Third Parties
One of the benefits of Bitcoin over physical bearer assets like gold is that multiple copies of seedphrases can be created and used as fault-tolerant backups.
As a result, it is not uncommon for Bitcoiners to lodge copies of their Bitcoin wallet backups with family members or other 3rd-parties. Whilst having people and entities who you can truly rely on is a blessing, it does come with a variety of risks - risks which may not, in many cases, be fully understandable by those 3rd-parties themselves.
For example:
- Does your trusted 3rd-party have the same degree of appreciation for Bitcoin being a full bearer asset that you do?
- Do they understand that your private keys, once compromised, can be spent before realises something is wrong?
- Do they have the same high-standards of security in place that you do for your own copy of your private keys?
- Will they be able to remember where they keep your wallet backups if any when you ask them to recover it?
- How seriously do they take their home security, and the security of your private keys? Is it the same as your own protections?
- What happens if they are burgled? What if they have a fire? What if they accidentally toss your seedphrase out in the garbage? What if they move home?
- What happens if they are compromised or ordered to disclose your keys by nefarious actors? What if they are socially engineered?
- What happens if there’s a fire at their home or storage location?
If you are absolutely certain that your wallet backup will be 100% safe with your family member or trusted 3rd party, great! If not, Border Wallets provide you with the option to leave a backup of say, your Entropy Grids or its Recovery Phrase as an encrypted file on a USB thumb drive, with family members or other trusted 3rd-parties without entrusting them with all of the parts of your Bitcoin treasure map.
Entropy Grids provide a vital element of a Border Wallet solution. The Checksum and Pattern provide the other two. Together, these factors can be combined to provide a variety of ways to strengthen your backup capabilities and to increase the potential backup options available to you, whilst ensuring that a sufficiently high-level of difficulty is present for any potential attackers.