{
 "@context": "https://schema.org",
 "@type": "DefinedTerm",
 "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/key-management",
 "identifier": "kaal:entity:key-management",
 "name": "Key management",
 "termCode": "key-management",
 "inDefinedTermSet": {
  "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/index.json"
 },
 "author": {
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Wulf A. Kaal",
  "identifier": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0757-275X"
 },
 "dateModified": "2026-07-29",
 "canonicalForm": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/key-management.md",
 "sha256": "60f2bf5a257bcece1ffb320c49fc7e3db984b871f342588ab51c01d154b80fcb",
 "additionalProperty": [
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   "@type": "PropertyValue",
   "name": "status",
   "value": "derived"
  },
  {
   "@type": "PropertyValue",
   "name": "claim_count",
   "value": 5
  },
  {
   "@type": "PropertyValue",
   "name": "work_count",
   "value": 4
  },
  {
   "@type": "PropertyValue",
   "name": "year_span",
   "value": [
    "2019",
    "2021"
   ]
  },
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   "value": 0
  }
 ],
 "subjectOf": [
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3406323-021",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3406323-021",
   "text": "Mass adoption of decentralized protocols will remain out of reach so long as users must discern and manage public and private keys to wallets, because user access and usability fall short of mass adoption needs.",
   "abstract": "It will be very difficult to educate the public sufficiently to seamlessly adopt decentralized protocols in their daily life if users have to discern and manage public and private keys to wallets, among other concerns.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - A Primer on the New Economy (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3406323",
   "datePublished": "2019",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "existing decentralized technologies as of 2019"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "6293780b57a1ae1de17ec00f99cc94295d4f72ea4d08b17a5c08c44772b221db",
   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3411897-026",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3411897-026",
   "text": "Without intuitive consumer access points comparable to iTunes, decentralized systems cannot reach mainstream consumer adoption, because users currently must manage their own security, keys, and wallets.",
   "abstract": "Without such intuitive consumer support access points, it is difficult to see how decentralized systems can ever reach mainstream consumer adoption.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - Past, Present, and Future (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3411897",
   "datePublished": "2019",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "current decentralized system requirements that force users to manage keys"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "82f0aea026b3e3a526ec51bc073b3b864dc06cd9083ff9c54c550037045edaa9",
   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3606663-029",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3606663-029",
   "text": "At the beginning of the 2020s DeFi was not sufficiently user friendly, because core interfaces such as metamask, myetherwallet, and scatter require levels of technical know how in handling public and private keys that most lay users do not possess.",
   "abstract": "At the beginning of the 2020s, DeFi was not sufficiently user friendly.",
   "citation": "Kaal, Digital Asset Market Evolution (2020). SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3606663",
   "datePublished": "2020",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "lay retail users of DeFi interfaces",
    "beginning of the 2020s"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "d1d4a15a293b715bb6a5a32e689f59c3a1587915039ba9a1cf4eeb8ee2a1e57c",
   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3936876-010",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3936876-010",
   "text": "A private key differs from a password in that it is immutable and cannot be reset, so if the key is lost or stolen access to the digital asset may be permanently lost.",
   "abstract": "However, private keys are distinguishable from a password in that a private key is immutable – it cannot be reset.82 If a user loses their private key or if the private key is stolen, access to the digital asset may be lost.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Hayley Howe, Custody of Digital Assets (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3936876",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "applies to key based digital asset ownership on public blockchains"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "9bc0903d01910460298e754c451f027df4324367359800a98ee8e638d94aff55",
   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3936876-023",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3936876-023",
   "text": "Self management of private keys or passphrases for individual digital assets is too cumbersome for institutional investors, so institutional custody solutions must be as robust as those provided for traditional assets.",
   "abstract": "Private keys or maintaining passphrases for individual digital assets is too cumbersome for institutional investors.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Hayley Howe, Custody of Digital Assets (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3936876",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "condition",
   "confidence": "asserted",
   "is_failure_mode": false,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "institutional scale holdings"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "9bc0903d01910460298e754c451f027df4324367359800a98ee8e638d94aff55",
   "status": "current"
  }
 ],
 "description": "5 claims in the published works of Wulf A. Kaal carry the concept tag 'key-management'. Derived node: a roster, not an adjudicated definition."
}