How it works
How LifeWyn works, from the first record to the final handover
This is the whole journey: how LifeWyn keeps your life private and locked today, and hands it to the people you love only after your rules are met and a passing is verified beyond doubt. Missing a check-in never opens anything on its own.
- Step 1
Encrypt & store
Your documents, credentials, and messages are encrypted on your own device — client-side — before anything is uploaded. Only ciphertext ever reaches our servers. The keys that can unlock it never leave your control.
- Step 2
Set your rules & nominees
Decide who inherits what. Add nominees, executors, and trustees, then configure thresholds and primary, secondary, and tertiary fallbacks. Grant each person least-privilege access down to the individual item.
- Step 3
Stay checked in, stay protected
On a cadence you choose, you confirm you're well with a simple tap. Everything stays private and dormant. Miss your check-ins and a graduated escalation begins — reminders first, then your trusted contacts.
- Step 4
Multi-signal verification
Release is never triggered by a single event. Documents, trusted-contact confirmations, and independent signals are combined by a confidence engine that only proceeds once a high threshold is crossed. Disputes can pause the process for review.
- Step 5
Key-share release
Once verification succeeds, our servers release encrypted key-shares — never plaintext data — to the nominees your rules authorize. Threshold cryptography ensures no single party could have reconstructed those keys alone.
- Step 6
Nominees claim & access
Nominees use the accountless portal — no sign-up required — to verify their identity with a one-time code, decrypt exactly what you left them, and complete their claim. Every step is tracked and timestamped.
We release keys — we never hand over your data
Most services would simply share your files with a beneficiary. LifeWyn works differently: your data stays encrypted end to end, and inheritance happens by releasing encrypted key-shares to authorized nominees. The server never sees, copies, or decrypts your content.
The server never decrypts
We only ever hold ciphertext and encrypted key-shares. There is no moment in the flow where your plaintext exists on our infrastructure.
Nothing to leak, nothing to subpoena
A breach or a legal demand reaches ciphertext, plus the account details we need to run the service. The keys that decrypt your vault are derived on your device and are not on our servers.
You stay in control until the very end
Access is unlocked by releasing key-shares to the people you chose, under the rules you set — not by us copying or forwarding your data.
Why silence is never enough
A missed check-in is not proof of anything
Plenty of apps in this category open up the moment you stop responding. LifeWyn is built so that being unreachable, on its own, never opens anything — a missed check-in starts a sequence, and each stage has to fail before the next one begins.
A missed check-in
Hour 0Treated as an ordinary miss, because it usually is. Nothing opens.
Reminders to you
Hours 1-48Push, then WhatsApp, then email. Still nothing opens.
Your trusted contacts are asked
Hour 48+They're asked to confirm you're well. One confirmation resets everything.
A grace period
48 hoursEven with no response, a waiting period you chose has to pass first.
Evidence is required
Days 5-14Documents are submitted and verified, and the recipient's identity is checked separately.
Review and release
HoursA fraud review runs and your own rules are applied before any key-shares move.
You can cancel at any stage before the final release, from your phone, without explaining why.
Different events open different things
A hospital stay should not open your estate papers
Death is not the only thing that leaves a family stuck, so LifeWyn separates the events instead of treating them the same.
A medical emergency
Only the emergency information you marked as such becomes visible, usually to one person — medical directives, allergy and medication notes, insurance and hospital contacts. Nothing financial, nothing private, nothing permanent.
Legal incapacity
A verified incapacity opens the practical layer to whoever you named for it, so bills keep getting paid and cover doesn't lapse. Your personal messages stay sealed.
Extended silence
The slowest path, and the one with the most safeguards. It never completes on silence alone.
Verified death
The full sequence runs, and each recipient opens the room built for them. Every access is recorded in a history your executor can review.
What can stop a release
Eight separate things can hold or cancel a handover
From your own one-tap cancellation to a dispute raised by a family member, every safeguard is written out on the security page — including what happens when two recipients disagree.
One-tap cancellation
You can stop any release, at any stage before completion, from your phone. No explanation required.
Verified documents
Certificates and supporting papers have to be submitted and checked. A claim on its own is not evidence.
Recipient identity check
The person claiming access has to prove they are the person you named. A forwarded email is not enough.
Trusted-contact sign-off
The contacts you nominated are asked to confirm. A single confirmation from you resets the entire sequence.
Waiting periods
Nothing is irreversible during the grace period you chose. It exists so mistakes stay reversible.
Fraud review
A release that looks unusual is flagged for human review before anything moves. Conflicting evidence caps the confidence score.
Minimum disclosure
Each recipient receives only the records assigned to them. There is no mode in which anyone receives everything.
No asset custody
LifeWyn never holds your money. Even a complete compromise would expose a map, never a balance.
What your family sees on the other side
Not a database — a guided room built for them
Each person you named opens a room containing only their own records, with a short written list of what to handle first and who to call. Nobody has to understand encryption: shares reach them already wrapped for their device, and they decrypt locally once your rules and their identity check are satisfied — nobody is handed everything.
Questions
Asked and answered
How does LifeWyn work, in short?
You encrypt your records on your own device, decide who should receive which parts, and confirm you are well on a cadence you choose. If you stop responding, a graduated sequence runs: reminders across the first 48 hours, then your trusted contacts, then documents and identity checks across days 5 to 14, then any waiting period you set.
Only at the end are encrypted key-shares released to the people you named, and each one opens only the records assigned to them. You can cancel at any stage before it completes.
Is this a dead man's switch?
No. A dead man's switch opens when you stop responding, which assumes being unreachable means being gone — false often enough to be dangerous. A trek with a flat phone, a hospital stay without signal, a stolen handset.
Here a missed check-in starts a sequence instead, each stage has to fail before the next begins, and a single reply from you resets everything to zero.
How long does the whole process take?
About two weeks by default, and longer if you set a time lock. Reminders run across hours 1 to 48. Trusted contacts are asked at hour 48 and have a 48-hour window. Document and identity verification runs across days 5 to 14. Any time lock you configured runs after that, and the final rule evaluation takes hours.
Every one of those windows is configurable, so you can make it slower if you want to. We would rather be slow than wrong: a release that comes a week late is an inconvenience, and one that should not have happened cannot be undone.
What does a nominee actually receive?
A room containing only their own records, with a short written list of what to handle first and who to call. They do not need a LifeWyn account and they do not need to understand encryption: they verify their identity with a one-time code sent to the contact details you recorded, and the shares released to them are unwrapped on their own device. Nobody is handed everything.
Can I stop a release once it has started?
Yes, at any stage before it completes, from your phone, without giving a reason. If a trusted contact triggered something by mistake, you can cancel it. If you were simply unreachable, confirming resets the sequence. Where you set a time lock, a verified result still has to wait it out, and a cancellation check runs throughout that window.
Set it up once. Then let it wait.
Create your vault, name the people you trust, and write the rules that decide when — and only when — access opens. One quiet evening now can spare them the worst week of their lives.