There are few scenarios more distressing than losing access to your bank account. One of these is losing the keys to your digital wallet. In order to alleviate that fear among crypto users, Toronto-based internet security company 1Password announced today that it is teaming up with crypto wallet Phantom to make it easier and safer for digital wallet holders to access their cryptocurrencies, NFTs and other digital assets.
1Password’s first foray into the digital wallet arena is an application programming interface, or API, called Save in 1Password, which integrates with Phantom wallet so that users can protect and trade their tokens, NFTs and collectibles built on the Solana blockchain.
With Save in 1Password, the company said, digital wallet holders can now save all Phantom wallet credentials and keys to 1Password without the hassle of logging on or the threat of losing access forever. “We just want to make it easier for people to protect their digital lives,” Matthew O’Leary, vice-president of partnerships at 1Password, told ZDNet.
Unlike misplacing the password to an online checking account at your local bank, a password for a digital wallet – and a seed phrase used to reset a password – are the only ways to access one’s digital account. Lose them and you lose access to your digital coins and tokens; devise an easy-to-remember password and you run the risk of someone, or something, hacking into your account. Going to your bank and flashing your ID to access your digital wallet isn’t possible. The repercussions faced by losing a password specifically for your digital wallet were epitomized by San Francisco-based programmer – and early Bitcoin adopter – Stefan Thomas who, early last year, said he couldn’t remember the password to his digital wallet. As a result, he couldn’t get access to his Bitcoin wallet which had a value of [gasp] $220 million.
HOW IT WORKS
The average person is expected to remember 100 passwords as they manage their digital lives, be it from bank and email accounts to social media and Netflix subscriptions. At a time when online security is paramount, people are burdened with having to create logins, passwords and two-factor authentication to access personal accounts and information. In the haste of getting online, countless many risk using the same password or the same pattern of words, numbers and symbols across accounts. “And that’s what we’re trying to guard against,” O’Leary told ZDNet. “Too many people end up reusing their password credentials.”
Based on its 15 years of providing password and security resources, 1Password’s entrance into the crypto market is a logical step. If you or your business needs to create an account for a crypto wallet, go to 1Password’s website , key in your credit card information, and the sign-up flow begins. The service is available on all major computing and mobile platforms.
When signing up for a Solana wallet, you’re asked to store a seed phrase that is required if you get locked out of your wallet and you need to log back in. The Save in 1Password API is integrated into the wallet, so when you’re going through the sign-up flow, you will be prompted by 1Password to automatically save that seed phrase within 1Password. “So instead of writing it down or printing it off and storing it somewhere that you won’t forget, it’s going to be stored directly in 1Password,” O’Leary said. “That just brings a lot more safety and a lot more security to people who are in droves weighing into crypto.”
With more than 300 million people worldwide already invested in some form of cryptocurrency – and with that number projected to swell to 1 billion by 2023 – a lot of people new to crypto won’t necessarily understand the importance of storing a seed phrase; they might assume that they can contact a service for help in recovering that phrase. “You can’t do that in the crypto world,” O’Leary noted. “So backing that up in 1Password – that was the entire purpose of this integration,” he added.
According to 1Password, to utilize this new integration, users will need to use both the Phantom extension and the 1Password browser extension.
