The team at Casa, a Bitcoin-focused company, notes that one of the “most important” things about using Casa is that “you, and you alone” possess the private keys needed to access your crypto-assets.
Casa confirms that it’s here to “do everything possible” to assist you with keeping your own keys “safe and sound” without the risk of potential loss or theft of funds.
Logan from Casa writes in a blog post:
“We believe in building resilient systems that do not have a single point of failure and, as such, provide adequate tooling and information for you to access your funds without Casa. This is the primary purpose of what we call Sovereign Recovery: to provide a fail-safe for even the most unthinkable event, Casa’s failure or disappearance.”
Casa explains that their Sovereign Recovery Instructions are emailed to users each time they create a new keyset. This means you will receive the instructions when you initially set up your Casa account (or whenever you decide to change one of your private keys).
As noted by Logan from Casa, the instructions “contain the information you need to recreate your wallet on a computer, using your existing hardware wallets and 3rd party open source tools like Electrum or Specter.”
Casa’s blog further explains that in order to execute these instructions, you’ll need to download Electrum on your computer and then begin creating “a new M-of-N Setup just like your Casa account.” The blog post added that “for each of your hardware wallets that you use in your Casa account, you’ll enter the BIP 32 path for your account from the Sovereign Recovery Instructions and then export the extended public key from that hardware wallet at the specified derivation path.”
Casa further noted that “for the key that lives on your mobile device and for your Casa recovery key, you will simply enter the extended public key found in your Sovereign Recovery Instructions.” Casa pointed out that you may receive these instructions in your email at “any time” in the Casa App via the settings tab.
Casa confirmed that all the important details maintained in your Sovereign Recovery Instructions may be accessed from within the Casa App. The Casa team also noted that “even if your device has no internet connection, or Casa’s servers are offline, this data is cached on your device and available to you.” Casa added that you just have to launch the app, choose the device from the security tab and then select “View Public Keys”. The Sovereign Recovery instructions may also be “accessed any time at a third-party site: walletsrecovery.org.”
The Casa team continued:
“There are times when you may need to access the private key stored on your phone to access the funds in your wallet. This is especially applicable for the Single Key wallet, but also for the default 2-of-3 Basic Multisig wallet, or for a 3-of-5 multisig where you have lost one of your hardware wallets. To handle these scenarios, Casa provides you the ability to access the seed phrase for that key.”
You may choose the device from the security tab and “then select ‘Import or Export Backup’ and ‘Export Private Key’.” Casa explains that this will “give you a 12-word seed phrase, which you can import directly into Electrum instead of the extended public key.” This private key export function is “available when your device is not connected to the internet, and even if the Casa servers are offline, because the key is only stored on your device,” the company clarified.
The Casa team further noted:
“At Casa, we believe in empowering users to take control of their keys and their funds. “Not your keys, not your Bitcoin” is our mantra. But, as Uncle Ben once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” We strive to provide our users with the tools they need to protect their keys and their bitcoin from all potential dangers by eliminating any single points of failure—even ourselves.”
If these instructions and requirements seem too technical and confusing, then you’re definitely not alone.
Crypto user experience must improve as 5% of the world may own digital assets soon, according to Ari Paul, CIO at BlockTower Capital, a company focused on bringing professional trading and portfolio management to cryptocurrency.
Paul recently predicted that we might have 5% of the world owning crypto-assets by the end of this bull run (ahead of Internet adoption back in 2000).
However, Paul points out that there are many “basics” that still require building. For instance, the crypto and blockchain space needs “real privacy” along with secure and easy funds transfer capabilities. The industry needs prime brokerage as well (for starters), Paul noted.
At present, Bitcoin is only as “private” and censorship-resistant as the Internet itself (not very), Paul claims, while adding that TOR still needs “a lot of work, and we need default consumer friendly ways to encrypt crypto traffic so aggressive ISPs/states can’t censor.”
Paul also thinks we need much easier ways to use “methods of communication on crypto networks.” He adds that “ISPs, satellite, radio, the more the better, and we need these globally accessible and consumer-friendly.”
Paul also mentioned that sending a crypto transaction is “still insanely intimidating.” He pointed out that people are “supposed to trust an arcane string of alphanumeric characters as a counter party’s address.” He further noted that “we don’t currently have standard ways of verifying a counterparty’s address.” He added that “deep fakes are coming.”