Crypto Wallets
Doesn’t my wallet keep my keys safe? Why should I use SecretShield?
A proper web3 wallet will keep your keys safe, under one important condition:
Don’t lose your seed phrase.
There’s no “I forgot my password” for seed phrases. And if there is one, it means your seed phrase is being stored by someone else. (yikes)
We’ve all seen it happen with password managers. Systems get compromised way up the food chain, and suddenly none of your crypto is secure.
SecretShield gives you a way to back up your seed phrases and recover them, without storing anything compromisable on our servers.
Your wallet keeps you safe from hackers, and Secret Shield keeps you safe from the human tendency to lose things.
Think of it as a digital safety deposit box that includes the “I forgot my password” feature missing in crypto wallets. You can access it anywhere in the world, forgoing the physical limitations of other seed phrase storage options.
Can SecretShield work with any Wallet?
SecretShield will work with any crypto wallet that can issue or export a mnemonic, seed phrase, or private key.
I don’t own much crypto. Do I need SecretShield?
Crypto is volatile. A decade ago, people didn’t think they cared about having some bitcoin. Today, they’re pulling out all the stops to try to get their old keys back. Most of us have heard the stories of the person who threw away their then mostly worthless crypto wallet / hard drive with the private keys and are now searching a garbage dump.
Our recommendation is to get started with the free version of SecretShield if you’re on the fence. If your crypto becomes really valuable, you can confidently recover your assets. If it becomes worthless, you only spent 5 minutes configuring the app.
Do I need SecretShield if I’m already using a Ledger, Trezor, or similar hardware device?
These devices are wallets similar to their software counterparts and to the extent that they require a mnemonic, seed phrase, or private key to recover, SecretShield is an excellent solution. Some of these products do offer alternative recovery solutions such as Ledger Recover which SecretShield believes is a step in the right direction but also highly concerning and not recommended given its design.
Story: Larry was on day two of a three week trip to Europe.
Settling in from his flight, He had his ledger device plugged into his laptop, and without thinking, plugged in USB headphones to watch a quick video. The usb voltage changed slightly due to the modified load, and triggered tamper detection causing the Ledger device to be wiped.
He needed his recovery phrase to restore the device.
The problem: It’s locked up four thousand miles away in his security deposit box.
At this point, he was confronted with a handful of poor options; hold his current positions (and his breath) or book an expensive flight home.
My keys are in a Safety Deposit Box. Do I need SecretShield too?
Safety deposit boxes are highly complementary to SecretShield. We strongly recommend keeping a physical copy of your mnemonic, seed phrases, or keys in a secure location in addition to using SecretShield.
The major difference: SecretShield lets you confidently keep your keys in your pocket as you’re traveling. Your safety deposit box is amazing, but it can’t move around with you.
You don’t need to travel far or simply need access when the bank is closed to make a visit to your safety deposit box inconvenient. If something happens to your software or hardware wallet, you can recover without traveling anywhere.
How do I backup my Metamask seed phrase and/or private key?
Metamask maintains instructions on how to obtain your Secret Recovery Phrase. This will present the phrase of 12 words to be entered at a secret in SecretShield.
However, if you imported additional accounts to Metamask from another wallet, such that the additional keys are not derived from the primary account, your secret recovery phrase (seed phrase) mnemonic will not recover all your accounts. You must individually backup the private key (not the Secret Recovery Phrase) for each non-derived account individually. Metamask maintains instructions on how to export an account's private key. This will present the private key to be entered at a Secret in SecretShield.
If you have multiple accounts in Metamask, your secret recovery phrase (seed phrase) mnemonic will only recover your first account. You must separately backup the private key for each account.
How do I restore my Metamask seed phrase and/or private key?
From SecretShield you can obtain your saved secret containing the Secret Recovery Phrase or private key from either a Recovery or a locally stored copy.
Metamask provides instructions for restoring your wallet from a Secret Recovery Phrase. Alternatively, Metamask provides instructions for recovering an account by importing your private key.
If you originally imported additional accounts to Metamask from another wallet, such that the additional keys are not derived from the primary account, your secret recovery phrase (seed phrase) mnemonic will not recover all your accounts. You must separately backup/restore the private key for each (non-derived) account.
How do I backup my Trust Wallet, Exodus Wallet, MEW Wallet or other Web3 Wallet seed phrase and/or private key?
Follow the instructions to obtain the respective Secret Recovery Phrases or private keys. Each phrase and private key may be entered as a secret in SecretShield.
Below are some links that may be helpful references: Trust Wallet Recovery Phrase / Private Key Exodus Wallet MyEtherWallet (MEW Wallet)
If you imported additional accounts from another wallet, such that the additional keys are not derived from the primary account, your secret recovery phrase (seed phrase) mnemonic will not recover all your accounts. Depending on the wallet software, it may be separate Secret Recovery Phrases (seed phrases) or separate private keys for each (non-derived) account.