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BackupBuddy

The first zero-friction, social seed recovery tool for mass crypto adoption, simple but secure.

BackupBuddy

Created At

ETHGlobal Cannes

Winner of

Self Protocol - Best Self onchain SDK Integration 1st place

Project Description

🧠 What it does

BackupBuddy is the first seed phrase social recovery solution secured built for everyone, not just crypto natives. It allows you to securely backup and recover your seed phrase with the support of your friends and family — even your grandma can help! All it takes is your passport and a few clicks.

It gives users true peace of mind — you will always be able to recover your wallets. No password to remember. No complex on-chain system. We believe that everyone should have access to an easy and secure backup!

💥 The problem Backup Buddy solves

"In 2013, Welsh computer engineer James Howells mistakenly disposed of a laptop hard drive containing the private key for 8,000[a] Bitcoin in the Docksway landfill in Newport, Wales."

Bitcoin buried in Newport landfill - Wikipedia

James Howells would probably agree, securely storing your seed phrase is hard. It remains one of the biggest and most painful problems in crypto. — and losing it is one of the most painful experiences in web3. Current solutions are either outdated (e.g., writing on paper), overly technical, or rely on centralized custody — not your keys, not your coins!

🛡️ Social Recovery

As Vitalik explains in one of his blog posts, social recovery is a better model. So why don't existing solutions get more usage? User surveys show that they are often too complex, require technical guardians or are only available to EVM wallets. Social recovery already exists, think about who you entrust with your house's spare key. Probably your family and close friends, so why is there no accessible solution for your crypto asset keys?

🔐 Our solution

BackupBuddy makes seed phrase recovery simple, social, and secure:

• Anyone with a passport can set it up — no technical background required

• Very importantly, only you can initiate and complete the recovery — because only you know who your guardians are, and each share is encrypted with your passport.

• Guardians don’t need to understand crypto — they receive a WhatsApp message, confirm with one click to add the recovery QR code to their Apple or Google Wallet.

• Guardians don’t need to remember anything or install an app

• Any smartphone user can become a guardian — so everyone in your social circle can take this role.

• No third party holds your Private keys!

• No passwords, no friction — setup takes less than one minute

• Easy recovery! Simply ask your guardians to send their stored QR code back — quick access from their Apple or Google Wallet

⏰ Why now?

ZK technology is now mature and secure enough for innovative solutions like Backup Buddy to take over the market. Your backup is protected by your passport. Your guardians don’t need to know for what exactly they are the guardian.

How it's Made

🏆🏆 What we accomplished at the hackathon

----> We built a fully working proof-of-concept. You can use it now! <------

Backup Buddy is a web application that enables secure recovery of your seed phrase by splitting it up into shares using Shamir's Secret Sharing (slip39). Each share is encrypted with a passphrase which is only accesssbile with the user's passport verification from Self.xyz.

The passphrase is securely exported to our server alongside the zk proof, which is verified on-chain(celo) with the nullifier as the user identifier.

For added flexibility, users can send shard shares directly to designated guardians through common messaging apps. Guardians receive a link, and by clicking it, the share is automatically added to their iOS Wallet.

During recovery, the seed phrase is reconstructed by:

Collecting the required threshold number of shares from guardians via asking them over messenger to go to their IOS wallet and send “Sebastians computer backup” also over messenger.

The user scans his passport using Self.xyz , provides the backend with a valid zero-knowledge proof (ZK proof) - verified on chain -, generates the Nullifier and after verifying that the passport matches one that is in the Database, the passphrase will be sent to the owner allowing him to put it all together and use slip39 to reconstruct the seed phrase.

The functional web application allows for seamless and easy setup and recovery. Test it now!

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