How the Shamir backup method protects your assets

In the world of crypto, ensuring the security of your assets is paramount. At 1inchHW, we address this need by offering a range of backup options tailored to suit various preferences. Among these, the Shamir backup method stands out as a sophisticated and highly secure approach to safeguarding your digital wealth.

Understanding Shamir’s secret sharing

Shamir’s secret sharing is a cryptographic algorithm created by Adi Shamir, one of the co-inventors of RSA encryption, a widely-used method for securing data transmission. This algorithm’s main purpose is to split a secret, like a cryptographic key, into multiple parts.

Each part called a “share,” is given to a different person or stored in a different location. To recover the original secret, you need a minimum number of these shares, known as the “threshold.” Say, you have a secret key and want to split it into five shares with a threshold of three. In this setup, any three of the five shares can be used to reconstruct the key. However, getting just two shares would not be enough to retrieve the key.

This approach is especially valuable in situations where losing a private key or a seed phrase could lead to permanently losing access to your crypto.

How it works

When kickstarting your wallet journey with 1inchHW, you’ll get an option of using a Shamir backup. Once you opt-in, that’s your go-to method for locking down your wallet.

Think of them as a mash-up of words or alphanumeric strings, customized to keep your secrets safe. Choosing a Shamir backup means waving goodbye to the old-school single-seed phrase recovery. Everything now revolves around those Shamir shares.

Post-creation setup

Adding a Shamir backup after your wallet’s already up and running? It’s a bit of a tech hurdle. You’ve got to revamp the whole backup and recovery setup, which means getting hold of your wallet’s original seed phrase or private key, generating those shares, and securely swapping out the old backup method.

Setting a threshold and share count

When you’re setting things up, you’ll need to decide on the total number of shares to distribute, a magic number needed for recovery. It’s all about finding that sweet spot between ironclad security and making sure you can still get back into your wallet when needed.

Want to recover your wallet? You’ll need to gather up the right number of shares and feed them through the Shamir backup algorithm. And here’s the kicker: no small set of shares can reveal your secret, adding extra security against accidental loss.

The implementation of the Shamir Back-Up System adds an extra layer of security to the hardware wallet, making it highly resistant to unauthorized access or theft. It eliminates the risk of losing all funds due to a single point of failure, such as a hardware malfunction or a misplaced device.

Furthermore, the Shamir Back-Up System offers flexibility and convenience for users. The shares can be distributed among trusted family members, friends, or even stored in secure offline locations such as safety deposit boxes. This enables easy recovery of the private key in case the original device is lost or damaged. Usually, the shares are stored in separate and secure locations to prevent unauthorized access. To recover the private key in case the original device is lost or damaged, the user needs to gather the required number of shares based on the predefined threshold. This can be done by contacting the individuals holding the shares or retrieving the shares from the offline storage locations, reducing the risk of losing all backup copies in the event of theft or disaster. This ensures that even if one share is compromised, the attacker would still require access to the other shares to gain control over the wallet.

While a Shamir backup spreads the risk around, it also adds a dash of complexity to your backup game. Now you’ve got multiple shares to keep tabs on. It’s a balancing act between safeguarding against loss and locking out the wrong hands.

At 1inchHW, we will allow the users to choose the number of shares they want to generate and choose the threshold for recovery. The threshold determines the minimum number of shares needed to reconstruct the secret. By setting a higher threshold, you enhance the security of your funds since more shares must be combined for recovery. However, it is important to strike a balance and ensure that the threshold is not set too high, as it may increase the risk of losing access to your funds if a share becomes irretrievable. This gives users the ability to customize their backup strategy based on their security requirements and preferences.

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