Vault Backups

Exporting vault shares, backing up or importing vaults shares.

What is a Backup in Vultisig

Vultisig implements a novel backup and recovery mechanism that differs from traditional seed phrase-based approaches.

This mechanism also utilizes the Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) technology which is used to generate so called "Vault Shares", that enable more secure and reliable wallet recovery without seed phrases. These shares store all the data necessary to participate in Keygen/Keysign sessions and restore the Vault upon import. They never store any secret key or seed phrase.

The parameters stored in Vault Shares are non-sensitive data and are unique to the device on which they are created, making Vault Shares unique and not interchangeable with eachother.

Backup in Settings

Vaults should always be backed up!

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What are Vault Shares?

• Vault shares are the backups to recover Vaults in Vultisig

• Each device in the vault has its own unique vault share. So each device needs its own backup

• Each vault share by itself does not have access to any assets, so it is safe to export and store them digitally

• They use the .vult extension standard for easy identification

• Due to the .vult extension, shares can be directly imported when opened

• To easily identify which Vault Share is backed up and which is missing, they are labeled as follows:

$$vaultname-ID-share(t)of(n).vult$$

vaultname: Set name of the vault ID: ID of the vault t: share of the vault n: total shares

To easily distinguish between vault types, backups are named differently for the two TSS types:

• share: A DKLS vault

• part: a GG20 vault

Example: You have two shares called savings-ef8b-share1of2.vult and savings-ef8b-share2of2.vult backed up. So you know that your Vault is completely backed up. Secured. If you can't find one of the two (or respectively more parts) you know which device you need to back up to have full access on recovery.

Never store different vault shares of the same vault in the same location, as this could potentially lead to loss of funds. This can happen if a malicious party gains access to that location and is able to reconstruct the vault.

Digital Storage Suggestions

• Storing vault-shares on different cloud drives/locations

• Having independent cloud drives or password manager for each Vault share.

• Ensuring that a device does not have access to multiple cloud drives or password managers that store Vault shares.

• Use offline devices to store vault shares

Secure Example:

• Store all Part 1 Shares on your Google Drive

• Store all Part 2 Shares on your iCloud

• Store all Part 3 Shares on your Dropbox

Estate planning (The gold standard for backing up Vaults)

To ensure access to your assets in the event of adverse circumstances or for inheritance purposes, we propose a solution that works really well but can be adapted to everyone's needs:

1. Zip all Part 1 vault shares

2. Store in your reach

3. Zip all Part 2 vault shares

4. Send to partner/trusted family member

5. Zip all Part 3 vault shares

6. Send to family laywer/accountant

This can be expanded if larger vaults with more devices are used, but ensures that you are properly backed up.

You need to make sure that the counterparts receiving the parts cannot easily collaborate.

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How to Backup Vault shares?

Click on the above image to watch an explanation video on Twitter

In the app, navigate to Settings and proceed to Vault Settings. Select Backup, enter an optional backup encryption password and proceed with Save. If not needed, save the vault share by pressing Skip PAssword directly.

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Backup Encryption

It is possible to encrypt the Vault share with an optional password, adding an extra layer of security to the shares.

The Password option can either activated with putting in a strong password and saving it or can be skipped.

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Recovering a lost device

If a device is lost, there are two ways to recover the device:

• Option 1: Import the original backed-up vault share into a new device. Vault shares can be imported into any device that support Vultisig. E.g. a vault share created from an iOS device, can be imported into iOS, MacOS, Android, etc.

• Option 2: Reshare the vault using the two other devices to include a new device. This is only possible on a 2-of-3 setup.