An attempt to fix self-custody. Will Bron succeed?

The advice is sound, but this year has shown how hard it is to follow well. I went looking for the best options out there and found Bron, which looks to me like a non-custodial wallet done right. Below, I will explain why.

When the safe wallet is not safe

In October, Ledger confirmed that criminals had fitted hidden implants to some of its devices and resold them through CryptoBilis, one of its authorised resellers in Southeast Asia. On-chain analysts put the losses at more than $90 million.

The weakness sat outside the device: in 24 words that work for anyone who sees them, and in the knowledge of who owns them and where they live. A seed phrase is a single point of failure. Whoever reads it owns your assets, and so does whoever can force you to recite it.

How institutions actually hold crypto

Institutions start from a different assumption: that any single person, device or location will eventually fail. With multi-party computation (MPC), the signing key exists only as separate shards held by different parties, and no single shard can move funds.

On top of the cryptography sits governance. Transfers above a limit need a second approver. New destinations wait before they are trusted. Changes to the rules are slow and visible. Recovery is a documented procedure, not a piece of paper in a drawer.

From Copper to Bron

Dmitry Tokarev founded Copper, which launched in London in 2018 with MPC custody built for institutions and today serves banks, asset managers, trading firms and exchanges. In 2024, he stepped down as CEO and founded Bron, which today brings the same architecture to private individuals, families and family offices.

In Bron, the signing key is split into three shards. One lives on the customer’s device, protected by its secure hardware and biometrics. One is held by Bron. The third is held by Qrypt, an independent recovery provider contracted on behalf of the customer. Any two shards can sign a transaction or restore the third one, but no single shard can move anything. There is no seed phrase to write down or be forced to recite, and nothing for an implant to read off a screen. If Bron ever disappeared, the customer would automatically rebuild the private key using their own shard and Qrypt’s, without any dependency on Bron.

Recovery without an ID

Lose your device and you lose nothing. If you still have another trusted device, you approve the new one from it. If you have lost every device, you recover with FaceScan or with codes from two Guardians, people you trust, after a 48-hour security delay.

True to the crypto ethos, none of these routes asks for a government-issued ID, because one is not needed to prove that you are you: your face, or the codes from two Guardians you appointed yourself, is the best proof out there. Guardians never see your balances or transactions, and Bron does not store a photo of your face: FaceScan, powered by iProov, keeps only an encrypted template that cannot be turned back into a picture once it is created. Ledger Recover, by contrast, requires a passport or national identity card to subscribe, verifies your identity online before it restores anything, and charges a subscription fee, while Bron is free.

Inheritance without handing over keys

A seed phrase reaches heirs only if someone hands it over, which means trusting them with everything today or hoping they find it tomorrow. With Bron’s digital inheritance, customers invite beneficiaries in advance. They set up their own access but see no balances or transactions. Only a beneficiary can start the inheritance process, which then runs for 12 months, or six if two of the Guardians provide their codes. Everyone is notified by email, and the owner, any Guardian or any beneficiary can cancel at any time, so that no malicious beneficiary can take advantage of the owner. When the delay ends, the beneficiaries who joined become owners of the workspace.

Note that the inheritance process does not replace your will. It does, however, give your will something it can point to, which is the most important part.

Security is also physical

Hacks make the headlines, but a growing threat to wealthy holders is a stranger at the door. Interestingly, Bron’s engineers have thought about this too.

Hidden accounts stay invisible until you type their six-digit PIN, so a forced unlock shows only what you choose to show. Resetting a PIN takes 24 hours, so even if you are forced to do it, the wallet keeps you protected.

All of the above, however, does not protect you from kidnapping. Bron has a policy engine to deal with exactly that. Any transfer above a set amount can be made to wait, or to need a second approval from a family member or an adviser who can approve but cannot move funds. The first transfer to a new address can be held until someone approves it. Changes to users, limits or the address book wait at least 48 hours or need approval. Best of all, these controls work across every chain: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Hyperliquid, Ripple, Zcash, Gram and many others, including all the L2s.

Holding your own assets was meant to remove the need to trust an exchange. Done properly, it removes the need to trust any single thing.

If done right, self-custody should outlive the device, the thief and, in time, its owner.

This is a sponsored article. Opinions expressed are solely those of the sponsor, and readers should conduct their own due diligence before taking any action based on information presented in this article.