Dead Man's Releases
Ghost Protocol enables information or value to be released automatically if certain conditions are met, typically the prolonged absence or inaction of the committer.
The Pattern
A dead man's release works as follows:
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Commit with conditions. You create a commitment and specify release conditions (e.g., "if I do not check in for 90 days").
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Designate beneficiaries. You provide secrets or partial secrets to trusted parties or automated systems.
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Maintain control. As long as you are active and checking in, the release does not trigger.
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Automatic release. If the conditions are met (e.g., you stop checking in), the designated parties can reveal the commitment.
What This Provides
Dead man's releases enable conditional transfer without ongoing trust:
Contingent inheritance. Assets can pass to heirs only if you are genuinely unable to manage them yourself.
Whistleblower protection. Information can be released automatically if something happens to you, creating deterrence.
Business continuity. Operational secrets can transfer to designated successors if you become incapacitated.
Insurance against coercion. The threat of automatic release can protect against forced actions.
How It Works
The basic mechanism relies on time-locked secrets:
You create a commitment and share partial information with one or more trustees. The trustees cannot reveal the commitment alone, but they can if you fail to reset a timer or provide a missing piece.
Variations include:
Check-in model. You must actively signal periodically. Failure to signal enables release.
Multi-party threshold. Multiple trustees must coordinate to release. No single party has full control.
Time-lock encryption. The secret becomes computable after a certain time, regardless of actions.
Categories of Use
Dead man's releases enable many categories of applications:
Digital inheritance. Cryptocurrency, passwords, and digital assets pass to heirs only when needed.
Journalism protection. Sensitive stories are published automatically if the journalist is silenced.
Corporate succession. Business-critical information transfers to successors under specified conditions.
Personal insurance. Critical information is released to trusted parties if you become unavailable.
Design Considerations
Dead man's releases require careful design:
False positives. What if you simply forget to check in? The system needs to distinguish between incapacity and oversight.
Trustee reliability. Your trustees must be available and trustworthy when the time comes.
Condition verification. How does the system verify that conditions have been met?
Revocation. Can you change your mind and disable the release while you are still active?
These are application-level concerns, not protocol limitations. Ghost Protocol provides the commitment mechanism; the conditional logic is built on top.
The Trade-Off
Dead man's releases trade simplicity for contingency:
Once you set up a dead man's release, you are committing to a future action that may or may not happen. You are giving up some control in exchange for insurance against worst-case scenarios.
This is appropriate when the downside of inaction (e.g., heirs cannot access assets) outweighs the downside of automatic action (e.g., premature release).