Use Cases/Crypto Holders

Crypto continuity, designed for self-custody.

Document your holdings, distribute your access, set conditions for delivery — without trusting any single company, including ours. Vault Permanent keeps your continuity on Arweave from day one.

StoreUpdateDeliver
wallet-inventory.enc
Ledger Nano X · cold
Trezor Safe 5 · cold
Sparrow · 2-of-3 multisig
DeFi · Aave, Curve, Uniswap
recipient 1: spouse (identity-verified)
recipient 2: brother (identity-verified)
Encrypted client-side · AES-256-GCM

Who this page is for

If you self-custody meaningful crypto — anything from a single hardware wallet to a multisig setup with DeFi positions across chains — you've thought about what happens if you can't access it, or if you couldn't pass it on. This page is for you. Specifically: holders who already understand self-custody, have done some setup, and are thinking about the handoff layer their wallet doesn't include. We assume you know what a seed phrase is, what cold storage means, and why custodians aren't a substitute for self-custody.

Hardware wallet holdersMultisig & DeFi usersAlready self-custodyThinking about the handoff layer

Store, update, deliver — for self-custodied crypto

Store

Documentation about your holdings, encrypted on your own device. Wallet locations, exchange records, DeFi positions, recovery paths. Never the keys themselves — Vaulternal stores ciphertext you control.

Update

Versioned as your holdings evolve. Quarterly review reminders so the documentation doesn't go stale during a bull or bear cycle.

Deliver

On the trigger you set: a date, your manual command, an inactivity window, or confirmation from a trusted contact you designate. Identity-verified to the recipient. End-to-end audit trail.

How it works

Four steps, parameterized for the reader who'll verify each one.

Write or upload, on your device.

Documentation, inventories, recovery paths — encrypted client-side using AES-256-GCM. Recipient keys derived via secp256k1-ECIES. Our servers receive ciphertext only.

Set the delivery rule.

Choose recipients, trigger conditions (date, manual command, inactivity, or trusted-contact verification), and scope. Each rule is independent, editable, and revocable.

We hold only the encrypted package.

Vaulternal cannot decrypt, sign, reconstruct, or move anything. We hold no keys; we are not a custodian.

Recipient verified, file decrypted, delivery logged.

Identity verification before access. End-to-end audit trail. No account required for recipients to receive.

What belongs in a crypto continuity plan

The wallet inventory

Every hardware wallet, every software wallet, every exchange account. What's where. Updated quarterly.

The recovery seed locations

Where each seed phrase backup lives (paper, metal, safety deposit box). Not the seeds themselves — the map to find them.

The hardware wallet locations

Where each device is physically stored — home safe, deposit box, a trusted relative's. Not the PINs; the locations, so the right person can find them.

The exchange access packet

Centralized exchange accounts, 2FA recovery code locations, KYC documentation. For recipients who'd need to claim balances or close accounts.

The DeFi positions guide

Open positions on lending protocols, DEXs, yield farms. What they are, how to access them, how to unwind them.

The multisig coordinator handoff

For Casa, Unchained, Sparrow, or self-hosted multisig users — coordinator access, co-signer contacts, key share locations.

The hardware wallet operations guide

How to use the specific devices you hold. PIN structure (not PINs). Recovery procedures. Written for the non-technical recipient.

The "what to do first" document

A plain-English starting point for the recipient who's just been handed all of the above. What's urgent. What can wait. What to never do.

How Vaulternal compares to Sarcophagus and multisig

Honest, accurate competitor analysis is the persona's filter. Here's where each alternative genuinely wins — and the layer Vaulternal adds.

Often used alongside

vs. Sarcophagus

Sarcophagus is a decentralized dead man's switch protocol on Ethereum, designed for maximum trust-minimization. It works — but the ops burden is significant: archaeologist coordination, resurrection time costs, on-chain transaction management. Vaulternal is the consumer-grade equivalent: easier setup, less trust-minimized in the maximum-paranoia sense, but with Vault Permanent keeping your entire vault on Arweave from day one.

Sarcophagus wins on pure trust-minimization. Many crypto-native holders appreciate Vaulternal's ease of use plus on-chain permanence.

vs. Casa or Unchained multisig

Multisig coordinators are for active joint custody during your life — you, the coordinator, and other co-signers signing transactions together. Vaulternal is for what happens after, or when you can't act: the documentation handoff, the access continuity, the recipient guide. Many holders use both.

Casa for active multisig. Vaulternal for the handoff layer multisig was never designed to cover.

vs. a paper or metal seed phrase backup

Paper and metal backups are how you store the secret itself. Vaulternal is how you store the documentation around the secret — the inventory, the map, the recipient guide, the access procedures. Both belong in a complete plan.

Paper/metal wins as the secret backup. Vaulternal handles everything else.

vs. telling your spouse where the seed phrase is

Common pattern; brittle. Verbal handoff dies with memory. No documentation about what to do with the seed phrase once found. No recipient guide. No identity verification. No audit trail. The first 30 minutes of work on Vaulternal replaces this with something durable.

Verbal handoff is the default. Vaulternal is the upgrade most holders never make.

The Vaulternal layer

The handoff layer none of these include

Hardware wallets and multisig coordinators secure your keys. None of them document what you hold, distribute access to the right people, or deliver on a condition you set. That's the layer Vaulternal adds — with Vault Permanent keeping it on-chain, independent of any single company, including ours.

Privacy and architecture

Three beats, written for a reader who'll verify the claims.

Encrypted before it leaves your device.

Files are encrypted on your own machine using AES-256-GCM. Recipient access uses secp256k1-ECIES with keys derived from BIP-39/BIP-32 HD wallet schemes. Vaulternal's servers store ciphertext. We hold no keys. We cannot decrypt, sign, reconstruct, or move anything.

Conditional delivery, fully under your control.

Every delivery rule is a condition you set: a date, your manual command, an inactivity window, or confirmation from a trusted contact you designate. Rules are independent, editable, revocable up to the moment they fire. Each delivery is identity-verified to the named recipient. Audit trail is end-to-end.

Designed to outlast any single company — including ours.

Vault Permanent ($29/month annual) is the dedicated subscription tier where your entire vault lives on Arweave from day one — no permanence questions to revisit, no Vaulternal dependency. If we disappear tomorrow, Vault Permanent deliveries are unaffected, on infrastructure independent of any single company, including ours.

Pricing, framed for crypto holders

Two paths. Pick what matches how you want to think about permanence.

Recommended
Recommended for crypto

Vault Permanent

On-chain storage from day one. Survives any single company — including ours.

$39.00$29.00/month
Billed $348.00/year
Save 26%

For holders who want permanence as the default operating model.

Everything in Pro
Arweave permanence by default — your entire vault on-chain
No per-delivery permanence decisions to revisit
Priority support

Most crypto holders who want permanence pick Vault Permanent — everything on-chain from day one, no decisions to revisit. The standard tiers below cover holders who don't need on-chain permanence.

Or start on a standard tier

Free

$0
2GB encrypted storage
1 delivery rule
1 recipient
Time-based delivery

Starter

$7.00/month
Billed $84.00/year
Save 22%
100GB encrypted storage
5 delivery rules
5 recipients per rule
Time, manual & trusted-contact delivery

Pro

$15.00/month
Billed $180.00/year
Save 21%
1TB encrypted storage
Unlimited delivery rules
Unlimited recipients per rule
All delivery types — time, manual, inactivity, trusted contacts

Common crypto holder questions

Start with one delivery rule

Read the architecture →

The first packet most crypto holders create is a basic wallet inventory — under 30 minutes of work, free to set up. No credit card. Vault Permanent available for on-chain permanence from day one.