Your account
What a ZATS Market account is, how you create, lock, back up, import and forget it, and what nobody can recover for you.
Your ZATS Market account lives in your browser. The app makes it for you: there is no sign-up, no email, no login and no wallet to connect. ZATS never holds your recovery phrase, the account's keys or your password.
What the account is
The account is a recovery phrase that the app makes in your browser. The recovery phrase is the twelve words the app shows you when it makes the account. The app also calls it "your twelve words": the two names mean the same thing.
- The recovery phrase is the account. Anyone who reads it controls the account and the money in it.
- Your password protects the copy in this browser. It encrypts the account here and never leaves this browser. Nobody can reset it.
- The copy in this browser is a cache. Clearing site data, or leaving the app unused for a week, can remove it. Only your recovery phrase brings the account back.
What the recovery phrase holds
One recovery phrase holds an address on Robinhood Chain and a Zcash account with every pool. You back up one thing for both.
| Address | What it is for |
|---|---|
Robinhood Chain address, starting 0x | ETH on Robinhood Chain. You can pay a deposit from it, ETH refunds come back to it, and withdrawals go to it by default. |
Zcash unified address, starting u1 | The ZEC address to give out. It combines the Ironwood, Sapling and transparent receivers. |
Ironwood address, starting u1 | Shielded ZEC in the newest pool. The app pays for purchases and withdrawals from Ironwood. |
Sapling address, starting zs1 | Shielded ZEC in the older pool, for a wallet that cannot read a unified address. |
Transparent address, starting t1 | Public ZEC, for an exchange or a bridge that cannot pay a shielded address. |
| Orchard, with no address | The NU6.3 upgrade closed Orchard. A payment to its receiver lands in Ironwood. |
Another wallet app can also restore the account from your recovery phrase, if it takes a twelve-word phrase.
Create an account
To create an account, open Account and select Create account. The top bar's Create account leads to the same screen. A stepper shows three steps: Password, Back up and Check.
Anyone who reads your recovery phrase owns the account. Write the words on paper, or keep the recovery sheet offline. Nobody can reset them or recover them for you.
Set a password
Type a password of at least ten characters, type it again, and select Continue. The password encrypts the account in this browser. It does not encrypt the recovery sheet you download next.
Back up the recovery phrase
Select Show the words and write the twelve words on paper, in order. Select Download recovery file to save the recovery sheet. Then select I wrote them down, which stays closed until you download the file.
Check the backup
Type the three words the app asks for, by their position, from what you saved. Select Finish.
The account opens only after the check passes. If you leave during setup, the app keeps the encrypted account in this browser, and the top bar shows Finish setup. Type your password there to see the words again and finish. The browser's Back button moves one step back in the setup.
The recovery sheet
The recovery sheet is the plain-text file you download when you create the account. The app's buttons call it the recovery file.
- It holds the recovery phrase, one numbered word per line, with the account's address, the derivation path, the date and a warning.
- Its name has the form
zats-account-0x…-YYYY-MM-DD.txt. - Your password does not encrypt it. Anyone who opens it owns the account.
- Keep it offline, or write the words on paper and delete the file.
- It brings the account back: see import an account.
Lock and unlock
The account locks after five minutes without a click or a key press, and on every reload. A new tab asks for your password again. Moving between sections of the app keeps the account unlocked.
- To lock the account yourself, select Lock on the total card of the Account page.
- To unlock it, select Unlock account in the top bar, or Unlock on a locked panel. The same dialog opens each time. Type your password, select Unlock, and the page carries on.
- Your password never leaves this browser.
Unlocking does not approve payments. Each purchase, withdrawal, payment from the account's ETH and refund brought home asks for your password again. The app follows a purchase in progress while the account is unlocked: see paying and following a purchase.
Show the recovery phrase again
To see the recovery phrase again, unlock the account and open Account. Show recovery phrase sits under Security.
Anyone who reads these words owns the account. Hide them when you are done.
- Select Show recovery phrase.
- Type your password and select Show.
- Read the words. You can download the recovery sheet again from the same screen.
- Select Hide.
Show the Ironwood viewing key
The Ironwood viewing key shows every payment into the account's Ironwood pool, and it cannot spend any of it. Give the viewing key only to a server that has to check payments.
To show it, select Show viewing key under Security, type your password and select Show. The key appears on this screen only, with Copy and Hide.
Import an account
Importing opens an existing account in this browser from its recovery phrase. Use it in a new browser, or after this browser lost its copy. Import instead shows when this browser holds no account.
Only type words you wrote down yourself. ZATS asks for them nowhere else: not by email, not in a chat, not on another page.
- Open Account and select Import instead.
- Select Choose recovery file to read the recovery sheet. You can also type or paste the twelve words, separated by spaces.
- Make sure the words match your backup. The app counts them and refuses a phrase that is not valid.
- Select Continue.
- Type a new password twice and select Continue.
The account opens at once, with no backup check. Neither the file nor the words leave this browser. Your transactions and what the account bought come back from ZATS's server.
An account imported from the recovery sheet scans Zcash from the day you made the account. An account imported from typed words scans from the NU6.3 upgrade on, so shielded ZEC older than that does not count.
Forget the account on this browser
Forgetting deletes the copy of the account in this browser only. Your recovery phrase still opens the account.
Before you forget the account, make sure you have its recovery phrase. Without it, nobody can bring the account back.
- Select Forget this account. It shows under the account when it is locked, unlocked or still in setup.
- Read the warning, then select Yes, forget it. Keep it cancels.
What stays after you forget:
- Your transactions and what the account bought, such as eSIMs with their activation codes and AI keys, stay on ZATS's server under the account's address. Your browser sealed them, so only your recovery phrase opens them.
- They come back when you import the same recovery phrase.
- The app files the history on the server while the account is unlocked. If you forget an unlocked account, it files the latest changes first.
The app still asks you to install an eSIM, or save its activation code, before you forget the account. The provider cannot issue the code again.
If you forget your password
Nobody can reset your password. Your recovery phrase takes its place.
Before you start, make sure you have the recovery phrase. The first step deletes this browser's copy of the account.
- On the locked account, select Forget this account, then Yes, forget it.
- Select Import instead and import the recovery phrase.
- Set a new password.
What nobody can recover
- If you lose the recovery phrase and this browser loses its copy, the account and its money are lost for good. ZATS cannot reset or recover the account.
- Anyone who reads your recovery phrase controls the account and its money.
- Your password protects only the copy in this browser. Nobody can reset it, so the recovery phrase is the only way back.
Related pages
- Balances and addresses: what the Account page shows, pool by pool.
- Deposit: turn ETH on Robinhood Chain into shielded ZEC.
- Withdraw: turn shielded ZEC back into ETH on Robinhood Chain.
- Paying and following a purchase: how you pay for a purchase and follow it.