A Recovery Contact is someone who can help a Bitkey wallet owner recover access to their wallet if they lose both their phone and their Bitkey hardware device.
Being a Recovery Contact is simple, secure, and low responsibility:
- You do not gain access to the wallet or its keys
- You can only help with recoveries that the wallet owner initiates and approves
- Your role is to hold a piece of information (a cryptographic tool) that can help the wallet owner decrypt their App Key backup, if needed
- You can’t use that information yourself — it's useless on its own, and you never see the App Key or any wallet data
✅ You’re not responsible for monitoring, managing, or maintaining anything. You’re simply there to help if the wallet owner needs you.
If you already have Bitkey:
After receiving your invitation:
- Tap the link in the invitation from your mobile device
- The Bitkey app will open and guide you through the Recovery Contact enrollment flow
- Tap Continue
- Enter the name of the person you are a Recovery Contact for, then tap Continue
- A cloud backup will be created automatically
👉 To learn more, see What are Recovery Contacts and how do they help keep my Bitkey safe?
If you're new to Bitkey:
After receiving your invitation:
- Tap the link in the invitation from your mobile device and download the Bitkey app
- Open the app and tap More options
- Tap Enter the invite code
- Enter the invite code from your Recovery Contact invitation, then tap Continue
- Tap Be a Recovery Contact, then tap Continue
- A cloud backup will be created automatically
- Enter the name of the person you are a Recovery Contact for, then tap Continue
- You’ll be redirected to the Home screen
No further action is needed if you're only serving as a Recovery Contact.
If you’d like to set up your own Bitkey wallet, tap Set up Bitkey and follow the prompts.