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What is a passkey wallet?
A passkey wallet is a crypto wallet controlled by a passkey: a key pair created and stored by your phone, computer or security key and unlocked with your fingerprint, face or PIN. There is no seed phrase; a smart contract wallet checks the passkey's signatures.
What it means for you
The wallet is only as recoverable as the passkey. A synced passkey lives in a credential manager tied to a cloud account, so losing that account can lock you out; a device-bound one is lost with the device unless the wallet has another way in, such as a backup key or guardians. Check what recovery the wallet offers before funding it.
A common mistake: “A passkey wallet stores my crypto on my phone.”
In fact: The funds sit in a smart contract on the blockchain; the phone holds only the key that authorizes it. Lose every copy of that key with no backup set up and the funds stay where they are, out of reach.
How it works
Passkeys follow FIDO and W3C standards and use public-key cryptography: the private key stays on the device, in a hardware security key, or end-to-end encrypted in a credential manager, and signing needs the same unlock as the device. They use the secp256r1 curve, so the wallet's smart contract has to verify each signature on that curve. RIP-7212 added a built-in check, a precompile at address 0x100, on rollups for 3,450 gas, and EIP-7951 brings the same interface to Ethereum itself, for 6,900 gas, fixing two flaws in the earlier version.
Sources: FIDO Alliance: Passkeys, RIP-7212: Precompile for secp256r1 Curve Support, EIP-7951: Precompile for secp256r1 Curve Support · checked 4 October 2026
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