TL;DR: I spent 3 months auditing Sarcophagus, Inheriti, and Casa. They all had deal-breakers (Centralization, Tokenomics, or Cost). So I built Deadhand Protocol: the first open-source, non-custodial Dead Man's Switch for crypto. Here is the code.
The "Bus Factor" ProblemIf I get hit by a bus tomorrow, my Bitcoin dies with me.This is the "Self-Custody Paradox." We spend years learning to secure our keys from hackers, but we accidentally secure them from our own families.I looked for a solution. I wanted something:Trustless (No lawyers holding paper keys).Automated (Triggered by my inactivity).Open Source (I need to verify the cryptography).I found nothing that worked. Here is my audit of the current landscape in 2026.The Audit: What Exists?1. The "Lawyer" Method (Paper) 📄Mechanism: Write seed phrase on paper. Give to lawyer.The Flaw: Lawyers get hacked. Lawyers lose papers. Lawyers can collude with beneficiaries while you are still alive.Verdict: F- (Security Risk).2. Casa (Multisig Inheritance) 🔐Mechanism: 3-of-5 Multisig. Casa holds a key, you hold keys, beneficiary holds a key.The Good: Great UX. Reliable.The Bad: Expensive ($250+/year). It requires KYC. It relies on Casa existing in 10 years.Verdict: B+ (Good for non-technical whales).3. Sarcophagus (DAO/Token) ⚰️Mechanism: Encrypts data on Arweave. "Archaeologists" (node operators) resurrect it for a fee (SARCO tokens).The Good: Decentralized. Cool tech.The Bad: Complexity Hell. You need ETH + SARCO tokens. You need to manage "resurrection windows." If the token price crashes, the incentive model breaks.Verdict: C (Too complex for simple inheritance).4. Inheriti (SafeHaven) 🛡️Mechanism: Splits keys using Patents/Hardware.The Good: Secure hardware integration.The Bad: Proprietary. It is not fully open source. "Patent Pending" means I cannot audit the logic myself.Verdict: C+ (Trust-based).The Solution: Deadhand Protocol 💀I realized that inheritance is not a blockchain problem. It is a cryptography problem.We don't need a token. We need Shamir's Secret Sharing (SSS) + A Dead Man's Switch.So I built Deadhand.How it Works (The Engineering)Deadhand is a "Server-Assisted" Non-Custodial protocol. The server acts as the heartbeat monitor, but it never sees your keys.Step 1: The Split (Client-Side)We use Shamir's Secret Sharing (SSS) to split your secret (Seed Phrase) into 3 Shares.Share A: Stored on your device (Local).Share B: Encrypted and stored on the Server (Deadhand).Share C: Given to your Beneficiary (Email/Link).Step 2: The HeartbeatAlive: You check in (email link / API call) every 30 days. The server keeps Share B encrypted.Dead: You miss X check-ins. The server releases Share B to the Beneficiary.Step 3: The ReconstructionThe Beneficiary combines Share C (which they have) + Share B (from the server).Share B + Share C = Secret.The Server never had enough shares to reconstruct it.The Beneficiary never had enough shares to steal it early.The Code (Python/FastAPI)The core logic relies on the secretsharing library. Here is the simplified logic:Pythonfrom secretsharing import SecretSharer
def create_deadhand_vault(secret_key):
# 1. Split key into 3 parts (Need 2 to recover)
shares = SecretSharer.split_secret(secret_key, 2, 3)
# 2. Distribute
user_share = shares[0]
server_share = encrypt_for_server(shares[1]) # Server can't read this yet
beneficiary_share = shares[2]
return user_share, server_share, beneficiary_share
Comparison Matrix FeatureDeadhand 💀Casa 🏠Sarcophagus ⚰️Lawyers ⚖️Open Source✅ YES❌ No✅ Yes❌ NoCostFree / One-time$250/yr+Gas + Tokens$1,000+Token Required❌ NO❌ No✅ Yes (SARCO)❌ NoCustodyNon-CustodialSemi-CustodialNon-CustodialCustodialComplexityLow (Web2 UX)LowHighMediumConclusionIf you want to pay $250/year for someone to hold your hand, use Casa.If you want to play with DeFi tokenomics, use Sarcophagus.If you want Sovereign, Free, Open-Source Code that you can audit yourself, use Deadhand.Code is Law. Death is certain. Plan accordingly.🔗 Links:Website: [Your Website Link]GitHub: [Your GitHub Link]Twitter: [@YourHandle]
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