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A guardian is an account on the Ethereum blockchain that you give permission to help you with limited security actions. A guardian never has access to your assets.
A guardian can be:
- A hardware wallet, for example a Trezor or Ledger.
- A MetaMask account
- A person you’ve selected because you trust them (e.g. a friend or family member).
- Argent's two-factor option, this automated solution uses 2-factor authentication via phone and email.
You can pick and choose any combination you like.
The downside to social recovery though is that, as it's on-chain, it requires gas. These gas fees have soared due to Ethereum’s rising popularity. It regularly now costs over $100 to recover a wallet.
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Opt-in to the new approach (before you lose your device)
- Existing wallet owners need to enable the new method before they can make a recovery with it. You need to do this before you lose your device. To set it up, you'll either see a prompt when you open Argent or you can tap:
- The account switcher icon (top left of home screen)
- 'Settings'
- 'Wallet Recovery'
- Enable 'Recovery with iCloud / Google Drive' (depending on your device)
To recover your wallet
- Download Argent on your new device
- Tap 'I have an Argent wallet'
- Enter the email address you use for your Argent wallet
- Choose 'Recover with iCloud / Google Drive'
- Complete two-factor authentication using email and SMS
- Wait for the 48 hour security window to complete (this gives you time to cancel the recovery if you want)
- Done.
You can always fall back to a recovery with guardians (with a gas fee) if needed.
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