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Walley protects your wallet through two distinct credentials: a passkey and a recovery phrase. Understanding what each one does, how each one is stored, and what to do if either is lost is essential to maintaining access to your funds. Because Walley is non-custodial, no one else holds copies of these credentials — their security is entirely your responsibility.
If you lose access to both your passkey and your recovery phrase, your wallet access is permanently and irrecoverably lost. Walley has no mechanism to restore it.

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Your Two Credentials at a Glance

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Your Passkey

A passkey is a WebAuthn credential stored in your device’s secure hardware. When you authenticate to Walley, your device uses your biometric or device PIN to unlock the passkey and sign the authentication challenge — your biometric or PIN never leaves your device.

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How passkeys work

  • Device-bound: Your passkey is tied to the specific device on which it was created. It cannot be extracted, copied, or transferred.
  • Non-extractable: The private key material within the passkey is held inside the device’s secure enclave and cannot be read by the browser, Walley’s servers, or any other application.
  • Biometric or PIN authorization: Approving wallet actions requires your biometric or device PIN — adding a physical layer of protection even if someone else has access to your device.

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What to do if you lose your passkey device

1

Locate your recovery phrase

Retrieve the physical copy of your 24-word recovery phrase from wherever you stored it safely.
2

Open Walley on a new device

Navigate to the official Walley application on your replacement device.
3

Select 'Import Recovery Phrase'

Choose the recovery option on the new device. Enter your 24-word recovery phrase and your Party Hint when prompted — both are required to complete recovery. This creates a temporary session on the new device.
4

Act within the session

Review balances, complete transactions, or move funds during the session. You will need to re-enter your phrase for each future session on that device.
Recovery via your phrase establishes a temporary session only — Walley cannot link your recovery phrase to a new passkey, so the phrase is required again for every subsequent session. If your original passkey was synced through a credential manager (iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager), restoring that sync on the new device brings back normal passkey access.

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Your Recovery Phrase

Your recovery phrase is a 24-word BIP-39 mnemonic that encodes the Ed25519 key pair underlying your wallet. It is generated entirely within your browser — it is never sent to Walley’s servers or stored anywhere outside your control.

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How the recovery phrase works

  • Client-side only: Generation and import happen exclusively in your browser. Walley never transmits or stores your phrase.
  • The ultimate backup: It is the only credential that can restore access to your wallet when your passkey is unavailable.
  • Requires your Party Hint: Recovery requires both your 24-word phrase and your Party Hint — a short identifier tied to your on-ledger party. You will need both at the time of recovery, so store them together.
  • Creates a temporary session: Using your recovery phrase grants access for the current session only. The phrase cannot be linked to a new passkey, so you must re-enter it for each subsequent session.
  • Full wallet access: Anyone who holds your recovery phrase has complete access to your wallet and funds. Protect it accordingly.

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How to store your recovery phrase safely

1

Write it down immediately

When your phrase is generated, write all 24 words on paper — in the exact order shown — before closing the screen.
2

Record your Party Hint alongside the phrase

Note your Party Hint on the same paper as your recovery phrase. Both are required to restore access — keeping them together ensures you have everything you need in an emergency.
3

Store it offline

Keep the written phrase and Party Hint entirely offline. Do not photograph them, type them into any app, or store them in any digital format.
4

Secure the physical copy

Place your phrase and Party Hint in a fireproof safe, safety deposit box, or another secure location only you can access.
5

Consider a second copy in a separate location

A duplicate stored in a different secure location protects against fire, flood, or physical theft at a single site.
Never share your recovery phrase with anyone — including Walley support. No legitimate service will ever ask for it. Treat any such request as a phishing attempt.

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Credential Loss Scenarios

You can restore access. Navigate to the Walley app on a new device, select Import Recovery Phrase, and enter your 24-word recovery phrase together with your Party Hint when prompted. Recovery sessions are temporary — your phrase is needed again for each session, unless your original passkey comes back via your platform’s credential-manager sync.
You can continue to access your wallet normally using your passkey. However, you have lost your only recovery option — the phrase is shown exactly once at wallet creation and cannot be re-displayed. While you still have passkey access, create a fresh wallet, back up its phrase securely, and move your assets to it.
Access to your wallet is permanently lost. Walley is non-custodial and holds no copies of your credentials. There is no recovery path, no support escalation, and no technical mechanism that can restore access. This outcome is irreversible.
Treat this as an active security emergency. If possible, immediately move your assets to a new wallet whose credentials only you control. Do not delay — anyone with your phrase has full access to your funds right now.

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Summary

  • Passkey = your everyday credential, device-bound and non-extractable.
  • Recovery phrase = your backup, offline-only and never shared.
  • Both lost = permanent, irrecoverable loss of wallet access.
Keep both credentials secure, independent, and never digital. You are your own security.