Both as a company and as a product line, Cryptosteel is firmly based on a philosophy and principles that were standing behind the problem of private key security.
- The Setting
- The First and Original Steel Backup for Hardware Wallets
- Philosophy: Towards a Better Future
- The Secret Inside
- Mission Statement: Education, Standardization, Liberation
As time passed and we launched our creations onto the market, we grew into the Crypto market, giving, learning, educating, and inspiring!
The Setting
Read on to get a better idea of the foundations of our system and how it was set up to achieve success as the universal standard – a safe place to protect your private key or even a 24 words seed for secure access to your hardware wallet or software wallets.
Seed phrases work – if you want to buy crypto, you will need to buy a new device and create a new seed, which is made of a series of seed words. Currently, the standard is 24 words for a bitcoin wallet mnemonic phrase.
The First and Original Steel Backup for Hardware Wallets
Cryptosteel designed, created, and successfully launched the world’s first steel backup system for hardware wallets – the Cryptosteel Cassette. Our curiosity about cryptocurrencies brought us to this point. We decided to give something back to the community by making the product design available in the public domain Creative Commons license to inspire DIY projects. We knew there would be trade-offs. We did not foresee that this would generate, unexpectedly, questionable tactics and a surge in copycat products and companies. Read more here: Metal Seed Security — The Producers of Low-Quality Copycats are Hurting Cryptocurrency Users.
Nevertheless, this is proof that our invention is an inspiration to others! Cryptosteel became a household name and has semantically gained the status of product category word, with tens of thousands of online articles and videos to prove it!
Cryptosteel Cassette tiles inspired by the Gutenberg printing press system
The Need for Standardization
Sharing is caring – everyone should be able to benefit from good ideas and the best practices. The advent of cryptocurrencies has swept over the world in the past decade, showing by acclamation that such a solution is needed and wanted by people across all corners of the globe. It’s only fair that standards should be established to ensure the system runs smoother – that’s where Cryptosteel comes in. We are here to help asset hodlers achieve peace of mind in knowing their resources are secure and protected, liberating them from fear of their assets being lost or stolen – even with multiple wallets protected with seed phrases on one hardware wallet. The Cryptosteel seed backup system is already becoming the gold standard. Join us on this amazing journey and help us set an example!
Patented Design
The second and current flagship model, the Cryptosteel Capsule, a seed phrase backup system, is a streamlined evolution of the original concept, crafted to perfection: in essence, a true invention (read more about the structure of the Capsule here: Anatomy of the Capsule). The intellectual property that constitutes its design is patented with official recognition by the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office and respective institutions around the world.
Philosophy: Towards a Better Future
The Cryptocurrency community is all about challenging the status quo. We’ve decided to develop a bold initiative toward self-sovereignty based on cutting-edge cryptographic technology. We boldly take on the mantle of self-custodianship, hailing a philosophy of continuous Evolution, progressing Secession, striving for Emancipation, and cherishing Liberation. But what does this actually mean? Responsibility. There are no built-in fail-safe institutions to help you if you lose the access code to your cryptocurrency assets – in most cases, this is a mnemonic seed phrase used as a last resort for hardware wallet recovery – usually a 24-word seed.
The Big Question and Emancipation
Cryptosteel is the Mother of All Backups because its priority is to reproduce value by nesting and protecting your precious assets within its protective embrace. It’s the answer to the big question every crypto hodler faces – what measures should be taken to ensure your savings won’t succumb to a number of potentially devastating accidents – misplacing a sheet of paper or memory device with the recovery seed, or worse – losing them in a fire, flood, or any other natural or man-made disaster. To consider a form of preserving information that withstands time and the elements, we have to look back through time – and we find that engraved metal is historically one of the most resilient solutions.
Historic Inspiration and Evolution
One of the greatest examples of the resilience of engraved metal is the Pillar of Delhi. This stunning monument preserves a somber message across millennia – a eulogy for a deceased ruler. The engraved writing on the pillar is, after 1600 years, still perfectly legible, no less clear than the day it was erected.
From Philosophy to Strategy to Implementation
We’ve established that we want to store our sensitive data using engraved metal – a fine choice. Nonetheless, manual engraving requires skilled craftsmanship and the proper tools. Cryptosteel invented a tile system to help provide a durable solution for every type of user looking to protect their recovery phrase – boosting online security by introducing offline security. It allows users to independently assemble the phrase using engraved steel, providing a solid, permanent, and secure solution for a bitcoin seed phrase – a true bitcoin hardware wallet mnemonic seed phrase backup consisting of 24 words that can be used for hierarchical deterministic wallets.
The Cryptosteel system was designed to provide maximum resistance paired with ease of use – a tool that anyone could use without any special equipment or knowledge. The concept was inspired by Gutenberg’s press – a highly efficient modular system based on steel tiles with letters and symbols. No tools, no preparation, no research needed – the set is complete – straight out of the box! All our products undergo extensive conceptual work and testing – what you get is perfected in terms of design and usability. Thanks to hierarchical deterministic wallet encryption, even Cryptosteel can protect even multiple cryptocurrency wallets from a security breach. Cryptosteel allows you to recover your wallet and access your funds.
The Secret Inside
Cryptosteel safeguards your sensitive data and the access key to your digital assets in many ways. The character tiles are made of the highest quality steel and deeply engraved to ensure protection even from strong shock, corrosion, or heat. The design is a streamlined shape to stand up to passing years: elegant, natural simplicity that’s the highest form of timeless sophistication shielding your mnemonic phrase so only the chosen can gain access to your crypto wallet. It’s yours, and yours only – completely private with no third-party involvement – engineered to provide safety and secure storage for several lifetimes.
Each Cryptosteel set includes a randomized collection of tiles that is calculated to provide for all possible combinations. The character tilesets differ slightly depending on the product – Cassette or Capsule. At the heart of the Cryptosteel hardware wallet backup strategy is the mnemonic seed phrase (often used with a bitcoin wallet, crypto wallets) – a system adopted to make it easier to restore a hardware wallet. Instead of a string of random symbols, the backup seed phrase is composed of a series of words from a designated list. Cryptosteel devices support a range of sensitive data storage applications, focusing on seed phrases for one hardware wallet (like Ledger Nano S Plus, Blockstream Jade, BitBox02 or Trezor Safe 3) but also storing private keys in the form of a backup phrase for software wallets and hardware wallets. Read our article about seed words and recovery phrase backup: Why Are Four-letter Words the Standard for Recovery Seed Backup?
Boosting Security with Shamir Secret Sharing
The Shamir Secret Sharing method is the definitive solution for those looking to take their sensitive data security to an even higher level. This advanced cryptographic method focuses on splitting private seeds into shares – sets of distributed Cryptosteel units in multiple locations, where accessing the majority (aka the “threshold” of the distributed set) allows reassembly and storing of the original master seed recovery phrase. In case of a SPOF (Single Point of Failure – when you lose access), you can restore your backup by summoning the remaining Cryptosteel devices from separate secure locations. This method significantly boosts protection against brute force attacks aimed at your cryptocurrency wallets by hacking your mnemonic code recovery seeds.
Engraved steel tiles and separators
Mission Statement: Education, Standardization, Liberation
The value delivered by Cryptosteel has been recognized by world-leading Crypto accessory creators – we consider this a true success. We take an active role in making the Bitcoin network even more decentralized by providing effective offline permanent backup solutions – it’s a great achievement that we’re deeply proud of.
Join us and the rest of the Crypto community on a mission to help improve humanity through Education about self-sovereignty, Standardization of self-custodianship, and Liberation that comes with entering the world of Crypto!
