How passkeys work

Vela’s whole security model rests on one idea: the key that controls your wallet is a passkey, created by your device and held by your OS — no app, including Vela, can read it — and used only with your face or fingerprint.

What a passkey actually is

A passkey is a public/private key pair created by your device. The private key is held by your OS passkey provider — iCloud Keychain on Apple, Google Password Manager on Android — stored end-to-end encrypted, so no app can read or copy it. Apps don’t get the key; they get to ask your device to sign something after you authenticate.

This is the same technology that protects Apple Pay and your biometric unlock.

Why there’s nothing to phish

Phishing works by getting you to hand over a secret. With a seed phrase, that secret is twelve words you can type into a fake page. With a passkey, there is no secret you can type. A scam site cannot ask you to “enter your passkey,” because a passkey isn’t enterable — it’s a hardware operation gated by your biometrics.

That removes the single most common way people lose self-custodied funds.

How signing a transaction feels

1. You confirm a transaction in Vela.
2. Your device prompts for Face ID / Touch ID.
3. Your device signs the transaction with your passkey.
4. Vela broadcasts the signed transaction to the network.

Same gesture as unlocking your phone — because it’s the same passkey mechanism your device already uses everywhere else.

Where the rest lives

Your passkey’s public key is published to a small on-chain index so your wallet can be recovered on a new device. That’s the subject of the next page: recovery & sign-in.