What is a derivation path (m/84'/0'/0')?

A modern wallet holds one seed and derives its keys in a tree. The path notes which branch: purpose, coin type, account, change and index, separated by slashes. m/84'/0'/0', for example, marks a SegWitSegWitSegregated Witness: a 2017 upgrade that moved signatures into a separate part of each payment, making room for more payments. account under BIP-84.

This explains a common scare: recovery wordsRecovery words (seed phrase)A list of 12, 15, 18, 21 or 24 words that can restore wallet keys. Anyone who has them can take your bitcoin. restored in a different wallet can show an empty balance, because the new wallet may look along a different path. Wallets document the paths they use.