❗️The importance of 24 secret words
TonSafe is a self-custodial (also known as "non-custodial") wallet. Therefore there is no one except you who has custody of your wallet account. This means that unlike with a bank account, if you lost your passwords, you cannot ask TonSafe or even the C.I.A. to help you regain access.
Without the 24 secret words you cannot access your account if you log out or uninstall the wallet or lose your phone or some other calamity occurs.
TonSafe has gone to great lengths to make sure that you take responsibility and do not cut corners. However, there are sadly always some people who ignore all advice, instructions, or try to cheat the process.
- When you first install TonSafe and create your wallet, you are asked to write down the 24 passwords. If you try to pass this step too quickly, we remind you that you did not have enough time to write down the passwords.
- TonSafe app then randomly asks you for 3 of those passwords to make sure that you have them. If you took a screen shot you cheated, you can pass this step, but later you may regret this. We advise only to physically write them down.
- When you use TonSafe we remind you from time to time to jog your memory about where you preserved your 24 secret words.
- Before you log out, we take you through several confirmation steps to make sure that you have your 24 secret words written down in at least one safe place.
These things actually annoy some people. They asked us to make it easier and more convenient. We told them that TonSafe doesn't care if we have more users if these users did not back up their 24 secret words, and installed the wallet because of convenience, as later some of those may lose their funds. We would rather have fewer users who were not deterred by the safety measures.
Those who want to take their chances we encourage and are happy if you will use a different TON wallet.
So, how is it that in spite of all the safety measures we take, some people are losing access to their TonSafe? Simply, they cheated. They did one of any of the following:
- They did not physically write down their 24 secret words
- They did not remember where they preserved the written copy
- They took a screen shot (a security risk, plus easy to lose or delete)
- They ignored our reminders
- They ignored the instructions and cheated
- "I'll do it properly later", they said, but "later" never came
All sorts of problems can arise if you did one of the above:
- Your phone or app develops a glitch, you have to reinstall TonSafe
- Your phone was lost, broken or stolen
- Any other accident or unexpected event
For those who wrote down their 24 secret words and double checked them carefully and copied them down into two or more safe locations, you have nothing to worry about, you can always access your blockchain account even if you lose your phone or log out.
For those that cheated, when something goes wrong, you have only yourself to blame.
Especially given that TonSafe does more than ANY other TON Wallet to ensure that you do not cut corners and do not log out easily and that you get reminders from time to time to refresh your memory, and ensure that you have indeed written down and know where you have kept your 24 secret words in a physically safe location.
If you have problems entering your 24 secret words:
- Check our FAQ
There you will see information what to do if one of the words is incorrect because you wrote it down incorrectly, cannot read your hand writing, etc. In such a case you may be able to fix the missing word(s), see the FAQ for details.