Introducing Candide’s Social Recovery Module: Enabling Composable Recovery for Safe Smart Account.

Why Social Recovery Matters

Recovering access to accounts is essential and has been one of the biggest pain points of self-custody. Lack of good social recovery results in the dominance of centralized actors in the crypto value chain. This has previously led to risks for the whole industry and pain for individual users trusting exchanges and custodians.

Social Recovery offers a more secure and user-friendly way for users to do self-custody. By allowing designated "guardians" to assist in the recovery process, users can regain access to their accounts without compromising security. This is why, even Vitalik Buterin keeps 90% of his crypto funds in a muti-sig Safe Wallet and has previously advocated for using social recovery.

Recovery For Any App: The Social Recovery Module

Candide Labs developed a robust Social Recovery Module, addressing the key design considerations for a complex topic like recovery. This module is also to be implemented in WorldCoin’s Safe Smart Account. Recognizing its potential, the Safe{Core} team conducted a thorough evaluation and formal verification before integrating it into our ecosystem. Initially forked from Candide, the code is maintained by Safe and can be reviewed here.

Additionally, an independent audit was conducted by Ackee to ensure its reliability and security. You can read the audit report here.

Key Features of the Social Recovery Module

The Social Recovery Module offers several features that enhance the security and usability of Safe Smart Accounts:

• Full Compatibility:

  The module is fully compatible with Safe Smart Accounts, ensuring seamless integration and operation.

• ERC-4337 Compatibility:

  This standard allows for advanced functionalities and flexibility within the Ethereum ecosystem.

• Gas Payment via Paymasters:

  Users can leverage Paymasters to cover gas fees, eliminating the need for them to pay out-of-pocket.

• Comprehensive Documentation:

  The README from Candide Labs provides a detailed overview of the module's features and can be accessed here.

Use Cases and Benefits

An In-depth Feature List can be found here.

User Perspective:

• Setup During Account Creation:

  Users can configure the recovery module during Safe account creation, securing their account from day one.

• Multiple Guardians:

  Users can assign several guardians to assist with account recovery if the user cannot access their account.

• Custom and Default Recovery Periods:

  Contracts have fixed, non-customizable delay periods. However, wallets can use different recovery modules, each with its preset recovery period. Users can deploy their own modules or choose from Safe's options, including the current default with a 14-day recovery period.

• Self-Custodial EOAs:

  Users can use self-custodial EOAs as guardian, maintaining full control over their assets.

Developer Perspective:

• Simplified Code:

  Developers can spin up a m/n Safe as the guardian, minimizing the number of guardians in their code for cleaner implementation.

• Recovery Notifications:

  Developers can use special Ethereum logs to notify users of updates on the recovery state, facilitating custom notification systems.

Guardian Perspective:

• Gasless Recovery Initiation:

  Guardians can start the recovery process without needing to pay for gas, streamlining the recovery process.

• Define New Owners:

  Guardians can define new owner addresses or multiple new owners, directly securing the account with multi-sig.

How to Get Started: Integrate Social Recovery into any app

Integrating the Social Recovery Module into your app is straightforward:

read Candide’s Docs and GitHub to start integrating Social Recovery into the app you are building.

Join the Future of Safe and the future of self-custody

The Safe{Core} Gas Station program and the launch of the Social Recovery Module represent Safe's commitment to fostering innovation and security in the Web3 ecosystem. By providing tools and resources that enhance the security and usability of smart accounts, we aim to ensure that self-custody is easy for end users, contributing to a more decentralized economy.

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