Recover access to your account

When you would do this

When someone cannot sign in: a lost or replaced phone, a lost laptop, a signer who has left without handing over, or a broken authenticator.

Why we cannot simply reset it

Stablerail cannot move your funds, and that is the same fact as not being able to hand someone access to them. There is no master key we hold. If we could restore signing capability on request, then anyone who could impersonate you convincingly could ask us to.

This means recovery is a procedure with checks, not a self-service reset. There is deliberately no "forgot password" email that restores access to money.

Steps

1. If you think the device was stolen rather than lost, treat it as a compromise first. See "Respond to a suspected compromise".
2. Contact support. Recovery runs through a support procedure. Start it as early as possible, because it involves verification and that takes time.
3. Check your quorum still works in the meantime. If the person who lost access was one of two required signers, your payments are blocked until this is resolved. An Admin can adjust the threshold or add another signer as an interim measure, which is itself a governed change that must be signed by whoever remains.
4. Do not create workaround accounts. Inviting someone under a personal email to get moving again creates a much bigger problem than the one you are solving.

If a signer has left the company

1. Remove them from Settings › Team promptly.
2. Check your signing threshold still makes sense with one fewer signer, and adjust it if not.
3. Review the audit log for their recent activity.
4. If they held cards, freeze or close them. See "Freeze or close a card".

What to expect

Recovery takes as long as verification takes. Plan for it to be days rather than minutes, and keep enough signers that losing one does not stop the company.

Your funds are not at risk while this is happening. They are where they were. What is affected is your ability to move them.

How to make this easier before it happens

• Keep more signers than your threshold requires. A 2 of 3 quorum survives losing one person. A 2 of 2 does not.
• Make sure every signer has stored their recovery key offline.
• Do not concentrate Admin and every signing capability in one person.
• Register passkeys on more than one device where practical.

Common problems and what they mean

"Ask an Admin to reset your security." An Admin can help with some access issues, but not with recovering signing capability. That is the support procedure.

You are the only Admin and you have lost access. Contact support immediately. This is the scenario the advice above exists to prevent.

You can sign in but cannot sign payments. Your passkey or authenticator is registered but your signing capability is not available on this device. Contact support.