Concordium Wallet for Mobile FAQ

Why was the Concordium Wallet for Mobile made?

The Concordium Wallet for Mobile includes the introduction of a secret recovery phrase, which simplifies any restoration of an account should you lose access to the phone/app. Also, this version supports easy portability of accounts between this and the Concordium Wallet for Web.

What are the features and benefits of the Concordium Wallet for Mobile?

Much of the functionality is the same as Concordium Legacy Wallet in that you can still send and receive funds, be a validator, delegate, and so on. But the Concordium Wallet for Mobile uses a secret recovery phrase that allows you to recover your wallet should you need to replace your phone. That same secret recovery phrase will also allow you to recover the wallet on, for example, the Concordium Wallet for Web.

In Concordium Wallet for Mobile initial accounts are no longer created by the identity provider when your identity is verified, ensuring complete privacy of all your accounts. Going forward you create all accounts yourself in your Concordium Wallet.

What is a secret recovery phrase?

A secret recovery phrase is a “master key” that unlocks all of your Concordium accounts. When entered into the wallet in the correct order, the 24 words in the recovery phrase will recover all of the private keys you were storing on your original wallet and give access to all CCDs in the wallet. This means that even if you lose your physical hardware device, you’ll still have access to your blockchain assets. Secret recovery phrases are sometimes referred to as seed phrases, mnemonic phrases, mnemonic seeds, and backup phrases.

How is a secret recovery phrase different from private keys?

Private keys allow you to send, spend, and delegate your CCDs.

Your secret recovery phrase gives you access to your wallet and all of the private keys in the wallet. You can think of a wallet as being like a password manager for your accounts. As long as you have your master password (the secret recovery phrase), you have access to all CCDs in the wallet.

What happens if I lose my secret recovery phrase?

If you accidentally throw away the paper your secret recovery phrase is written on, forget where you hid it, or do not pass it on to an heir, you no longer have the ability to recover your wallet and can lose access to your CCDs. If someone steals your secret recovery phrase, they can access your CCDs. If you lose your secret recovery phrase you lose access to your CCDs.

As long as you have your secret recovery phrase, you have your CCDs. If you break a phone containing your wallet, you haven’t lost your CCDs. You can simply enter your secret recovery phrase into a newly downloaded Concordium Wallet for Mobile or Concordium Wallet for Web.

How can I keep my secret recovery phrase secure?

• Don’t take a picture of it; if you save photos to any cloud provider this could potentially expose your secret recovery phrase so anyone could access your accounts and funds.

• Don’t keep it with your device. If you lose your device, anyone who finds it could access your accounts and funds.

• Put it in a safe location. Keep your secret recovery phrase in a safe location that is fireproof and waterproof, and that you will remember and can access relatively easily. There are companies that make devices, such as https://shop.ledger.com/products/the-billfodl that can safely store your secret recovery phrase.

• Keep multiple physical copies of your secret recovery phrase in safe locations.

Do I still need to make backups of my wallet?

No. For the Concordium Wallet for Mobile and Concordium Wallet for Web you do not need to make backups. Your secret recovery phrase that you write down is the only way to recover your accounts and identities.

Can I migrate from the Concordium Legacy Wallet to the new Concordium Wallet for Mobile?

No. Because the way that keys are protected differs between the old and new wallets you cannot simply migrate. If you use the Concordium Legacy Wallet but want to use the new one, you should do the following:

1. Download the Concordium Wallet for Mobile and set it up so you have a secret recovery phrase, a verified identity, and at least one account.

2. Open the Concordium Legacy Wallet and send your funds from it to your new account(s) in the Concordium Wallet for Mobile.

3. Once you are sure that all of your funds have been transferred and you have no incoming transfers, you can delete the Concordium Legacy Wallet on your phone. You can also keep the Concordium Legacy Wallet and use both wallets since they are separate apps.

Can I continue to use the Concordium Legacy Wallet? Can I use both the Concordium Legacy Wallet and Concordium Wallet for Mobile on the same device?

Yes. Because the Concordium Wallet for Mobile is a separate app, you can continue to use it simultaneously with your Concordium Legacy Wallet. You can also choose to continue using only the Concordium Legacy Wallet. Just make sure that you continue to make backups if you continue using the Concordium Legacy Wallet.

Identity and account creation is disabled in Concordium Legacy Wallet, so it is a good idea to download and set up Concordium Wallet for Mobile.

As a validator, what do I need to do to migrate from Concordium Legacy Wallet to Concordium Wallet for Mobile?

For validators who want to migrate you should:

1. Stop validation and wait for the cool-down period to finish.

2. Set up the Concordium Wallet for Mobile.

3. Once cool-down has passed and your funds are unlocked, transfer your funds to the new account in Concordium Wallet for Mobile.

4. Register as a validator again in Concordium Wallet for Mobile.

5. Restart the node with the new validator keys.

If you have a staking pool with delegators it is a good idea to inform them of this change. The best way to do that is by providing information in the URL for validator information.

If I am awaiting scheduled transfers in an account in Concordium Legacy Wallet how should I migrate to Concordium Wallet for Mobile?

If you are awaiting scheduled transfers you can create and set up your Concordium Wallet for Mobile wallet, but you should leave some funds in your Concordium Legacy Wallet wallet to cover transaction fees related to the scheduled transfers. Once you have received all scheduled transfers you can finish transferring your funds to an account in Concordium Wallet for Mobile.

Can I access my wallet on multiple devices with the secret recovery phrase?

Yes, you can access your wallet concurrently using the same secret recovery phrase with the Concordium Wallet for Mobile and Concordium Wallet for Web. You can recover your wallet in a device that uses either of these. Be aware that any names you have given to identities and accounts are specific to the device, so if you have used special names for them, they will not appear when you recover the wallet on another device. You can edit the account name and edit the identity name, if desired. Also, only addresses for your own account are added to the address book. Other addresses cannot be recovered. So you must add those manually. There is no address book in the Concordium Wallet for Web.

It is also important to note that if, for example, you add an account on one wallet that is recovered on two devices in parallel (from the same recovery phrase), nothing is dynamically updated across wallets from the same recovery phrase except balances. To get updates such as a new account or new identity, it is necessary to recover from your recovery phrase again; however you do not need to enter the recovery phrase again as the wallet will remember it.

Can I use my secret recovery phrase to restore my accounts in third-party wallets?

At the moment Concordium identities and accounts are only supported in Concordium Wallets. However, Concordium expects to provide support for CCD and CIS-2 tokens in third party wallet in the not too distant future.

I have a secret recovery phrase from another wallet. Can I use that in my Concordium Wallet?

Reusing a secret recovery phrase in multiple wallets is not recommended, as it increases the risk of having all your wallets compromised. Concordium recommends that you generate a new recovery phrase when setting up a new wallet on Concordium. For advanced users who understand the risks involved it is possible to reuse a 24 word recovery phase from another wallet with Concordium through the wallet recovery process. The wallet will not recover anything if you reuse your secret recovery phrase from another wallet, but it will set your wallet up with the secret recovery phrase, and from there you can request a new identity and accounts.

I have a Concordium Desktop Wallet set up with a LEDGER device and a 24 word secret recovery phrase. Can I use that recovery phrase in my Concordium Wallet for Mobile?

Identities and accounts from the Concordium Desktop Wallet cannot be recovered in the Concordium Wallet for Mobile, Concordium Legacy Wallet, or Concordium Wallet for Web. It is also not recommended to use secret recovery phrases from cold wallets in “hot wallets” like the new Concordium Wallets, as that defeats the purpose of having the secret recovery phrase in a cold wallet, like the LEDGER devices.