Your recovery key

Why it exists

Your data is encrypted with keys derived from your password — Nanovote can't read it, and that also means Nanovote can't simply reset your password the way ordinary sites do. The 24-word recovery key is your independent way back in: resetting a forgotten password requires the reset link from your email together with those 24 words. Your existing sessions and data stay intact through the reset.

Shown exactly once

The words appear one time, at registration, and can't be displayed again later. Save them when they're offered: download the file, print it, or paste the list into your password manager. Registration asks you to re-enter a few of the words to confirm you really saved them.

Handle it accordingly

Anyone with the 24 words gains full access to your account's encrypted history — store them like a house key, somewhere only you can reach. And if both the password and the recovery key are lost, the encrypted data cannot be recovered by anyone, including us. Changing your password later doesn't invalidate the key: the same 24 words keep working.

Guest accounts have no password and no recovery key — both are created when a guest registers, and all guest sessions carry over to the new account.