Stories

Security notes and real inheritance scenarios

Short reads for owners, families, and trusted contacts who want the model explained through real situations.

Featured noteGuide6 min read

Designing zero-knowledge vault workflows

Why client-side encryption and server-side policy enforcement need to be treated as separate concerns.

  • Why encrypted blobs and release policy should not live in the same trust model.
  • What the server can safely know, and what it should never know.
  • How this affects vault design across web and future mobile clients.

Who These Notes Help

Use these notes to understand setup, release rules, and the people involved later.

  • Owners can organise records and leave usable instructions.
  • Families can understand roles, confirmations, and delayed access.
  • Executors can see how requests and release decisions should work.

Reading paths

Choose the track that fits your situation

Start with setup, policy, or family access depending on what you are trying to prepare right now.

Start here

Set up the vault before you share it

For owners who are still defining what belongs in the vault and what trusted contacts should actually do later.

  • Decide which passwords, documents, and instructions belong together.
  • Keep role assignment clear before you send invitations.
  • Write instructions that still make sense months or years later.
Policy

Design release rules that feel safe

For shaping inactivity windows, reminder cycles, and trusted confirmation thresholds without making release too easy.

  • Treat release as a process, not a switch.
  • Use reminders to slow the flow down before anything unlocks.
  • Combine inactivity and trusted confirmations so safeguards overlap.
Family access

Prepare trusted contacts for real situations

For thinking through executor access, family coordination, and how to avoid confusion during difficult moments.

  • Give each person a role that matches their responsibility.
  • Avoid broad access when only one person needs authority.
  • Use trusted confirmations when several people should share oversight.

Latest notes

Short reads that explain the model

Each note focuses on one practical part of digital inheritance: storage, release rules, or trusted-contact responsibility.

Workflow5 min read

How the dead-man switch should behave

A practical view of reminders, inactivity windows, unlock timing, and trusted confirmations.

  • Why release needs a timer instead of a single binary unlock.
  • How reminder cycles and inactivity windows work together.
  • Where trusted confirmations can fit in without weakening the vault.
Trust model4 min read

Trusted contacts without weakening your vault

Balancing family access, executor roles, and confirmation thresholds without exposing secrets too early.

  • How to think about viewer, trusted, and executor responsibilities.
  • Why role assignment should be explicit and limited.
  • What release safeguards matter when families share responsibility.

Why these stories matter

Most people understand digital inheritance faster through scenarios than through feature lists. These notes explain how secure storage, trusted contacts, confirmations, and timed release fit together when real people need to rely on the system.