What a split backup is, and how to restore from one

SLIP-39 cuts your backup into several shares, and any agreed number of them rebuilds the wallet — so no single sheet of paper is enough to lose it or to steal it.

One phrase on one sheet of paper has two failure modes at once: whoever finds it owns your funds, and if it burns, so do they. A split backup answers both.

The wallet turns your backup into N shares and sets a threshold M. Any M shares rebuild the wallet. Fewer than M reveal nothing at all — not part of the phrase, not a hint of it.

Choosing N and M

  • 3 of 5 suits most people: two shares can be lost without consequence.
  • 2 of 3 is the smallest arrangement that still survives one loss.
  • A threshold of 1 is not a split backup. It is the same secret copied several times.

Keep shares in places that fail for different reasons. Two sheets in the same drawer share a fire.

Where shares can live

On paper, and — for the shares you choose — in Google Drive, MEGA or Backblaze B2. A cloud share is one share, not the backup: an account somebody breaks into gives them one piece, and one piece is nothing without the others.

Restoring

Choose to restore from a split backup, then enter your shares one at a time. The wallet says how many more it needs and refuses to guess. When the threshold is met, every account on every network comes back — the shares rebuild the same phrase, so nothing about your addresses changes.

Still stuck?

The address in our Privacy Policy reaches a person — use it for privacy requests, security reports and anything this page could not answer.

One rule

Support will never ask for your recovery phrase, private key or password, and never messages you first. Anyone who does is not us — whatever address, avatar or logo they use.

Your backupUpdated 2026-08-26

Nothing on this website constitutes investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. All information is provided for informational purposes only. Smartable Wallet is non‑custodial, self‑custody software; you are solely responsible for your own decisions and for securing your private keys. Digital assets are volatile and can lose value. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Please view our Terms of Use for more information.

© 2026 Smartable™. Self-custody means you are responsible for your own keys. Non-custodial. Your keys never leave your device.