Guide: Private key security and wallet management for developers

[PetarStoev02]

Description

Comprehensive guide on secure key management for web3 developers — from development to production.

Why this matters

Both major Solidity courses dedicate significant time to key security (the ".env pledge"). Private key leaks are the w3-kit/cli#1 cause of fund loss for developers. This guide covers the full spectrum from "I just started" to "I'm deploying to mainnet with real money."

Scope

• Development keys vs production keys (never mix them)
• Why .env files are dangerous (git history, terminal history, VS Code telemetry)
• Encrypted keystores (ERC-2335, cast wallet import)
• Hardware wallet integration for deployment
• Multi-sig for team deployments
• Key rotation and compromise response
• Environment variable management in CI/CD
• The w3-kit approach: how our recipes handle keys safely

w3-kit approach

• Practical, not preachy — show the secure way as the default
• Code examples for each security level
• Decision tree: which approach for your situation

Acceptance criteria

• Guide in guides/
• Covers dev → production key management spectrum
• Code examples for encrypted keystores
• Hardware wallet signing example
• .learn.md with the key security decision tree

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