How to Keep Your Private Keys Secure (with a Password Manager)

The app hosted at earthbucks.com, also called simply “EarthBucks,” is the first EarthBucks mine. I am going to be launching new mines soon with new names. You should not re-use your existing private key from earthbucks.com on the new mines. Instead, use the function on each app to generate new keys.

Private keys are so named to imply that they are private and not to be shared. The way private keys are intended to be used on the EarthBucks network is that new keys are generated for each app. Each private key should be shared only with the app where it is generated and your password manager. Adhering to this practice is the most secure way to use private keys.

The new mines I am launching will be Compucha (compucha.com), and NinjaButton (ninjabutton.com). Thus, the first three mines on the network will be:

• Mine 1: EarthBucks (Virginia, USA) at earthbucks.com
• Mine 2: Compucha (London, UK) at compucha.com
• Mine 3: NinjaButton (Tokyo, Japan) at ninjabutton.com

While I plan to operate every mine myself at launch, and will be using the same software on each mine which holds keys client-side and never sends the key to the server, and it would be technically possible to re-use private keys from one app to another without being compromised or anyone even knowing, I strongly recommend against it. It is poor practice to re-use private keys and it sets a bad precedent. It is better to generate new keys for each app, which is very easy to do.

A list of popular password managers is as follows.

• 1Password
• Bitwarden
• Dashlane
• KeePass
• LastPass
• StrongBox
• Apple built-in password manager
• Chrome built-in password manager
• Firefox built-in password manager
• Edge built-in password manager

Please use a password manager to secure your private keys and do not re-use keys across apps. Never show your private key to anyone but the app where it is used and your password manager.