Secrets, Guardians, and Trustees

Secrets

What is a Secret?

A Secret is any piece of critical, sensitive information that you want to protect and recover using SecretShield. This can include seed phrases, mnemonics, master passwords, confidential information, trade secrets, executor instructions, and small file attachments.

What is a Secret Owner

A Secret Owner is the individual who creates and manages the secret within SecretShield. They have full control over the secret, including setting recovery thresholds and assigning Guardians and Trustees.

Guardians

What is a Guardian?

A Guardian is an individual you designate to hold a "share" or "shard" of your secret data. These shares do not contain the actual secret and are only pieces of data used in the recovery process. Who should I use as Guardians?

A spouse, close friends, parents, or other reliable individuals. They should be people you can count on to follow through on a request for recovery.

They won't have access to your secrets or know who the other Guardians are.

What am I giving to my Guardians?

When you share your secret with a Guardian, you're giving them "shares of data" or "shards." These shards do not contain your actual secret and do not reveal the identities of your other Guardians or the recovery threshold. This design helps protect your secret and maintain confidentiality.

Mathematically, when enough shards meet the recovery threshold you set, your app can reconstruct the secret. SecretShield ensures that only the owner or a Trustee can initiate this reconstruction process.

Do I need to trust my Guardians?

SecretShield is Trust Minimized in that no part of the secret itself is shared with your guardians. However, you do need to issue enough shares across multiple Guardians. See the sections on “How many Guardians do I need?” and “Why is it important to have more than 2 Guardians?” for further details.

You do need your Guardians to keep the data (not delete the app) and when you request recovery, you need them to approve the request.

How many Guardians do I need?

To ensure the highest chances of recovering your secrets, we recommend assigning several Guardians. This way, even if some Guardians become unavailable or lose their data, you can still recover your secrets.

For instance, assigning 6 Guardians with a recovery threshold of 3, or 10 Guardians with a threshold of 4, enhances your recovery success. At the end of the day, it is about what you are comfortable with to maximize your recovery success.

Why is it important to have more than 2 Guardians?

Having only 1 or 2 Guardians poses significant risks. With 1 Guardian, you're essentially giving them full access to your secret, and if they become unavailable, you may be locked out. With 2 Guardians, there’s no redundancy—if one is unavailable, recovery is impossible.

Our algorithm splits your secret into multiple pieces to ensure no single Guardian can reconstruct it alone. Therefore, it's crucial to have a configuration where not all Guardians are required to meet the recovery threshold. This minimizes the risk of being locked out and ensures better security for your secrets.

SecretShield also recommends using additional backup methods, like pen and paper, to further safeguard your secrets against unpredictable events. We cannot predict the future (e.g., a war could break out, and EMP could cause everybody to lose their data making recovery impossible).

Can my Guardians identify each other?

No, only Trustees and Secret Owners know who your Guardians are.

What happens if a Guardian changes phones?

The shares you issue to each Guardian are connected to their specific devices. If they change their device (get a new phone), those shares will no longer be accessible. It is important when creating a secret that you issue shares and a threshold with this in mind.

For example, issue to 6 Guardians and a threshold of 3. Thus, you can still recover if 3 Guardians no longer are available.

Over time, you may want to re-issue the shares to ensure they are available on your Guardians' current devices, maximizing a successful recovery when needed.

Trustees

What is a Trustee?

A Trustee is a highly trusted individual, usually a loved one, who holds a subset of your secret’s configuration. They don't get a copy of the secret itself but can request recovery of the secret from your assigned Guardians.

How do I add a new Trustee?

First add them as a contact. Then, select the secret you’d like to assign them to.

For detailed instructions with screenshots, please visit the Assigning Trustees section in our Getting Started Guide.

Who should I use as a Trustee?

A Trustee is typically a loved one or someone you highly trust. They get a copy of the Guardian configuration and can request recovery of your secrets, even though they aren’t getting a copy upon assignment.

When I share a Secret to a Trustee, what can they see?

A Trustee will receive a subset of the secret’s configuration. This includes the secret name, the assigned Guardians, the recovery threshold, and other related data. They will not receive the secret itself but can request its recovery from your assigned Guardians.

Do I have to assign any Trustees?

No, assigning a Trustee is optional. You can choose to use this feature for some, all, or none of your secrets.