We store our money in Flowee Pay and we want you to feel as safe doing that as we do. Here are several strategies you can follow in order to both protect and to limit your risk in the first place.
Small default wallet
Before we explain the security features that Flowee Pay provides it is important to show how the simplest options often have the most effect.
Create a new wallet, deposit only about €10 on it. Then make that wallet the default wallet. This means that when you open the application the €10 is the only amount you see. If you are physically forced by attackers, they will think this is all the money you have in your wallet.
The most important tool is one of misdirection. You can put a very complex password on your phone that attackers never guess, but how useful is that if they physically threaten you?
Combine various ideas from this page to get the right level of security or your personal situation.
Limit risk
What we do in order to limit risk is to have as your main wallet a simple spending wallet. It probably has just what you'd spend in a day for your basic needs.
If you feel the need to carry more in your Flowee Pay, you can put that in a separate wallet. Use the menu and select 'Add Wallet" to create a new wallet which you can top up completely separate from the main spending one.
Then in the menu open the 'Wallets' page and under a wallet you want to keep hidden, enable two privacy features:
- Hide balances in overviews
- Hide in private mode
And last, enter the Private Mode from the same page.
This will effectively hide your big wallet on normal day to day usage. If someone looks over your shoulder they will not know there is another wallet or what value it has.
When you want to use this wallet, for instance to make a quick top up to your daily wallet, you will need to go back to this screen and exit private mode. Your wallet will show up then. Don't forget to enter private mode again after you have finished your transfers!
Actual protection: password
Since the 2023.07.0 release Flowee Pay allows you to set a PIN code that is needed to be entered upon starting Flowee Pay.
Please realize that should you lose your PIN, you lose access to your wallet. The authors of the Flowee Pay software can not help you, we can not reset the PIN. It is important that you remember, or write down, your PIN!
We suggest writing your PIN down and after using it a dozen times or feel comfortable you will not forget you may remove the paper version.
To enable the PIN feature you go to the menu and open the "Security" option. On the Security screen tap on the first PIN area to enter a newly made up PIN. After pressing OK you have to repeat the process on the second area for the repeat PIN. After they match you can tap the "Set PIN" button in order to activate the new PIN.
Flowee Pay will auto-lock the app after 10 to 15 minutes, depending on your screen-off time. You will get a prompt for the PIN at that time.
Archived Wallets
Wallets can be archived in order to stop updating with the network and the UI will not show any of its details in the normal usage of the wallet. Only in the "Wallets" screen, accessible from the menu will you be able to find archived wallets.
It is not a strong protection, but it certainly is worth considering archiving a wallet you do not expect to use for a longer time.
Please do notice that upon un-archiving it may take various minutes to get the wallet back into using shape, depending on how much time it has been archived.
Wallet Encryption
This is a desktop-only feature. There is per-wallet encryption that allows you to completely protect the data of the wallet, making it impossible to send money from it without the password.