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This is an interesting approach. You're right that normal dead man's switches create unnecessary notifications. By definition, every check-in you acknowledge i

by alcazar 7mo ago

This is an interesting approach. You're right that normal dead man's switches create unnecessary notifications. By definition, every check-in you acknowledge is unnecessary. Only the last one, when you're actually dead, is necessary. So you invert it: from push-based to pull-based. This creates a different set of issues. Now your partner or contacts must keep the app installed and set up over the years. They will change phones, life will happen. But if they don't properly custody their keys, they won't be able to access the data when they need it most. There's an argument for both approaches, and neither is necessarily superior. When we built our dead man's switch, we were thinking of sending a last message to non-technical people who aren't good at long-term key custody. But if your recipients are more technical or you expect this to be needed in a short timeframe, this approach reduces notifications, which is a plus. By the way, kudos for your cryptographic choices and for making the app code source-available. The next step would be reproducible builds with instructions for manual builds from source. Otherwise, I can't be sure that what I'm installing matches the published codebase, which diminishes the value of sharing the code. What I'm curious about: how is this different from Bitwarden's Emergency Access? You can upload attachments to your vault and set different emergency contacts for different vaults. So if you're already using Bitwarden as your password manager, why not use its Emergency Access feature too?

artidokuz 7mo ago
Great points, and you're right to call out the push vs. pull tradeoff neither is universally better, it really depends on your recipients. On the Bitwarden comparison though: one thing worth clarifying is that Bitwarden's emergency access doesn't actually support per-vault or per-item scoping. It's all-or-nothing your contact gets your entire personal vault, and you can't give different people access to different secrets. That's actually a long-standing feature request in their community with no resolution yet. One of the reasons I made this app. The bigger practical gap is the recipient side. Bitwarden emergency access requires your contact to have their own Bitwarden account, maintain it over the years, and know to go request access when something happens to you. For a technically savvy partner who already uses Bitwarden, sure that works. But for a parent, sibling, or lawyer who isn't in that world, it quietly fails in the exact moment it's needed most. If they know there is a spesific app for these cases, easy to use, a way to request not buried under 100 features I though this would be easier to use for them. Also they can request one secret from you at one time. Maybe a wifi password? It doesnt have to be life or death. This is what the app is about it deliveres secret whenever you want. Dead mans switch case is only one option. And fair point on reproducible builds that's a meaningful gap between source-available and truly verifiable. Worth prioritizing. I want to invest more time on that.

by alcazar 7mo ago

artidokuz 7mo ago

Great points, and you're right to call out the push vs. pull tradeoff neither is universally better, it really depends on your recipients. On the Bitwarden comparison though: one thing worth clarifying is that Bitwarden's emergency access doesn't actually support per-vault or per-item scoping. It's all-or-nothing your contact gets your entire personal vault, and you can't give different people access to different secrets. That's actually a long-standing feature request in their community with no resolution yet. One of the reasons I made this app. The bigger practical gap is the recipient side. Bitwarden emergency access requires your contact to have their own Bitwarden account, maintain it over the years, and know to go request access when something happens to you. For a technically savvy partner who already uses Bitwarden, sure that works. But for a parent, sibling, or lawyer who isn't in that world, it quietly fails in the exact moment it's needed most. If they know there is a spesific app for these cases, easy to use, a way to request not buried under 100 features I though this would be easier to use for them. Also they can request one secret from you at one time. Maybe a wifi password? It doesnt have to be life or death. This is what the app is about it deliveres secret whenever you want. Dead mans switch case is only one option. And fair point on reproducible builds that's a meaningful gap between source-available and truly verifiable. Worth prioritizing. I want to invest more time on that.