Inspiration?

We were inspired by one of the biggest silent crises in crypto: users losing billions of dollars in assets every year, not to hacks, but simply to forgotten or misplaced seed phrases. We’ve met people who lost their wallets, seen the fear in newcomers when they’re told to write 24 words on paper, and realized that this barrier keeps crypto from ever becoming truly mainstream. K33P was born to make self-custody simple, secure, and human-friendly, without compromising privacy or decentralization.

What it does?

K33P is a digital vault for seed phrases. Instead of writing your recovery phrase on paper, you back it up in K33P. We combine advanced encryption, biometrics, decentralized identity, and zero-knowledge proofs so that only you can ever access your keys, even if your device is lost or stolen. Recovery is seamless: log in with your biometrics on a new device and your vault is restored. It’s the last seed phrase backup you’ll ever need.

How we built it?

1. We built K33P by layering client-side encryption, decentralized storage, and zero-trust architecture around a mobile-first experience.

2. Front-end & UX: Designed to feel as simple as unlocking your phone.

3. Back-end & smart contracts: Secured seed phrase sharding, storage, and recovery logic.

4. Privacy tech: ZK proofs and decentralized ID to verify ownership without exposing sensitive data.

5. Design research: We ran user tests with both crypto novices and advanced DeFi users to ensure accessibility across skill levels.

Challenges we ran into?

1. Balancing security vs. usability: Most secure systems are hard to use, but we needed both.

2. Designing a recovery flow that’s safe even if biometrics are compromised.

3. Interoperability across multiple blockchains and wallets.

4. Educating users who are still skeptical of digital backups after years of “write it on paper” advice.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of?

1. Hackathon wins: We’ve already won two hackathons with our early K33P builds.

2. Built a working prototype that demonstrates vault creation, backup, and recovery in minutes.

3. Established partnerships and community support within the Cardano ecosystem.

What we learned?

1. User trust is as important as cryptography. People need both assurance and simplicity to adopt.

2. Zero-knowledge proofs can unlock real adoption, not just theory — when paired with great design.

3. The crypto community craves interoperable solutions; people don’t want to be locked into one chain or wallet.

4. Building in public, sharing openly, and mentoring others strengthens not just the product but the ecosystem around it.

What’s next for K33P?

1. Deeper integration with Midnight’s privacy tech, making K33P the most secure and private recovery solution available.

2. Inheritance features so users can pass on their digital wealth safely.

3. Cross-chain support for multi-wallet and multi-blockchain recovery.

4. Preparing for security audits and laying the foundation for broader beta testing.

Ultimately, we aim to make K33P a standard for secure self-custody, ensuring that no one loses access to their digital assets again. Inspiration

Built With

• aes/sha256
• aiken
• blockfrost
• cardano
• express.js
• figma
• firebase
• iagon
• lucid
• render
• sdk
• smartcontract
• zkproof