Store and inherit your private data and crypto assets

[bobby_x]

Hi everyone

Most crypto holders face the issue of how to inherit their crypto assets and backup their crypto keys.

I made a website that allows users to easily pass on documents to their heirs (PDFs, text files, crypto keys, etc.).
The service is appropriate for passing on any type of file to friends or family members in the event of death.

It is suitable to store / manage your private data as well.

You can find the website here: https://my-legacy.rocks/
Documentation: https://my-legacy.rocks/docs
The website is open source: https://github.com/loanMaster/inheritwebapp

How to use it:
1.) You select one or more files. The files are zipped and encrypted in the browser using the Web Cryptography API.
The encryption password and your unencrypted data are never sent to the server.
The encrypted archive is uploaded and stored in the cloud. You will receive an access code.
2.) You share your encryption password and the access code with your heirs. Your heirs can not access your files yet.

After your death, your heirs can use the access code to trigger a health check email.
If you do not respond to the health check and to 3 reminder emails, your heirs are granted access to your files.

The service is anonymous and free to use. It is currently in beta phase. If you have any remarks or questions feel free to comment.

Thank you & have a good day

p.s.: English is not my first language. Please excuse any grammar / spelling errors.

[Mbitr]

There’s something similar that’s available at the moment

https://www.deadmansswitch.net/

Could you explain the main differences .
Thankyou

[bobby_x]

Sure, there are multiple differences.

1.) The mechanism
https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ will send you emails periodically which you have to confirm.
If you fail to confirm an email the system will send messages you prepared to you heirs.

Using https://my-legacy.rocks/ your heirs can use an access code to trigger a health check email.

2.) Data and security
https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ let's you create messages for your heirs.
These messages are stored in the site owner's database or file system. Therefore, the owner can see the message content.

https://my-legacy.rocks/ let's you encrypt any kind of file and only you have the password. The site owner is unable to access your data.

In terms of inheriting crypto keys https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ has the downside that the data can be accessed by the site owner.
Also, if the https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ data base is hacked the attackers will gain access to the email addresses of the heirs and all message data.
If the https://my-legacy.rocks/ data base is hacked the attackers gain knowledge of the email addresses of the users but can not decrypt your files.

To sum it up

Website	https://my-legacy.rocks/	https://www.deadmansswitch.net/
pricing	for free	freemium
data to inherit	any file	text message (no file attachments possible)
dead man's switch mechanism	triggered by access code	periodic messages
security	all data is encrypted. site owner has no access	site owner can access all data
heirs	need an access code	works without knowledge of heirs
health check	via email only	email or telegram
source code	public (frontend)	private

[o_e_l_e_o]

A few questions, if you don't mind:

Why do the files need to be encrypted by my browser? Why can't I encrypt them myself offline and then just upload the encrypted files?

How can you guarantee your site will still be operating in 10, 20, 50 years' time? What about when you yourself die? Who will pay for its continued upkeep?

What happens if I lose access to my email account so I cannot reply to the emails you send me?

[bobby_x]

Hi.

Thank you for your interest.

Why do the files need to be encrypted by my browser? Why can't I encrypt them myself offline and then just upload the encrypted files?

I wanted a standard, safe way to encrypt the files.
All files are encrypted locally in the browser to ensure all data is indeed private and safe.

If users were responsible to encrypt data them selves, some users might put their data in
jeopardy, for instance if they chose to use the default windows zip-encryption mechanism which is not secure at all.

Therefore, https://my-legacy.rocks/ enforces a standarized encryption.

In addition, with the current mechanism archives can conveniently be edited by the user in the browser.

How can you guarantee your site will still be operating in 10, 20, 50 years' time? What about when you yourself die? Who will pay for its continued upkeep?

I can not give a guarantee that the service will keep operating for the next 50 years.
However, there will be a 60 days' notice to all users if the service needs to stop.
This will give all users sufficient time to migrate their data (see also here).

There is a periodic health check to verify that I am still alive. In case of my death a warning email will be
sent to all users. Even if I die the service will keep running for a while giving you time to migrate your data.

The service will be financed through donations.
If there is the demand for specific features, I might switch to a freemium model in the future.

What happens if I lose access to my email account so I cannot reply to the emails you send me?

The system will conclude you are dead if a health check is triggered
(I hope your heirs are nice enough not to do that).
google and most other providers have ways to restore access to an email account.
You can use the contact email address given on the my-legacy website to find a solution if the email address can not be restored at all.

[BlackHatCoiner]

The website is open source: https://github.com/loanMaster/inheritwebapp

How can I verify that your website actually uses this? Usually, a project is open-source if people can build it and use it all by themselves. This isn't the case with my-legacy; your server has to be up to work. Everyone has to visit your website to use my-legacy.

The system will conclude you are dead if a health check is triggered

How can it conclude you're dead?

google and most other providers have ways to restore access to an email account.

Which brings us to central points of failure. What happens if those providers shut down? Or if I constantly fail to restore my account?


But, anyway, why should one use this solution as there's already a better one?

[dkbit98]

Interesting use case that can be used in real life and if I understand this correctly everything is free, anonymous and open source.
I would suggest that you use some proper translation in documentations page (noticed some grammar mistakes), maybe hire someone to proofread everthing.
My question is what happens if your website goes down for whatever reason (domain expiration, ban from government, etc.), how can someone recover access?
No website means there are no more accounts to.

[bobby_x]

How can I verify that your website actually uses this? Usually, a project is open-source if people can build it and use it all by themselves. This isn't the case with my-legacy; your server has to be up to work.

I made it open source such that anyone can verify the website does what it says.
It is possible to verify that the website and the open source code are identical.
You can check it out and build the artifacts and compare them with the code delivered by the website.

The backend has multiple dependencies such as gmail api, a mongodb, a pinata account, google cloud storage and a user front account.
That's why it will be difficult to get it running unless you are willing to put some time to generate all the accounts.

Everyone has to visit your website to use my-legacy.

Yes, that's the idea

How can it conclude you're dead?

If you do not respond a health check email triggered by your heirs and do not respond to the reminder emails neither,
the system will conclude that you are dead. Your heirs will be able to access your archives / files as soon as the
system concluded that you are dead.

Which brings us to central points of failure. What happens if those providers shut down? Or if I constantly fail to restore my account?

I do not agree that this is a point of failure.
How often did you loose access to your gmail account in the past and you couldn't restore it? It never happened to me.
Also you need to loose access to my-legacy and your email account at the same time, which is even more unlikely.
If you lost access to your email and my-legacy account, migrate your crypto asssets to a new wallet.

Just to be sure that we are talking about the same thing:
If you forget your my-legacy password you can always reset your password.
We are talking about the situation were you lost access to the email account itself, right?

But, anyway, why should one use this solution as there's already a better one?

I like LoyceV's approach, however both solutions are quite different.

	LoyceV's approach	my-legacy
What can be inherited?	only crypto	any kind of document
Suitable for	long-term HODL funds	data that may change rapidly and long-term funds
Useful to backup or manage private data?	no	yes
Dependencies	none except the blockchain	the my-legacy website / service, google and userfront
Suitable to inherit assets from multiple blockchains?	yes, but it will become a bit complicated	yes

I think LoyceV's solution has the advantage to avoid third-party dependencies. It is a blockchain-only solution.
my-legacy is more convenient to inherit different kinds of crypto assets.
Also, with my-legacy you can also inherit PDFs or text documents.

[BlackHatCoiner]

How often did you loose access to your gmail account in the past and you couldn't restore it? It never happened to me.

And I've never had my money stolen from any exchanges nor I know any people who've lost them in the same way. I've never had any permission troubles with online banking neither; that doesn't mean there isn't a central point of failure. And if I'm going to plan for long-term inheritance, the first thing that I'll ask myself is how will I do this trustlessly and in a decentralized manner so I can ensure I'll have no failures.

We are talking about the situation were you lost access to the email account itself, right?

First and foremost, yeah.


I'm focusing on inheriting crypto assets which sounds more likely to happen in a household. I assume that's the main feature of your service.

[bobby_x]

Interesting use case that can be used in real life and if I understand this correctly everything is free, anonymous and open source.

The backend / server is currently not open source. The website itself is.
I will consider making the backend open source as well, if many people are interested.

My question is what happens if your website goes down for whatever reason (domain expiration, ban from government, etc.), how can someone recover access?
No website means there are no more accounts to.

Users can choose to upload their files to the interplanetary file system (ipfs) and / or to a google cloud storage container.
The ipfs is public and anyone who knows the hash of a file can access the file (all data uploaded by the user is encrypted, the data is still safe).
You can write down the ipfs hash and the salt used for encryption of your archives. This way you will still be able to access and decrypt the files if the website is down or if I am cancelled by google. If the goverment decides to erase all my-legacy related data, all accounts and probably even the ipfs entries might be lost.

In case the domain is confiscated for some reason no data will be lost. All users will be informed via email of the event and the
service will be available using a different domain.

[dkbit98]

The backend / server is currently not open source. The website itself is.
I will consider making the backend open source as well, if many people are interested.

You can also consider making some fallback option, for manual and offline recovery of documents, without using any website.
Maybe you could also add donation addresses, because I see you are doing all this for free and you need some funds for keeping everything alive and running.

In case the domain is confiscated for some reason no data will be lost. All users will be informed via email of the event and the
service will be available using a different domain.

I know about ipfs, but I don't consider using google cloud storage reliable as they can decide to delete everything at any time.
Instead of creating many clearnet my suggestion would be to create one .onion website for browsing with Tor browser.
This sounds like a reasonable solution and protection from potential ddos attacks.

[Kakmakr]

Ok,

What happens if the donation dry up...will you fund this project from your own money or will you simply shutdown the site?

What happens if the trigger is activated to send the email to your family and friends and for some reason the receivers email is not delivered. (The receivers mailbox might be full.... or there might be technical issues with their mail server etc..) Will it keep sending the email until the receiver reply?

Can I rather send an encrypted document ...and then your service encrypt it on top of that? (I do not trust a middleman in any cloud service... more so when their service is free)  

Also, if I get into a accident or if I am sick and hospitalized for a long time.... this service might send out the email before I die.  

[BlackHatCoiner]

I still haven't got an answer on why you shouldn't just use a decentralized solution for your crypto assets.

Can I rather send an encrypted document ...and then your service encrypt it on top of that? (I do not trust a middleman in any cloud service... more so when their service is free)

The files shouldn't be encrypted on the back-end, but on the front-end so you should be able to verify that.


By the way, you might want to change phrases such as "Before our die" or "After your die" as they sound macabre. Just replace it with "Before you pass away" and "After you pass away".

[bobby_x]

You can also consider making some fallback option, for manual and offline recovery of documents, without using any website.

Yes, im planning to do that. It does not exist at the moment, however.

Maybe you could also add donation addresses, because I see you are doing all this for free and you need some funds for keeping everything alive and running.

There is a list with donation addresss in the documentation of my-legacy.

I know about ipfs, but I don't consider using google cloud storage reliable as they can decide to delete everything at any time.
Instead of creating many clearnet my suggestion would be to create one .onion website for browsing with Tor browser.
This sounds like a reasonable solution and protection from potential ddos attacks.

An .onion website may still use a google cloud storage to store its data.
The storage location and whether a website is available through the deep web are not related.
I don't plan to make the site exclusively available through the tor network,
because I believe the gain of anonymity does not out-weigh the benefits of a clearnet site for this use case.

What happens if the donation dry up...will you fund this project from your own money or will you simply shutdown the site?

If the costs of running the service are not covered by the donations and I can not find another source of funding, I might be forced to shut down the service at some point.
However, there will be a warning to all users before this happens. I will provide 60 days’ notice to users via email to allow them enough time to make arrangements as stated in the documentation.

What happens if the trigger is activated to send the email to your family and friends and for some reason the receivers email is not delivered. (The receivers mailbox might be full.... or there might be technical issues with their mail server etc..) Will it keep sending the email until the receiver reply?
Also, if I get into a accident or if I am sick and hospitalized for a long time.... this service might send out the email before I die. 

There is no email that goes to your friends or family. You heirs can use their access code to trigger a health check.
If you do not respond to a health check email and do not respond to the reminder emails neither the system will grant your heirs access to your files.
Your heirs can then use their access code to access the files you prepared for them.
Therefore, if you are in a coma it is quite possible your heirs will be able to access your files.

Can I rather send an encrypted document ...and then your service encrypt it on top of that? (I do not trust a middleman in any cloud service... more so when their service is free) 

All data is encrypted locally in the browser. However it's possbile to double encrypt your data.

Why don't you just try it out 

I still haven't got an answer on why you shouldn't just use a decentralized solution for your crypto assets.

Which decentralized solution are you referring to?

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[BlackHatCoiner]

Which decentralized solution are you referring to?

LockTime which is suggested by LoyceV.

[dkbit98]

There is a list with donation addresss in the documentation of my-legacy.

Donation addresses should be clearly visible for anyone who visits your website, and not hidden in some documentation page.
If I couldn't find this addres until now than most likely nobody will ever find it and donate anything...that is just my opinion.

because I believe the gain of anonymity does not out-weigh the benefits of a clearnet site for this use case.

One of the main points of your website is Anonymous service that only need email for registration, and I don't see anything bad with alternative .onion website.
It's sure much better than changing clearnet domains all the time, and risk for getting attacked with ddos or hijacked website is much less.
I don't know anything better at this moment, and I see clearnet websites going down all the time.

[bobby_x]

LockTime which is suggested by LoyceV.

LoyceV solution is based on creating a transaction which is executed in the future.
It has the benefit of being decentralized and depends on the blockchain exclusively.

However:
-it is a clunky solution given you need to cancel and recreate the
transaction every time you want to change the transaction amount or the time the transaction takes place
-it requires technical knowledge not everyone has
-it's inconvenient to use even for inheriting coins from one blockchain;
if we are talking about inheriting several coins from different chains this technique becomes a major pain in the butt
-this technique prevents you from staking your coins which just kills the solution for me

Most drawbacks are stated in the post itself:
-you should know the pre-signed transaction becomes invalid the moment you move any of the input funds.
-You should also know any newly added funds won't automatically be added to your Locktime Recovery Sheet.
 You have to keep track of this by yourself.
-We can't predict transaction fees in the future, so you'll have to take a guess there. There's no need to make it very high, because the receiver can always use CPFP if needed. It shouldn't be under the minimum though.

Error prone: Don't accidentally set a Locktime many centuries ahead!

Therefore, I don't consider this approach to be a practical solution.
I'm sure one can ease the pain of using the LockTime solution with additional software, it's just not the way I want to go.

my-legacy has none of this drawbacks at the cost of being not decentralized.
I guess it's a question of personal preference.

Donation addresses should be clearly visible for anyone who visits your website, and not hidden in some documentation page.
If I couldn't find this addres until now than most likely nobody will ever find it and donate anything...that is just my opinion.

I will put the donation address on the front page so you can see it. How much will you donate?

One of the main points of your website is Anonymous service that only need email for registration, and I don't see anything bad with alternative .onion website.
It's sure much better than changing clearnet domains all the time, and risk for getting attacked with ddos or hijacked website is much less.
I don't know anything better at this moment, and I see clearnet websites going down all the time.

I agree. If the project goes well there will probably be an additional .onion endpoint. It surely does not hurt.
Altough darknet websites have the tendency to "go down" as well sometimes (e.g. Alpha Bay)