The BTC.com wallet is non-custodial, meaning that we don’t have access to your funds. Your crypto is yours and you are your own bank but what does it really mean?
Being your own bank
Owning your private keys means that even if our servers ever went down or the world flipped over, you could still fully recover your funds. But at the same time, if you forget the login credentials of your wallet, we can’t send you a new password or in any ways refund your account. This is both the beauty and the challenge of owning bitcoin and other decentralized digital currencies.
However, with the information on the backup document (PDF), you can regain access to your wallet anytime. You can use this backup document to recover the funds stored in the wallet. In fact, when you create a new wallet with BTC.com, you actually generate your own private keys. During the sign up, your device generates a PDF backup document which contains a mnemonic, representing an encrypted version of your private keys which looks like a lot of random English words.
This is what your backup PDF looks like :
BTC.com does not store your backup PDF, therefore you’re the one in charge of this document. We strongly recommend that you print the document and lock it up safely or encrypt the file, if you want to keep it on your computer. It’s not recommended to store it on your phone or store it in your email inbox on the long term as your phone can be stolen or your email hacked.
Hum… where is my backup? ??
First, think of which device you used to create your wallet. If you signed up on the website, it’s likely that you have downloaded your backup PDF onto your computer and perhaps even printed it out. Look through your download folders.
If you have signed up via the mobile BTC.com wallet app, check your email inbox, maybe you have emailed yourself the backup PDF.
- If you signed up using an iOS device, you can also check Dropbox, iCloud, iBooks as possible backup locations.
- On Android, check the app folder for the BTC.com wallet app on your filesystem
After this recap, you now understand how important it is to backup your PDF. With the btc.com wallet, you 100% own your private keys. Let’s go find your PDF, print it, lock it or encrypt the file. Make sure you always keep your wallet backed up.