The Social Recovery Secret: How Your Friends Can Save Your Crypto!
- Louise Ivan CEO & Founder · Ryder
We chatted with Louise from Ryder at Breakpoint to break down how Ryder One works and why it is a game changer. Our straight-to-the-point episode.
Transcript
Recorded at Solana Breakpoint 2025.
Hodl Up: Hello and welcome to another episode of Hodl Up. We have Louise from Ryder with us today, talking to us about one of the hottest, and I've heard also one of the coolest, wallets around. We're all about hardware, we're all about security, so talk to us.
Louise: Well, thank you for having me, Dren. I don't need to sell it, I feel like he's selling it for me: "the hottest, the coolest." I don't think I need to talk anymore, right? So hi guys, my name is Louise. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Ryder. We built Ryder One. It's a hardware wallet where we take away the hard part. Let me sum it up in a nutshell: we make it impossible to lose your crypto, and you need only a few taps. You tap your phone, you tap this thing called a recovery tag, and you're able to create and back up your wallet in less than 60 seconds. That's pretty much the user experience. Now, if Dren wants to send Atis a transaction, he taps the phone and he's able to send it. And if he loses his hardware wallet, he takes a new one, taps his phone, taps the recovery tag, and he's back in.
Hodl Up: So, like you just said, you tap your phone and the recovery tag and you get the wallet back, right?
Louise: Yes. That rhymed, by the way.
Hodl Up: So what if I lose the recovery tag?
Louise: The funny thing is, we created Ryder with a recovery method called Tap Safe. It's an evolution of seed phrases, and you can create as many backups as you want. So you can have more recovery tags: you tap one and you create more backups. We also have optional social recovery. Dren here, me, maybe our camera crew over there plus one more person, we can be your social backup. All they need to do is install the phone app. Say you lose everything: you get a new Ryder One, you tap me, you tap him and two others, and you're back in.
Hodl Up: Oh, so it's like a multisig type of way to get back in.
Louise: Yes, there's also a multisig. If you put it like that, yes.
Hodl Up: Not in the literal sense, but in the logical sense. You mentioned the user experience being much simpler compared to what we've been used to in the past. Are there any trade-offs for this simplicity?
Louise: No, and that's what I... If you had listened to my talk... I don't think you did, because you weren't there. You were busy.
Hodl Up: I know, I know. We were back to back.
Louise: I know you were back to back yesterday. At my talk yesterday I actually showed how long it took to build Ryder: three years. For the past two years we were obsessing over the product, manufacturing, firmware and security, and our team spent a lot of time on usability testing. While other companies had already shipped, we were still redesigning. We were fighting about the tiniest button placement until 3 a.m. So in terms of usability, it's very, very good. As a beginner you can set it up in 60 seconds. Now, back to your question: no, you don't sacrifice security. It took quite a long time, because in crypto it's usually one or the other, right? If you have security, you don't have usability. But you can actually have both. It's just hard to get there. It takes a lot of time and a lot of testing, and in crypto you often don't have that time because of the market cycle. But we bet on one thing.
Hodl Up: One thing I liked very much is that you give people the choice of whether to use a seed phrase or not. For some people a seed phrase feels more secure, so giving them the choice is super nice. I've used wallets that let you choose between, say, a 12-word seed and an 18-word seed. Logically the 18-word seed is safer, but just because they give you the choice, it makes me feel more valued. So I'm definitely going to try it out.
Louise: You should. And for you I can give a discount: use "Breakpoint 2025" and get 20% off this week.
Hodl Up: I thought we were getting it for free.
Louise: We need revenue.
Hodl Up: And we're all about revenue and returns here at Breakpoint, right? That's the theme. And we're all about supporting builders, people like you who make crypto happen. Now I want to touch on the more serious stuff, the suits and ties. What about regulation? I haven't done much research on how non-custodial wallets and hardware wallets are regulated. How do you approach that?
Louise: That's a question I'd rather not answer, actually. I'd prefer to leave it to my legal team.
Hodl Up: That's not very cool of you. I'm just trying to understand things.
Louise: I'm sorry! If you guys want that answer, pass it over to my legal team. That's the best way to do it. This isn't a trap, is it? They're trapping me, guys. You need to save me.
Hodl Up: One last question: stickers. Are there stickers inside the box? That's the whole point.
Louise: We have more than stickers. We even give you a wireless charger, because the iPhone doesn't come with one. With our wireless charger you can charge your iPhone and your AirPods.
Hodl Up: The iPhone doesn't give you anything in the box.
Louise: I know. We do.
Hodl Up: I'm going to have to try it out. I've only used a hardware wallet once, and I've been in this industry for five years. I love crypto, but...
Louise: You didn't like the experience?
Hodl Up: It's slow. To be honest, I'd rather use my e-banking app.
Louise: Right, you're right. That's the whole analogy for me as well. I love my e-banking app. Shout out to the guys at Revolut, because the experience is very seamless. Even the messaging: if you go to the Revolut website, they're not talking about heavy stuff.
Hodl Up: Exactly. They talk about money like it's a social media app.
Louise: Yeah, and we want to do the same in crypto. Consumers don't care about the back end. They care about security and how easy it is to use the product and get things done. See, guys, I don't even need to pitch. These two can sell Ryder for me.
Hodl Up: We still have to use the wallet before we can pitch it, right? That'll be the next episode.
Louise: So you can have me back.
Hodl Up: We'd love to. And when you make it big, when you overtake the likes of Ledger, don't forget us.
Louise: We're the underdogs. You'll root for us.
Hodl Up: Of course. A win-win situation. Louise, thank you very much for being here.
Louise: Thank you so much for having me.
Hodl Up: It's a bummer that we have to cut it short, but we'll catch up again. I think I learned more in this quick session than in some of our two-hour sessions.
Louise: Two-hour sessions, guys? No more two-hour sessions.
Hodl Up: People's attention span these days is like ten...
Key takeaways
- Ryder One is a hardware wallet that creates and backs up a crypto wallet in under 60 seconds using a few taps of a phone and a recovery tag.
- Its recovery method, Tap Safe, replaces the written seed phrase as the default and lets users create as many backup tags as they want.
- Optional social recovery lets trusted people with the Ryder app help restore a wallet, similar in logic to a multisig.
- Ryder took three years to build, with two years spent on product, manufacturing, firmware, security and usability testing.
- Louise argues that self-custody can be both secure and easy, provided a team takes the time to test for both.
- The company models its experience on consumer fintech apps like Revolut, where users care about ease and security more than the back end.
Hardware wallets without the hard part
Recorded at Solana Breakpoint 2025, this Hodl Up episode features Louise, CEO and co-founder of Ryder, the company behind the Ryder One hardware wallet. Hardware wallets are the standard advice for anyone holding meaningful crypto, yet many holders still avoid them because setup is slow and seed phrase backups feel stressful. One of the hosts admitted as much: five years in the industry, one attempt with a hardware wallet, and a clear preference for his e-banking app.
Louise's pitch answers that complaint head on. "We make it impossible to lose your crypto, and you need only a few taps," she said. The conversation covers how Ryder One works day to day, how Tap Safe and social recovery handle lost devices and lost backups, why the product took three years to reach market, and why Ryder looks to fintech rather than crypto for its design cues.
How Ryder One works
Setup and everyday use
Ryder One pairs a hardware device with a phone app and a physical recovery tag. Louise summed up the flow in one line: "You tap your phone, you tap this thing called a recovery tag, and you're able to create and back up your wallet in less than 60 seconds."
Sending funds follows the same pattern. In her example, if Dren wants to send Atis a transaction, he taps the phone and the transaction goes through. Losing the device is also handled with taps: "If he loses his hardware wallet, he takes a new one, taps his phone, taps the recovery tag, and he's back in."
Tap Safe and social recovery
The obvious follow-up is what happens when the recovery tag itself goes missing. Louise explained that Ryder's recovery method, Tap Safe, is "an evolution of seed phrases" and has no limit on backups: users tap an existing tag to create more.
For people who want a further safety net, Ryder offers optional social recovery. Trusted contacts install the Ryder app and act as backups. "Say you lose everything: you get a new Ryder One, you tap me, you tap him and two others, and you're back in," Louise said. The host compared this to a multisig, and Louise agreed with the comparison in a logical sense. The host also noted that Ryder gives users the choice of whether to use a seed phrase at all, which matters for people who feel safer with the traditional method.
The table below shows how Ryder One handles each common scenario, based on Louise's descriptions.
| Scenario | What you need | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Create a new wallet | Phone, Ryder One, recovery tag | Tap phone and tag; done in under 60 seconds |
| Send a transaction | Phone, Ryder One | Tap the phone to send |
| Lose the Ryder One | New Ryder One, phone, recovery tag | Tap phone and tag to restore |
| Lose a recovery tag | Another backup tag | Use a spare; Tap Safe allows unlimited backups |
| Lose device and tags | New Ryder One, trusted contacts with the app | Tap each contact's phone (four in Louise's example) |
Security and usability in the same device
Three years of testing
Asked whether simplicity comes at the cost of security, Louise said no, and pointed to the build timeline. Ryder took three years, including two years obsessing over product, manufacturing, firmware and security, plus extensive usability testing. "While other companies had already shipped, we were still redesigning," she said. "We were fighting about the tiniest button placement until 3 a.m."
Her view is that crypto has trained users to expect a trade-off. "In crypto it's usually one or the other, right? If you have security, you don't have usability. But you can actually have both. It's just hard to get there." The difficulty, she added, is that market cycles rarely give teams that much time.
When the hosts raised regulation of non-custodial and hardware wallets, Louise declined to comment and referred the question to Ryder's legal team.
Borrowing from fintech
Louise named Revolut as the benchmark for the experience Ryder wants, praising its seamless app and light, approachable messaging. "Consumers don't care about the back end," she said. "They care about security and how easy it is to use the product and get things done."
That thinking extends to the box. Beyond stickers, Ryder includes a wireless charger that works with an iPhone and AirPods. Asked about competing with incumbents like Ledger, Louise embraced the position: "We're the underdogs. You'll root for us."