Recovery Share
Pronunciation: ree-KUV-er-ee SHEHR
Definition
A recovery share is one protected fragment or authorization component that contributes to reconstructing a secret or approving wallet recovery. Recovery Share is complete only when authority, configuration, balances, transaction history, and compromised credentials have been validated or replaced. The Recovery Share procedure should protect recovery material, separate approval roles, document every action, and test that the restored system reproduces the intended accounts and controls.
Overview
Meaning and scope
A recovery share is one protected fragment or authorization component that contributes to reconstructing a secret or approving wallet recovery. Recovery Share is complete only when authority, configuration, balances, transaction history, and compromised credentials have been validated or replaced. The Recovery Share procedure should protect recovery material, separate approval roles, document every action, and test that the restored system reproduces the intended accounts and controls.
Mechanism and operation
A share may come from Shamir secret sharing, multi-party computation, threshold signing, a guardian scheme, or a provider-specific backup design. A required threshold of compatible shares can restore authority while fewer shares should remain insufficient. Partial exposure can also reveal metadata even when the secret remains protected. Owners should document the scheme, threshold, share holders, format, dependencies, replacement, and recovery process. Shares should be stored independently with clear but discreet identification. Periodic checks should confirm availability without combining production shares unnecessarily. After actual reconstruction, teams should consider generating a new secret and redistributing fresh shares.
Practical payment example
A private key is split into threshold recovery shares held by independent custodians. The policy defines the reconstruction quorum and transport controls so no one share exposes the key.
Operational checks
Evidence for Recovery Share should preserve incident time, affected identifiers, last known state, claimant and approver checks, backup or share version, actions performed, credentials revoked, assets verified, discrepancies found, and final owner acceptance. For Recovery Share, sensitive recovery material must not appear in the incident record.
Distinctions and limits
Shares are not interchangeable across schemes and may include identifiers, group information, checksums, or encryption. Losing too many blocks recovery, while gathering the threshold in one place recreates the original concentration risk.
Related reading
Related definitions: threshold signing, recovery.
Example
A private key is split into threshold recovery shares held by independent custodians. The policy defines the reconstruction quorum and transport controls so no one share exposes the key.
Comparison
Shares are not interchangeable across schemes and may include identifiers, group information, checksums, or encryption. Losing too many blocks recovery, while gathering the threshold in one place recreates the original concentration risk. For Recovery Share, sensitive recovery material must not appear in the incident record.
Key Takeaway
A recovery share distributes restoration authority, but scheme compatibility, threshold availability, separation, and post-use rotation are essential.
Sources
- Bitcoin.org Documentation: Wallets — Bitcoin.org (2026-07-30)
- NIST Documentation: Key Management — NIST (2026-07-30)