Patent ID: 11888975
Assignee: TZERO IP, LLC
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 12:
13. A system comprising:
at least one processor;
at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor;
at least one network interface communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and configured to communicate with external computing devices; and
wherein when a private key needs to be used, the at least one processor is configured to:
cause a request for key components to be communicated to users using the at least one network interface;
receive at least one set of key components from at least a subset of users at least in part by being configured to receive a single set of key components, wherein the at least one set of key components can be used to reconstruct an encrypted private key and at least one encryption key used to decrypt the private key from the encrypted private key;
when the at least one set of the key components is received from the at least the subset of the users that can be used to reconstruct the encrypted private key and the at least one encryption key;
reconstruct a combined string, including both the encrypted private key and the at least one encryption key, from the single set of key components; and
extract the encrypted private key and the at least one encryption key from the combined string to be used to decrypt the encrypted private key into the private key using the at least one encryption key;

when the encrypted private key and the at least one encryption key both have been reconstructed, apply at least one exclusive or (XOR) operation to the encrypted private key and the at least one encryption key to decrypt the encrypted private key using the at least one encryption key; and
erase the private key from the at least one memory after use.