That is what's actually happening behind the scenes (though note that the "recovery key" is actually incredibly important since it gives you access to your key

That is what's actually happening behind the scenes (though note that the "recovery key" is actually incredibly important since it gives you access to your key backups -- which is something you absolutely want to enable if you're an ordinary user). The problem is that by default Matrix tries to back the "recovery key" up to the homeserver you're using, encrypted with a second passphrase -- hence why you get two passphrases. You can opt-out of it, but I think the UX is the wrong way around -- it should be an opt-in thing and that would make it clearer that the recovery key is what's important and that the passphrase is only needed if you want to upload it to your homeserver. There is an open issue on this topic[1]. [1]: https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/8751 https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/8751