They’re developing an interesting product to securely store you secrets which you can keep connected to your router. ARCA could be where you store passwords, seed phrases and other secrets, inheritance information… It will utilize secure elements and be hardened against attack. I have a Coldcard Q hardware wallet which is pretty interesting, so if they can nail the security and encryption (quantum safe?) it could be a compelling product. Though NVK is a bit too profane, and I have issues with some of his comments on Bitcoin and Plebs, utilization of AI though he says he verifies their code, so we’ll see what they produce. And as always, some of the best products and software comes from someone scratching their own itch.
arca personal data haven
why arca
don’t lose your secrets.
A dead phone. A missing recovery code. One founder. One parent. One office. Secrets must survive across places, across people, and over time. arca is for the stuff that shouldn’t depend on one person, one app, or one building.
physical digital safe
A real box for the codes, keys, files, and instructions that don’t belong scattered across phones, screenshots, and cloud drives.
encrypted by default
Secrets stay encrypted on the device and while syncing between devices. Custody first. Convenience second.
geo-distributed sync
Use one arca as a safe. Put more in trusted places and the encrypted contents stay in sync.
isolated spaces
One box can hold separate spaces for family, work, partners, or backup swaps.
recovery without casual access
Make the right things recoverable when the normal path is gone, without turning every secret into an easy grab.
inheritance readiness
Prepare a controlled path for family or trusted people if you’re not around to unlock things yourself.
team continuity
Keep production credentials, signing keys, runbooks, and recovery codes from becoming one person’s private ritual.
reciprocal or hosted backups
Mirror an encrypted space into another arca: yours, a friend’s, a partner’s, or eventually a hosted box.
agent access boundary
Let an AI agent request the narrow thing it needs without handing it the whole vault.
built by coinkite
From the people behind Coldcard, Opendime, Tapsigner, Satscard, and other no-nonsense custody tools.
Trying to place arca next to tools you already know? View the comparison table for password managers, cloud drives, NAS boxes, home servers, HSMs, hardware wallets, safes, and recovery tools.
A safe for the data you can’t afford to lose. Tamper-proof. Encrypted. Geo-distributed. Swarm cluster. Yours alone.
A data haven is an old Internet idea: a place, jurisdiction, or technical system built to keep data available and protected. arca borrows the useful part of that idea and makes it physical: a box you choose, in a place you trust, for the secrets that should not disappear.
specs
current hardware target.
arca is being built as embedded hardware for secret custody, not as another cloud account. Current target specs include: hostRockchip RK3328 running FreeBSD. security controllerArm Cortex-M33 with TrustZone. secure elementsATECC608C and DS28C36BQ+T. clock + sensorsSecure RTC and motion sensor chip. tamperActive tamper-detect circuit with physical-state checks. powerTwo USB inputs, Power Over Ethernet (PoE), and internal UPS. buildsReproducible deterministic builds planned for release verification. access pathsDecoy PIN paths planned for hostile or coerced access scenarios.
Design and specs will likely change as we progress through the manufacturing process. The direction is hardware-enforced custody, boring power resilience, and controlled recovery paths.
details
what actually goes in it.
We keep coming back to the same boring failure modes. The authenticator phone is gone. The seed words are in one building. The vendor login is in one employee’s notes. The emergency plan is “ask Alice.” arca is for that pile.
What is arca?
arca is a physical digital safe for the secrets you do not want floating around your life. Seed words, recovery codes, passwords, emergency notes, business keys, signing material, and encrypted files get a dedicated box with hardware custody, sync rules, and recovery rules.
What can arca store?
arca is for the small, ugly things that hold everything together: seed words, recovery codes, passwords, runbooks, inheritance notes, business keys, important encrypted files, and the instructions someone will need when the normal path is gone.
How do multiple arcas work together?
One arca is a safe. Two or three arcas are the answer to what happens if one building, laptop, phone, or person is gone. They can keep encrypted copies in different trusted places, with each box playing a different recovery role.
Can arca back up into someone else’s arca?
Yes. Isolated spaces mean an encrypted backup can live in a friend’s, partner’s, or hosted arca without handing them the contents. Think reciprocal safes, not a shared cloud folder.
How is arca different from a password manager or NAS?
A password manager helps you log in every day. A NAS stores a lot of files. arca is for the layer under both: root credentials, recovery codes, signing material, emergency instructions, and the rules for who can recover what.
How does inheritance readiness work?
Do not make family decode your digital life under stress. arca is meant to let selected material become recoverable by the right people under defined conditions. Not everything to everyone; the right packet to the right person.
How does arca help teams?
Every company has the bad version of this: one founder, one admin, one laptop, one SaaS account, one person who remembers the ritual. arca is meant to turn those fragile access paths into a custody plan the team can survive.
Can AI agents use arca?
Agents are going to need credentials and files. Pasting secrets into a chat window is a bad answer. Giving an agent the whole vault is also a bad answer. arca is being designed around narrow requests, policy checks, and constrained paths such as SSH.
What hardware is arca targeting?
Current target hardware is specific: Rockchip RK3328 running FreeBSD, Arm Cortex-M33 with TrustZone, ATECC608C and DS28C36BQ+T secure elements, secure RTC, motion sensor, active tamper-detect circuit, two USB inputs, Power Over Ethernet (PoE), and internal UPS. Design and specs will likely change as arca progresses through manufacturing.
When will arca be available?
Not yet. We are getting closer to a release timeline, initial quantities are expected to be limited, and we will publish launch notes and production details through the update list.
Who makes arca?
Coinkite. Same shop behind COLDCARD, OPENDIME, TAPSIGNER, SATSCARD, COLDPOWER, and other security hardware for people who care about custody more than convenience theater.