Tangany & LUKSO – Secure account recovery for Universal Profiles

LUKSO secure account recovery empowered by Tangany custody

LUKSO, a layer 1 blockchain network, is utilising Tangany’s custodian infrastructure to provide an enhanced account recovery feature for their smart contract based accounts called Universal Profiles. This new feature offers a convenient and secure way for users to regain access to their profiles in the event that they lose access. 

How account recovery works

Universal Profiles have a built in permissions system which is used in tandem with Tangany’s custodian solution to create a secure account recovery method. A set of ten Recovery Universal Profiles were deployed which are each controlled by a separate Gnosis Safe smart contract. The Recovery Universal Profiles therefore require multiple signatures to be generated by designated guardian signer keys to execute any transactions. The guardian signer keys are stored by Tangany on Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) in Germany and additional keys are stored across multiple cloud environments to make sure that Tangany alone cannot initiate recoveries.

When creating a Universal Profile, users have the option to opt-in to enable account recovery. This involves setting up recovery authentication using email and two-factor authentication (2FA). The user is then asked to send a transaction from their new Universal Profile to set the Recovery Universal Profile as a controller of their account. The Recovery Universal Profile has permission only to add a new controller to the user’s Universal Profile, but cannot perform any other actions such as transferring funds or signing transactions.

If a user loses access to their Universal Profile, they can initiate the recovery process by authenticating with their email and 2FA method. The LUKSO backend will then send a request to the Tangany API to generate the Gnosis Safe signatures sufficient for the Recovery Universal Profile to add a new controller to the user’s account. When this transaction is executed, the user has regained access to their Universal Profile via their newly added controller key.

Benefits of using account recovery

The Account Recovery feature offers several benefits to Universal Profile users:

• Increased peace of mind: Users can rest assured that they have a secure backup plan in case they lose access to their profile.

• Minimised risk of loss: The account recovery feature eliminates the risk of losing access to valuable digital assets due to a lost access to their profile.

• Convenience: Users do not need to save or manage their recovery seed phrase, as Tangany securely stores them on HSMs. Tangany cannot access or look at the stored private keys or trigger a recovery transaction. 

• Enhanced security: Tangany is a regulated financial institution with an audited secure infrastructure, ensuring that recovery keys are protected to the highest standards.

With Tangany's expertise in secure custody, LUKSO users can be confident that their keys are protected to the highest standards.

At no point does Tangany store any digital assets nor has access to information about assets stored with LUKSO.