Wallet recovery method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020005282-A1
Application number	US-201916456963-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 28, 2019
Priority date	Jun 28, 2018
Publication date	Jan 2, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for blockchain wallet recovery, including: receiving a wallet recovery request from a user; sending a signed recovery transaction to the wallet, the signed recovery transaction comprising recovery instructions; and providing wallet access to the user, according to the recovery instructions, when a recovery condition is met. In examples, the recovery transaction is signed by a recovery key, different from a set of old wallet owner keys, that is associated with the wallet; the recovery instructions include new owner address(es) associated with a set of new owner keys; and providing wallet access includes activating the new owner addresses for the wallet after the recovery transaction is verified as signed by the recovery key.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method comprising: with a third party system that manages a recovery account of a multi-owner wallet:
receiving, from a requestor user device, a wallet recovery request for the multi-owner wallet, the multi-owner wallet associated with a set of owner accounts and the recovery account; verifying that a user identity identified in the wallet recovery request is an owner of the multi-owner wallet; after verifying the user identity, signing a challenge initiation request using a private key of the recovery account; transmitting the signed challenge initiation request to the multi-owner wallet, wherein the multi-owner wallet initiates a waiting period for wallet key replacement of the multi-owner wallet upon verification of the signed challenge initiation request, wherein the multi-owner wallet provides a user of the requestor device with access to the multi-owner wallet upon expiration of the waiting period, absent receipt of an abort message; monitoring to identify an abort condition during the waiting period; and in response to identifying the abort condition, transmitting to the multi-owner wallet an abort message signed by the private key of the recovery account.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein an abort condition includes at least one of an abort instruction received from an owner user device and an owner transaction, signed by an old owner key paired with an owner account, that is recorded on a blockchain.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein providing the user of the requestor user device with access to the multi-owner wallet comprises: recovering the wallet by activating at least one new public key for the wallet, the new public key managed by the user of the requestor user device, such that the wallet allows transactions from the wallet that are signed with a new private key paired with the activated at least one new public key.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the third party system receives, from the requestor user device, the at least one new public key managed by the user of the requestor user device.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the challenge initiation request includes at least one of: each new public key, and instructions to activate each new public key.

6 . A method comprising:
with a wallet system that manages a multi-owner wallet for managing at least one asset recorded on a blockchain:
receiving at least one signed recovery blockchain transaction that identifies a new public key; and
responsive to the at least one signed recovery blockchain transaction, recovering the wallet by adding the new public key to a set of owner accounts controlling wallet operation.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein receiving at least one signed recovery blockchain transaction comprises: receiving from each of a plurality of wallet owner user devices a recovery blockchain transaction signed by a private key of the wallet owner user device, each signed recovery blockchain transaction identifying the new public key, wherein the wallet system recovers the wallet responsive to a determination that each signed recovery blockchain transaction identifies the same new public key.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein receiving at least one signed recovery blockchain transaction comprises: receiving a recovery blockchain transaction signed by a private key of a recovery account managed by an authorized third party system, the signed recovery blockchain transaction identifying the new public key, wherein the wallet system recovers the wallet responsive to the recovery blockchain transaction signed by the private key of the recovery account.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising: the authorized third party system transmitting the signed recovery blockchain transaction to the wallet system responsive to verifying that a user identity, associated with a wallet recovery request received from a requestor user device, is an owner of the wallet, wherein verifying the user identity comprises at least one of: verifying login credentials included with the wallet recovery request and performing out of band verification, wherein the wallet recovery request identifies the new public key.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
transmitting a notification to an owner user device of at least one owner of the wallet during a waiting period initiated after transmission of the signed recovery blockchain transaction to the wallet system; monitoring to identify an abort condition during the waiting period, wherein an abort condition includes at least one of an owner transaction recorded on a blockchain of the multi-owner wallet and an abort instruction received from an owner user device; and in response to expiration of the waiting period before identification of an abort condition, providing a user of the requestor user device with access to the multi-owner wallet.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising: with the third party system:
in response to the abort instruction received from the owner user device, transmitting to the multi-owner wallet an abort message signed by the private key of the recovery account, wherein the multi-owner wallet does not add the new public key in response to receipt of the abort message.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein providing the user of the requestor user device with access to the multi-owner wallet comprises: recovering the wallet by activating the new public key, managed by the user of the requestor user device, such that the wallet allows transactions from the wallet that are signed with a new private key paired with the activated new public key.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the multi-owner wallet receives, from the requestor user device, the new public key.

14 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the wallet system is one of a blockchain node and a smart contract system.

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the multi-owner wallet manages a deposit for the wallet recovery request, wherein the multi-owner wallet returns the deposit in response to expiration of the waiting period before identification of an abort condition.

16 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the wallet system receives information identifying at least one limited function, wherein the wallet system prohibits processing of each limited function during the waiting period.

17 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the wallet system prohibits processing of withdrawal transactions during the waiting period.

18 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the new public key is part of an asymmetric key pair generated by the requestor user device, the asymmetric key pair further comprising a new private key, wherein the new private key is stored by the requestor user device.

19 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising: with the wallet system, receiving from each of a plurality of owner user devices an abort transaction signed by a private key of the owner user device, and aborting recovery for the wallet in response to validation of the signed abort transactions.

20 . The method of claim 7 ,
wherein a number of signed recovery blockchain transactions required for recovery is different from a number of wallet owner signatures required to allow a transaction from the wallet.

Assignees

• Coinbase Inc

Inventors

• Kim Peter Jihoon

Classifications

• G06Q2220/00

  Business processing using cryptography · CPC title

• H04L9/0825

  using asymmetric-key encryption or public key infrastructure [PKI], e.g. key signature or public key certificates · CPC title

• H04L9/0637

  Modes of operation, e.g. cipher block chaining [CBC], electronic codebook [ECB] or Galois/counter mode [GCM] · CPC title

• H04L9/3239

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title

• G06Q20/3674 Primary

  involving authentication · CPC title