As crypto adoption grows, a critical question becomes unavoidable: what happens to your digital assets if you are no longer around?
Unlike traditional finance, there is no bank, no recovery desk, and no court order that can magically restore access to a lost private key.
To address this, Miras.Global now introduces Dead Man’s Switch — a trustless, on-chain inheritance mechanism designed specifically for self-custodial crypto users.
What Is a Dead Man’s Switch?
A dead man’s switch is a mechanism that triggers an action when the owner fails to prove they are still active within a predefined period of time.
In the context of crypto inheritance, this means:
- You remain fully in control while alive
- No third party can access your assets prematurely
- Your heirs can recover access only if inactivity conditions are met
This removes the need for custodians, lawyers, or trusted intermediaries to hold sensitive key material.
Why Crypto Inheritance Needs a Different Approach
Crypto assets are bearer instruments.
Whoever controls the keys controls the funds.
This creates a fundamental inheritance problem:
- Seed phrases written on paper can be lost or destroyed
- Centralized custodians reintroduce counterparty risk
- Legal wills do not grant blockchain access
Dead Man’s Switch solves this by combining cryptographic guarantees with time-based conditions, enforced on-chain.
How Dead Man’s Switch Works on Miras.Global
Miras.Global builds Dead Man’s Switch on top of multisig Safe wallets.
The general flow is:
-
Create a multisig Safe
- Example: a 2-of-3 Safe
- One signer is you
- One signer is prepared for your heir
- One signer is encrypted and escrowed by the protocol
-
Define an inactivity period
- You decide how long you can remain inactive
- Any approved “proof of life” interaction resets the timer
-
Encrypted escrow
- Miras.Global never holds plaintext private keys
- Escrowed data is encrypted and useless on its own
-
Trigger and claim
- If inactivity exceeds the defined period
- The inheritance flow is unlocked
- Your heir can complete the multisig threshold and take control
At no point can the protocol act unilaterally or bypass Safe’s security model.
What Makes This Trustless
Dead Man’s Switch on Miras.Global is:
-
Non-custodial
No single party ever holds enough information to move funds. -
On-chain enforced
Conditions are transparent and verifiable. -
Safe-native
Built on battle-tested multisig infrastructure rather than custom wallets. -
Permissionless
No legal approval or centralized authority is required to execute the inheritance.
What Dead Man’s Switch Is Not
It is important to be clear about limitations:
- It does not replace a legal will
- It does not decide who should inherit — you do
- It does not bypass Safe’s threshold rules
- It does not guess death; it only reacts to inactivity
Dead Man’s Switch is a technical inheritance primitive, not a legal one.
Best Practices
We strongly recommend:
- Choosing conservative inactivity periods
- Informing heirs about the existence of the setup
- Periodically testing proof-of-life interactions
- Combining on-chain inheritance with traditional estate planning
Crypto inheritance should be intentional, not accidental.
Get Started
Dead Man’s Switch is now available as part of the Miras.Global onboarding flow.
If you already use Safe and care about self-custody beyond your own lifetime, this feature allows your assets to outlive you — without trusting anyone while you’re alive.
Get started at:
https://miras.global/get-started