What is key sharding or “Shamir Secret Sharing”?

Key sharding, or Shamir’s Secret Sharing, is a process by which a private crypto key is split into separate pieces, or shards, rendering each shard useless unless enough are assembled to reconstruct the original key. For example, if there are 5 shards and only 3 are needed for access, the holders of 3 shards can combine their efforts for access. This process is uniquely deeply rooted in cryptographic concepts, and makes way for more decentralized risk in the new economy.