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- 1 As the usage of seed phrases is increasing, ways of recovery are also getting popular.
- 2 Ledger wallets are highly-prominent among users because of their recovery options.
- 3 Crypto users are now considering different ways to recover seed phrases.
The intrinsic nature of cryptocurrencies makes them reliable to users. They maintain the integrity of the blockchain and they keep the information inaccessible to any outsider. In doing so, they render the assets untouchable to any third party. They bring autonomy and freedom to one’s holdings.
However, this implies that users depend on seed phrases or private keys for accessing their tokens. The problem occurs when users lose this essential means of access. Ledger has acknowledged the plight of token holders when they lose these objects. So, the company has come up with an opt-in recovery option. Before understanding the recovery option, it is important to be familiar with seed phrases.
Everything to Know About Seed Phrase
The seed phrase is also known as a mnemonic phrase, backup seed phrase, and seed recovery phrase. It is a generated list of 12 to 24 words arranged in a particular order. Users can employ them to gain access to on-chain transactions and crypto wallets. So, whoever has the seed phrase can obtain the tokens inside the wallet.
It’s a string of cryptographically-derived words from a BIP39 Wordlist. The list contains 2,048 English words converted into a corresponding series of mapped numbers. It essentially becomes a public-private key pair that anyone can use.
A crypto wallet’s software generates these phrases through an algorithm. Notably, this key works even if the wallet is malfunctioning.
The developers advise the users to keep a hard copy of the phrase. Moreover, if the seed phrases are connected to the internet, they become vulnerable to hackers.
How Do the Alternate Ways of Recovery Work?
Ledger recently revealed that they’re rolling out an opt-in social recovery feature. This would enable the users to bifurcate the seed and store each of them with different entities. It lets the users retrieve the key from custodians for recovery purposes. They initiate it by providing proof of identity and undergoing some other checks.
Even with solid merits, some crypto users criticized this feature. According to them, it paves the way for unwanted surveillance and forceful seizures. They say that centralized bodies like banks and the government could use this to forfeit the assets.
When Ledger heard of the censure, it pulled back the new feature. Thankfully, users who need the seed recovery system could still procure them from open-source portals.
Other Ways of Accessing Wallets
Multi-Signature Wallet: It requires consent from multiple users to access the wallet and its assets.
Shamir’s Secret Sharing Method: It allows users to securely split the key into various parts and distribute it among multiple entities.
Consider Multiparty Computation: A cryptographic concept that amasses computational inputs from many users to raise safety.
Multipartite Backups: It maximizes the chances of recovery by storing information and keeping the backups in multiple locations.
Conclusion
Seed phrases are certainly the go-to method for accessing the tokens. They are convenient, conducive, and safely crafted. With a crafty design, they deliver so many advantages to the users. They make the usage of digital assets better than ever.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast, with a major in macroeconomics and minor in business statistics. She believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks, and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning. She frequently researches, and posts content on the top altcoins, their theoretical working principles and technical price predictions.
