that way. It simply is not the default.

Where Things Actually Stand Today

• The Bible-on-Bitcoin part is done, live, and independently checkable by anyone right now, at blockchainbible.org.
• The device's software is nearly finished. It has been tested inside a computer simulation of the hardware, but not yet tried on a real, physically assembled device.
• The software has already been checked twice for security problems. Every issue found the first time has been fixed. Every issue found the second time has either been fixed or is a known, accepted limitation of building on ordinary computer parts rather than specialized security hardware, documented openly in a separate hardware security assessment.
• An independent review by outside security professionals — the kind that should happen before anyone trusts real money to this device — has not happened yet. That step is still ahead.
• The physical case design is not yet complete.

None of this changes what the device is designed to do. This is simply an honest account of what has been finished so far, and what has not.

Does It Connect to the Internet?

The small computer inside the device does have Wi-Fi built in — that is simply how it comes.

Whether the finished device uses that Wi-Fi depends on which of two possible approaches this project ends up using, and that decision has not been made yet.

One option is to run the MannaSeed software on top of the standard operating system Raspberry Pi computers normally use. Under this approach, Wi-Fi would be needed briefly, one time, to install everything onto the device during setup, and would then be turned off for normal use.

The other option is a custom-built operating system made specifically for this device, called MannaSeedOS, with everything already built in from the start. If this approach can be made to work, the device would never need Wi-Fi at all, not even during setup.

The second option is the one this project is trying to make work, since it is the stronger of the two. Whether it succeeds depends on technical challenges that are still being worked through.

Cost and How to Get One

There is no store, no company, and no way to buy a finished MannaSeed device today. It is built by hand, using free, published, step-by-step plans and off-the-shelf parts totaling under $250.

Everything — the software, the case design, the plans — is free and open source and always will be. There is no paid version, no subscription, and nothing to buy from the project itself. The Bible text it carries is public domain.

Who Built This

This project was started by one person with an idea, not a company or a team of professionals.

Claude, an AI assistant built by Anthropic, has been deeply involved in building this — not as a minor tool used occasionally, but as an ongoing collaborator on the software, the cryptography, the hardware design, the security review, and this document itself. That is stated here directly because it is true, and because anyone evaluating this project should know it plainly.

A Final Word

The point of MannaSeed is not to protect the Bible. God has that covered on His own; He does not need help from a Raspberry Pi. The point is not to predict a future where the Bible is outlawed, either. It is to prepare you, in case that future ever actually happens.

If no one ever needs to rely on this device for its real purpose, that is the best possible outcome. It means the day it was built for never came. But building it now, before it is needed, costs almost nothing. Waiting until it is needed would cost everything.