Use cases / Digital assets
Protect your digital assets
Seed phrases are bearer instruments — losing them or losing access means losing everything.
The problem
No existing solution is enough
Paper backups degrade
Paper fades, burns and floods. A seed phrase written on paper is one house fire away from permanent loss — and anyone who finds it can drain your wallet.
Metal plates are not enough
Steel plates survive fire but not theft. If someone finds your plate, your funds are gone. And if you hide it too well, your family may never find it.
Hardware wallets do not solve inheritance
Hardware wallets protect your keys while you are alive but do nothing for the people who need access after you are gone.
Trusting one person is risky
Sharing your seed phrase with a single person — a friend, a lawyer or a spouse — creates a new single point of failure. That person can be compromised, coerced or simply lose access.
The solution
From theft and coercion protection to planning for the unthinkable
Protect against theft and coercion
Encrypt your seed phrase in an encrypted QR code backup called a block — mitigate hardware wallet loss, theft and coercion with hidden secrets, offsite storage and watch-only wallets.
Learn more →Plan for the unthinkable
Split your seed phrase and seed extensions into a set of blocks called a blockset — distribute blocks among heirs, vaults and institutional custodians, establishing inheritance governance that survives the unthinkable.
Learn more →Protect against theft and coercion
Create block for seed phrase
Boot Superbacked OS on dedicated hardware. Create block containing seed phrase. Keep block alongside hardware wallet in case hardware wallet fails. Passphrase can live in your password manager — seed remains air-gapped.
Create block for seed extensions
Store one or more seed extensions in separate block using hidden secrets — each protected by different passphrase. Under coercion, reveal first secret’s passphrase while others remain undetectable.
Store seed extension block offsite for larger holdings
Store seed extension block in safe deposit box or other secure location. Signing transactions then requires both hardware wallet and physical access to seed extension — mitigating $5 wrench attacks.
Optionally create block for master public keys
Store master public keys in separate block kept alongside hardware wallet — similar to seed extension block but for creating watch-only wallets and receiving addresses at home without visiting secure location.
To restore, boot Superbacked OS on dedicated hardware, scan seed phrase block, enter passphrase and view seed phrase. Seed extension and master public key blocks follow the same process.
Plan for the unthinkable
Create blockset for seed phrase and seed extensions
Boot Superbacked OS on dedicated hardware. Create blockset containing seed phrase and seed extensions — choose threshold (2-of-3, 3-of-5 or 4-of-7). All blocks share same passphrase — seed remains air-gapped.
Distribute blocks to custodians
Give block 1 and passphrase to all heirs — sharing a single block among heirs means no heir can act alone. Store block 2 in safe deposit box or other secure location. Give block 3 to institutional custodian without revealing passphrase.
Scale for larger holdings
For larger holdings, use 3-of-5 or 4-of-7 blockset. Distribute additional blocks to institutional custodians in different jurisdictions or trusted individuals — though institutional custodians may be more secure from a collusion perspective.
Manage hardware wallets
Superbacked OS includes trezorctl for managing Trezor hardware wallets on air-gapped hardware. BIP39 seed phrases are auto-detected during recovery process and displayed as numbered word lists for easy entry into hardware wallets.
When the time comes, heirs boot Superbacked OS on dedicated hardware, gather required number of blocks, enter passphrase and view seed phrase and seed extensions allowing heirs to provision hardware wallet.
What Superbacked does not protect against
No solution protects against everything — being honest about that is part of earning your trust.
Passphrase reuse
Superbacked enforces strong passphrases but cannot prevent reuse. If passphrase is reused from a breached service, brute-force protection is bypassed. Consider using built-in passphrase generator.
Lost passphrase
If you lose passphrase, block or blockset becomes permanently unrecoverable. Store passphrase in your password manager or another secure location.
Operational security
If someone gains access to both block and passphrase — for example, through unlocked password manager — secret is compromised. Lock devices when away.
Compromised machine
If malware is running on computer when you create a block or blockset, secret could be captured before encryption. For high-stakes secrets, use Superbacked OS.
Loss of blocks below threshold
If too many blocks are lost — for example, losing 2 blocks in a 2-of-3 blockset — secret becomes permanently unrecoverable. Ensure custodians store blocks safely.
Custodian collusion
If enough custodians collude to meet threshold, they can recover seed phrase. Unlike credentials, crypto transactions are irreversible — choose custodians carefully.
For high-stakes secrets, use Superbacked OS — a hardened operating system that runs offline and persists nothing to disk.
Explore other use cases: critical credentials, signing keys and personal backups.
Copyright (c) Superbacked, Inc.