Understanding your Zora Wallet

Zora wallet is the native wallet built into the Zora platform that provides a seamless trading experience across both the web and Zora app.

With your Zora wallet, you'll enjoy:

• One-click trading without wallet pop-ups 

• Consistent balance across web and mobile

• No gas fees when creating your first five posts a day

• Easy deposits and send flows

Your Zora account uses two wallets that work together: a Zora wallet, where your funds live and your trades execute, and a Privy signer wallet, which authorizes actions on your behalf. Here's how each one works.

Your Zora wallet is a smart contract deployed by Zora that lives onchain. It's not a traditional wallet, it has no seed phrase and no recovery phrase. This is where your funds are held and where every trade you make is executed.

Because it's a smart contract, your Zora wallet only acts when a signer wallet authorizes a transaction on its behalf. Zora can't freeze your wallet, move your funds, or sign transactions for you. It's fully non-custodial, everything on Zora is owned by you.

Your Privy signer wallet is what authorizes transactions on your Zora wallet. It's a standard wallet with a private key, created automatically when you sign up. The signer wallet doesn't hold any funds and doesn't execute transactions onchain itself — it only signs validation messages so your Zora wallet can execute them.

Privy is a non-custodial wallet infrastructure provider. Privy wallets live embedded on Zora with no browser extensions or third-party app downloads required.

Key-splitting security model

When you create an account on Zora, a private key for your signer wallet is generated on your device. It's immediately split into three pieces ("shards") using Shamir's Secret Sharing:

1. Device shard — stored on the device you use to create the wallet

2. Privy shard — stored with Privy, only accessible to you when you sign in with your email

3. Recovery shard — encrypted on your device using your password, then stored by Privy for convenience. Privy cannot access this shard, but you can retrieve it from any device

Two of the three shards are needed to reconstitute your signer wallet's private key. For everyday use, the device shard and Privy shard are combined on your device. 

The shards are only ever reassembled on your device. No one else, not Zora, not Privy, can reconstruct your signer wallet's private key.

Backing up your signer wallet

You can export the private key of your Privy signer wallet at any time. Because your Zora wallet is a smart contract with no private key of its own, your signer wallet's key is what you'd use to manage your Zora wallet if you ever lose access to your email or accidentally delete your account.

Exporting backs up your Privy signer wallet, not your Zora wallet. Your Zora wallet has no private key to export. It is controlled by whichever signer wallet is authorized to sign for it.

Disclaimer: This feature is only available on zora.co and not on the mobile app.

1. Click "☰" to open the Quick settings menu

2. Click “Settings”

3. Click “Export privy wallet”

4. Click “Copy key” or “Copy phrase” to copy your signer wallet's key to your clipboard

Exporting backs up your Privy signer wallet, not your Zora wallet. Your Zora wallet has no private key to export. It is controlled by whichever signer wallet is authorized to sign for it.

• Keep it offline — store it on an offline hard drive

• Write it down on paper — place it with your other important documents where people won't stumble across it

• Never share it with anyone — if anyone asks for your private key, it's likely a scam

No one from Zora or Privy will ever ask you for your private key, email authentication code, or wallet password. Keep these secure and do not share them.

No. Your Zora wallet address is fixed and tied to your account.

Your Zora wallet is a smart contract that lives onchain, with no seed phrase or recovery phrase, so it can't be exported. Learn more about smart wallets at ethereum.org.

No. Your Zora wallet is designed to work exclusively on Zora (web and app). If you want to use your funds on other platforms, send them from your Zora wallet to an external wallet.

Your Zora wallet only supports the Base Network.

If you need more help, contact our support team via our help centre, email support@ourzora.com, or tag us on X (formerly Twitter) and Farcaster.

Legal disclaimer: Coins are ERC-20 representations of user-created Zora posts and are for entertainment and social engagement purposes only.