# \[FEATURE\] Let's make NEAR a Social Recovery Wallet

**URL:** <https://gov.near.org/t/feature-lets-make-near-a-social-recovery-wallet/22153>\
**Category:** Ecosystem\
**Tags:** weekly-updates, daos, presence-dao\
**Created:** [June 1, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://gov.near.org/t/feature-lets-make-near-a-social-recovery-wallet/22153 "2022-06-01T14:28:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![shiftshapr](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/gov.near.org/shiftshapr/32/17825_2.png) [@shiftshapr](https://gov.near.org/u/shiftshapr)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://gov.near.org/t/feature-lets-make-near-a-social-recovery-wallet/22153/1 "2022-06-01T14:28:40Z")

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Greetings

Given that NEAR wants to bring blockchain to the masses, IMHO it is very important that NEAR implement “social recovery” of wallets. Social recovery is a way to recover wallets when the passphrase has been lost that relies on people (or machines) in one’s network. I recommend that NEAR become a social recovery wallet.

Vitalik Buterin wrote a post about it in early 2021.

> This gets us to my preferred method for securing a wallet: social recovery. A social recovery system works as follows:

> 1. There is a single “signing key” that can be used to approve transactions
> 2. There is a set of at least 3 (or a much higher number) of “guardians”, of which a majority can cooperate to change the signing key of the account.

> The signing key has the ability to add or remove guardians, though only after a delay (often 1-3 days).

> ![](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/gov_near/original/3X/e/6/e6905e8fe090bdcd1a201f6fc1fbf19bd4a1da8b.png)

> Under all normal circumstances, the user can simply use their social recovery wallet like a regular wallet, signing messages with their signing key so that each transaction signed can fly off with a single confirmation click much like it would in a “traditional” wallet like Metamask.

> If a user _loses_ their signing key, that is when the social recovery functionality would kick in. The user can simply reach out to their guardians and ask them to sign a special transaction to change the signing pubkey registered in the wallet contract to a new one. This is easy: they can simply go to a webpage such as [security.loopring.io](https://security.loopring.io/), sign in, see a recovery request and sign it. About as easy for each guardian as making a Uniswap trade.

The full article is here: [https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/01/11/recovery.html](https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/01/11/recovery.html)

It would be exceptional if NEAR was the first layer 1 to have a social recovery wallet. It would mean that very few people would ever be locked out of the NEAR wallet, reducing frustration while strengthening community.

@marieke.flament @David_NEAR @chris @MarcusNEAR @Cameron

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**Author:** ![camchis](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/gov.near.org/camchis/32/14157_2.png) [@camchis](https://gov.near.org/u/camchis)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://gov.near.org/t/feature-lets-make-near-a-social-recovery-wallet/22153/2 "2022-06-02T14:34:11Z")

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Hey,

I’m looking to build something like this. Want to build a NEAR mobile wallet w/ social recovery + more nice security/usability features baked in, but currently still in ideation phase really.

Is this something you’d be interested in working on? Drop me a message, would love to chat.