ZK-DID Wallet recovery

One of the most significant use-case for Zero Knowledge Decentralized Identity (ZK-DID) is non-custodial key recovery.

No Cloud Backups Or Guardians? No Problem.

Wallet recovery should not require extra setup, otherwise the majority of everyday users will not have recoverable wallets. Web2 security and UX can't be achieved without wallets that are recoverable by default. Recovery should not require KYC, but ID verification can be a key (pun intended) aspect of recovery.

I Lost My Key, But Look, It's Me! 🪪

Fires, earthquakes, faulty memories, proofs of inheritance, are common enough that banks have implemented secure protocols to grant access to rightful owners and keep fraudsters out.

Identity verification with passports, driver's licenses, and other forms of KYC have .

However, that alone has not been widely adopted in web3, because it actually sacrifices self-custody and privacy. Someone must custody your data and verify it against a trusted database in order to prove your identity and regrant you access.

The problem is not that identity verification is necessary to recover a wallet. The problem is that it is sufficient and that it involves loss of privacy.

Silky ZK-DID Key Recovery

A more detailed writeup is on its way. Here is the summary: key recovery works in three phases

Backup phase

A cryptographic commitment to user data, preventing us from seeing the user's identifying information but allowing the user to reveal it with the consent of their web2 accounts.

Self-custodial recovery phase

Zero-knowledge proof of a web2 account or email. In order to prevent a centralized web2 account from having access to user funds, this is not sufficient for recovery

Trusted keyshare holder recovery phase

Bespoke "trusted" identity verification with Silk. This is "centralized" and thus flexible + convenient, but it has no power to reveal the user's key, preventing the trusted ID verifier from gaining the power of a custodian.