The blockchain cannot be destroyed. Do you know why? Because it has no single center. The data is copied thousands of times over on nodes all around the world. If a data center burns down in the United States or the internet is switched off in Europe, Bitcoin carries on working.

Nature works the same way. Your body survives injuries because billions of cells duplicate the same DNA. Resilience is built on redundancy.

Now look at the way the industry suggests you store your digital millions.

They sell you a piece of plastic for $150 with a screen and buttons. And they say: “Here is your safe. Look after it.” You put all your eggs in one basket. You create a single point of failure.

 

The illusion of reliable hardware

All hardware breaks. And a stick carried around in pockets and bags all the more so. On top of that, when you lose your classic hardware wallet, your eye starts twitching. You run off to find the scrap of paper with the seed phrase, praying it did not go through the wash or get thrown out by your partner during a clear-out.

The industry has trained you to fret over a device. The hardware wallet has become a fetish, when in fact it is a fragile point of no return.

 

How we changed that approach

At Mitilena we believe that tying the security of your assets to one physical piece of hardware is technical suicide. And tying it to a paper backup even more so.

That is why we detached your keys from any specific device entirely. Our principle is antifragility through encrypted redundancy.

What does that mean in practice? Your private key is encrypted with a solid algorithm locally, on your own device, which has never seen the internet. What comes out is an encrypted lump of data. And that lump of data is what you can write onto any NFC tag.

And the main point is that you can copy that tag as many times as you like.

• Make 5 copies of your wallet.
• Stick one sticker under a desktop.
• Put the second in the glovebox of your car.
• Give the third to a friend or to his wife.
• Throw the fourth into the bottom of a fish tank (NFC chips could not care less about water).

 

What happens if a tag is stolen or burns?

Absolutely nothing. One burned, and you still have four more. You do not lose access to your money for a second. You stop depending on hardware. You become as decentralized as the blockchain itself.

Had one stolen? Let them keep it. Without your decryption password, which exists only in your head, that tag is just a piece of useless plastic.

Your password is 6 to 12 characters in absolutely any format. Write it in English, put in Chinese characters, add your favorite emoji or any special symbols you like. The entropy of a key like that goes into orbit. It simply cannot be brute forced.