Everyone talks about signing up to Liberdus with a username instead of a phone number. Less discussed, what that choice implies for the day you lose your phone. I looked closely at how accounts work. Here's the design underneath Sign-up is simple, tap Create Account, pick a username, and your account keys are generated in a few seconds. No phone number and no email. That means nothing issued by a carrier or a provider anchors your account. Where does the account live? On your device. You can only sign in if an account has been created or restored there, and each account on a device is independent. Your keys, contacts and settings travel together in a single backup file. That backup file is the recovery system. Menu → Backup → Download, with an optional password to encrypt it. On a new device: Menu → Restore, select the file, enter the password if you set one. Encrypting it is recommended. Now the part worth a closer look. A lost backup password can't be recovered. The app lock has no password recovery either. And if you remove an account from a device, only a valid backup file can bring it back. Recovery is entirely in your hands. That's the trade-off behind no phone number. You don't depend on a phone number or an email to create the account. You depend on a file and a password that only you can look after. Neither is free. One shifts trust to a provider. The other shifts responsibility to you. One more detail, removing an account from your device doesn't remove it from the network. The migration tool even flags names that are already registered as Taken. So, a name registered on the network, with the keys held in your backup file. Which would you rather depend on a provider that can reset your access, or a file that only you can lose? @Liberdus #ETH $ETH