Gridlock Guardians: what are they and how do they work?

Gridlock launches on September 30th and aims to revolutionise the way people store their cryptocurrency. But how does it’s cornerstone technology, ‘Guardians’, work; and how does it keep you safe?

What are Gridlock Guardians?

When you create a Gridlock account, you are asked to add Guardians to secure your wallet. Each account should have five Guardian nodes and these are the user, who holds one; Gridlock, who holds two; and two friends of the user, who hold one each. Furthermore, Guardians who the user have added do not need to use Gridlock themselves – they just need to have it installed on their device. Alongside providing unrivalled security to a wallet, the Guardians can be used for account recovery if the user forgets their personal information.

With all five nodes up and running, the wallet is ready to be created and made completely secure.

How do they work?

Gridlock uses advanced cryptography to ensure a wallet is completely secure:

Distributed Key Generation – Gridlock’s method to split keys works by using all five of the Guardian nodes in cooperation. With existing key splitting methods, the key is held on one device before splitting. However, Gridlock uses a multi-computation protocol to ensure no single device ever holds the private key in its entirety.

Threshold Signature Scheme – Sets a threshold for when the private key can be generated. So, for the wallet to be accessed or the account to be recovered, three pieces are needed. These are generally held by the user and Gridlock.

Find out more about the technology behind Gridlock Guardians here.

How is Gridlock better than existing storage methods?

Existing storage methods all have a single point of failure which can lead to loss of assets. If you keep your crypto on an exchange, you don’t have ultimate control and this could lead to loss if the exchange ever shut down or is hacked. While exchanges are convenient, control of your crypto should always be in your hands.

Personal wallets are the better option, but this puts all the liability on you which is stressful. Hardware wallets are another popular option, but if it breaks or is stolen, you lose everything. So how can you mitigate these risks?

Gridlock. Keep your crypto safe with an easy and secure

Gridlock wallet today!