Never lose access to your Bitcoin again: Cloud Recovery

Imagine dropping your phone in the canal, or setting up a new one and realising you have no idea how to get back into your Blockrise account. Two different things give access to two different layers, and the article is about one of them, not the other:

• A Bitcoin seed phrase gives access to Bitcoin held in pure self-custody, outside any platform.
• A Blockrise Seed gives access to your Blockrise account.

These are not the same. Cloud Recovery is about your Blockrise Seed, not your Bitcoin seed phrase.

Blockrise is a Bitcoin custody platform, regulated under MiCAR. The Blockrise Seed is what gets you back into your Blockrise account if you lose your phone, lose your written backup, or switch devices. For most users, keeping that backup safe is the weakest link in an otherwise solid setup. Cloud Recovery is how Blockrise removes that risk.

We sat down with Darryn Ah Yui, Senior Software Engineer at Blockrise, to break down exactly what Cloud Recovery is, how it works under the hood, and what it means for you in practice.

What is Cloud Recovery?

Cloud Recovery replaces the manual Blockrise Seed backup with an automatic, encrypted one. When you set up your Blockrise account, you can choose to back up your Blockrise Seed in the cloud. iCloud for iOS users, Google Drive for Android users. It takes seconds, and you never have to write down a single word.

What gets stored in your cloud is not your readable Blockrise Seed. It is an encrypted version: random, unreadable data that means nothing without a separate key. That key is held by Blockrise, also encrypted. Neither Blockrise, nor Apple, nor Google can read your Blockrise Seed on their own. Only you can unlock it, by combining your cloud account and your Blockrise login. The two pieces are always stored separately, and neither half works without the other.

How it works at Blockrise, step by step

During onboarding, you choose between Cloud Recovery and the manual Blockrise Seed backup. If you choose Cloud Recovery:

1. Your Blockrise account is set up and your Blockrise Seed is generated on your device.
2. A random 256-bit encryption key is also generated on your device. It is never derived from your password. Your Blockrise Seed is then encrypted with that key using AES256-GCM, and uploaded to your personal cloud storage. On Android, this lives in a scopelocked app folder inside Google Drive that is invisible in the normal Drive UI. On iOS, it sits in your private iCloud record store (CloudKit Private Database), end-to-end encrypted by Apple. Either way, only you can reach it.
3. Blockrise stores the matching encryption key on its own servers, in encrypted form. No Blockrise employee can read it.
4. If you ever need to recover access, on a new phone or after reinstalling the app, you log in to Blockrise, connect your cloud account, and your Blockrise account is restored. The process takes 5 to 10 seconds.

When you opt into Cloud Recovery, you're also automatically enrolled in the Blockrise Back-up Service, a second recovery layer in case you ever lose access to your device’s cloud account. Enrollment is free. If you ever need to invoke the Blockrise Back-up Service, a one-off recovery fee of €999 applies. The service does not run silently in the background. You opt in once, and if recovery is ever needed, Blockrise can initiate the process through multi-sig within our HSM (Hardware Security Module) infrastructure.

Why it's secure

If your iCloud or Google Drive were ever compromised, an attacker would find nothing useful, just encrypted noise. They'd still need Your key to do anything with it. And if Blockrise's infrastructure were ever compromised, an attacker would find only that encrypted key, useless without the cloud backup sitting in your personal account. There is no single point of failure. Both halves are needed, and only you hold both.

Blockrise is MiCAR licensed, audited, and operates under a strict data policy. For technical detail on where data is hosted, see the Cloud Recovery FAQ.

Your Blockrise Seed is never duplicated across Blockrise systems. Recovery is handled through Blockrise's HSM infrastructure, which means the secrets stay in tamper-resistant hardware rather than being copied between servers.

Cloud Recovery vs. manual Blockrise Seed backup: an honest comparison

Cloud Recovery is faster, simpler, and removes the risk of human error. No laminated card in a drawer. No wondering whether the backup you made three years ago is still safe.

The trade-off is control. With a traditional seed phrase, you're the only party involved. With Cloud Recovery, Blockrise's infrastructure is part of the recovery process, which means you're placing a degree of trust in us. For most users, especially those new to Bitcoin, that trade-off makes sense: the security model is sound, the process is seamless, and the risk of losing access through a mismanaged seed phrase is far greater than the risk of a properly encrypted cloud backup being compromised. Since launch, 80% of new Blockrise clients have chosen Cloud Recovery.

If you prefer to back up your Blockrise Seed manually, that option is still available on Blockrise. Both routes give access to your Blockrise account, and neither is wrong.

Cloud Recovery works automatically when you switch to a new phone, whether it is the same platform (iPhone to iPhone, Android to Android) or cross-platform.

Ready to get started?

Your Bitcoin is only as secure as your recovery plan. Cloud Recovery makes that plan automatic, encrypted, and built to the same standards as the financial institutions Bitcoin was designed to replace, without taking control of your Blockrise account away from you.

Downlload the app to set up your Blockrise wallet → https://www.blockrise.com/app.

Have questions before you start? Contact us we'll walk you through it.