Hand-assembled in Orlando · Worldwide shipping

A kit, not just software.

The cryptography is free and runs in your browser. The kit is what makes the scheme real — archival materials, tamper-evident seals, holder instructions, and a written manual your heirs can use without us. Three tiers, one promise: we ship materials, not custody.

i
Personal
For individuals protecting one important backup
$39
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Legacy
For inheritance ceremonies and high-stakes recovery
$899
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Dispatch
Within two weeks
Hand-assembled · tracking on dispatch
ii
Shipping
Worldwide
US standard included · intl. add-on
iii
Refunds
Before dispatch
Full refund before your kit ships
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Custody
Always yours
We ship materials, not secrets
iWhat every kit contains

The essentials, in every tier.

Every Shards kit — Personal, Guardian, or Legacy — contains the core materials needed to set up a real threshold scheme. Higher tiers add tamper-evident packaging, ceremonial components, and personalised written work.

Archival shard cards

Cotton-rag stock chosen for fifty-year archival stability. Each card carries a single shard, printed using the browser-side tool. Designed to outlast filing cabinets, fires, and floods if stored correctly.

Five cards · Personal · Guardian · Legacy
Offline recovery manual

A printed booklet that walks your heirs through reconstruction without internet, without our website, and without prior crypto knowledge. Includes step-by-step instructions for reconstruction by hand if every digital tool fails.

Always included · Personal · Guardian · Legacy
Holder instruction sheets

A separate, written letter for every person who will hold a shard. Explains what the shard is, what to do with it, and how reconstruction works — without revealing what the underlying secret actually is.

One per holder · Personal · Guardian · Legacy
Buyer's reference card

Your own record of who holds what, kept by you. Not for distribution. Designed to live in a safe alongside the will or trust documents, so the people responsible for your estate know your scheme exists and where to begin.

One per kit · Personal · Guardian · Legacy
iiThree tiers

Choose how serious the scheme should feel.

All three tiers protect with the same cryptography. They differ in the materials surrounding the cryptography, the ceremony, and the human help we provide. Pick the one that matches what you are actually setting up.

Personal
For individuals protecting one important backup, on their own.
$39
One-time · ships from Orlando
  • Five archival shard cards
  • Offline recovery manual
  • Holder instruction sheets
  • Buyer's reference card
  • Browser-side splitting — we see nothing
  • Open-source verifiable core
Start with Personal
Legacy
For inheritance ceremonies and high-stakes recovery plans.
$899
One-time · prepared individually
  • Three kits in a linen presentation case
  • Custom threshold recommendation
  • Personalised recovery ceremony plan
  • Holder welcome letters · written for each holder
  • Sixty-minute live setup call
  • Thirty days of priority support
Commission a Legacy kit
ii A closer look · Guardian $179 · one-time

What makes Guardian different.

Guardian is the kit most buyers choose because it is the smallest tier where the scheme feels like a real ceremony rather than a printout. The tamper-evident envelopes mean each holder can verify that no one has examined their shard before reconstruction. The wax seal is not theatre — it is a low-cost, high-trust signal that the contents have not been disturbed.

Seven days of priority email support means a real person answers your questions during setup, in the window when you actually have them. After that week, the kit is designed to work without us.

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Five tamper-evident holographic envelopesOne per shard. Sealed perimeter, signature paper, evidence of opening.
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Wax seal kit with sigil stampWax stick, brass stamp, matches. Ceremonial closing for each envelope.
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Numbered limited edition stampEach Guardian kit is hand-numbered. A small mark of provenance.
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Pre-addressed holder packagesFive outer packages, postage-ready for distribution to remote holders.
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Seven days of priority email supportReplies within one business day during your setup window.
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Premium gift presentation boxRigid mailer upgraded to a presentation box appropriate as a gift.
Best for: real schemes with five-or-more holders

Guardian is calibrated for a 3-of-5 scheme — the recommended default for nearly every inheritance and family-office use case. If you are protecting a meaningful crypto wallet or password vault and want the recipients to take the materials seriously, this is the tier.

iii A closer look · Legacy $899 · one-time

When the scheme deserves a ceremony.

A Legacy commission is not a kit you assemble — it is a scheme we help you design. The first week is custom writing: a threshold recommendation tailored to your situation, a recovery ceremony plan for your specific holders, and personalised welcome letters that each holder receives by name.

The sixty-minute live setup call is where the cryptographic split actually happens. You perform it on your own device while we walk through the procedure with you in real time. We see nothing. The call ends; the scheme exists.

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Three Guardian-equivalent kitsIn a single linen presentation case. Distribute to multiple recipients with personalised materials.
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Custom threshold recommendationA written analysis of your situation: who to choose as holders, why, what M-of-N to set.
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Recovery ceremony planA written procedure for how your heirs should actually run the recovery, when it matters.
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Personalised holder welcome lettersEach holder receives a letter addressing them by name, explaining their role.
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Sixty-minute live setup callReal human walks you through the entire setup in real time, on your own device.
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Lost-holder replacement planPre-written procedure for redistributing if a holder dies, defects, or becomes unreachable.
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Engraved metal monogram tagPermanent marker for the master scheme document. Built to outlive paper.
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Thirty days of priority supportContinued access to a real person for the first month after dispatch.
Best for: generational inheritance and high-value secrets

Legacy is the tier for someone passing a meaningful self-custodial wallet to heirs, protecting a foundation's treasury keys, or designing a recovery scheme that will outlive them. The price reflects the time we spend with you, not the materials in the box.

ivMaterials

Made to outlive a filing cabinet.

A scheme that depends on physical materials only works if those materials survive. Every component is chosen to be archival, tamper-evident, and obviously serious — so holders treat the cards with the gravity they deserve.

Cotton-rag stock
Archival shard cards

100% cotton, acid-free, lignin-free. Designed for fifty-year archival use. Each card large enough to print a full SLIP-39 share in mnemonic form, with room for QR and reconstruction guidance on the back.

Guardian & Legacy
Tamper-evident envelopes

Signature paper with a sealed perimeter and a holographic strip. Any attempt to open the envelope leaves visible evidence. Holders can verify their shard has not been examined.

Guardian & Legacy
Wax seal & sigil stamp

A traditional sealing wax in deep oxblood with a brass sigil stamp. Not for show — wax is the cheapest, most reliable physical tamper-evidence ever invented, and it survives temperatures paper does not.

By application · waitlist open

When self-custody is not the right answer.

For some users, the right architecture is for us to handle distribution — printing shards across multiple secure facilities, shipping them to recipients in different jurisdictions, or holding a portion of the scheme on your behalf with bonded, geographically distributed custodians. This is a different product with different operational discipline and a different price. Available to a small number of customers per quarter.

Sovereign
We split and ship the shards on your behalf, across multiple jurisdictions.
From $7,500 · one-time
Sentinel
We hold a portion of the scheme through bonded custodians, audited annually.
From $12,000 · annual
View Concierge tiers
vFrequently asked

Before you buy.

Your scheme keeps working. The offline recovery manual in your kit explains reconstruction using our website, any open-source SLIP-39 tool, or by hand with a calculator. The trust model is not "Shards stays in business forever." The trust model is that the mathematics is permanent, the open-source tools are permanent, and your printed materials are designed to outlive us.
We dispatch within two weeks of order confirmation. Each kit is assembled by hand. US transit is 3–5 business days standard; international is 7–14 business days depending on customs. Tracking is sent on dispatch.
No. The setup booklet walks you through generation in plain language, and the recovery manual is written for heirs who may have no technical background. If you're protecting a seed phrase you obviously have some familiarity with crypto — your spouse, child, or lawyer doesn't need any. That's part of the point.
Your scheme tolerates lost holders up to N minus M. In a 3-of-5 scheme, you can lose two holders entirely and still recover. If a holder becomes unavailable, you can redistribute — generate a new set of shards from the original secret and reassign. The recovery manual includes the procedure; the Legacy tier includes a written replacement plan tailored to your scheme.
Yes. Photographs of the Guardian and Legacy materials are coming to this page shortly. In the meantime, the full kit contents are itemised in the tier cards above, and the materials section describes what each component is made of.
No. Shards is a cryptographic tool, not a legal service. For matters involving inheritance, estate planning, or tax treatment of digital assets, consult a qualified professional in your jurisdiction. Many customers integrate Shards into a broader estate plan — but the legal architecture (wills, trusts, powers of attorney) is something a lawyer should build alongside the cryptographic scheme.
Threshold Vault presents

No single point of failure.

The cryptography runs in your browser. The kit arrives by mail. The scheme outlives us — or never depended on us in the first place.