Step by Step
5 min read – Feb 19, 2022
Let’s straight dive in
Once you open the downloaded application, you will see a window with three options to secure — Mnemonic Phrases, Passwords, and Private Keys. Choose what you want to protect (Mnemonic Phrases is a preselected option), and you will find grouped entry fields in the main section of the view.
To make it simple, we will focus in this article on Mnemonic Phrases. In the description field, enter the wallet name, and underneath your secret recovery words (Mnemonic phrase) — a group of 12 or more words that need to be entered in the exact sequence the wallet provided. You can protect up to 4 wallets at once.
Note: We understand how important it is to be vigilant and suspicious when anyone asks for information that protects your assets. That’s why you can enter only part of your recovery words and complete them manually after printing. You can also print a blank template by leaving all the fields empty and pressing the print button.
After pressing a Print button, the print panel view will show up. Choose the printer, and your recovery phrase will print into three sheets of paper. In the print panel, you have the option to save it as a pdf, but for security reasons, we strongly discourage saving it in any digital format.
Fill in empty fields manually if you have decided to print only a portion of the mnemonic phrase. There will be clear guidelines on which words are missing.
What is on the prints?
Take a look at any printed sheet. The information there is essential to put things back together. At the top right-hand corner, you will find what type of information the print contains. In this case, we can see it is Mnemonic Phrase. Next to it, there is the date and time. The date and time work as an identifier. Every print should have the same timestamp, so you know they belong to one another. Then across the page, you have a description of the service — in this case, wallet. Under the description, you will find a fraction of your entry.
It is easy to notice that each fraction of the entry has leading and trailing arrows that indicate which part of the data is missing. Put the text together like puzzles to construct the complete phrase.
What to do with the prints?
Place the prints into three envelopes. Make sure to seal these envelopes. The step of sealing the envelopes is especially important because it helps to find quickly if any of the envelopes was compromised.
Distribute the envelopes to 3 different secured locations. Following these steps is a minimum enough to make your assets well protected.
But what if?
If one of your prints was accidentally lost or compromised by a thief, you are still safe. Anyone who tries to read your recovery keys from only one of the sheets will fail. The intruder needs at least two prints to compose a security phrase.
Although the One Step Ahead app approach allows you to feel comfortable, you should still take further precautionary measures in case of incidents. One piece of paper, even though, exposes two-thirds of the information, recreating the third part will not be easy. Any time you have lost a print or you have a suspicion that it was compromised, we recommend moving your assets to a new wallet, where you will receive a new Mnemonic Phrase or changing passwords where required. Then use this application again.
The benefits and the privacy
Prevention from a single incident can significantly increase the chances of recovering your keys. A single event can be anything from a thief to an unexpected fire, flood, or earthquake.
To make you satisfied with our products, we have set the goal to build trust and a long relationship with you. We decided, that we will not use in our application any internet connection, we will not store or cache data you entered, and we will never use any tracking 3rd party libraries. Our application has one job to do — feed your confidential data directly to the printer.