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Documentation Index

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Every day, digital assets worth millions become permanently inaccessible — not because of theft or technical failure, but because the person holding the private keys can no longer act. Deadman Vault solves this with a proof-of-life protocol on the Stacks blockchain: you lock USDCx in a vault, periodically check in to prove you’re still in control, and if you ever stop responding, an automated keeper routes your funds to your configured beneficiaries — no lawyer, no middleman, no manual intervention required.

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The Problem It Solves

Crypto is self-sovereign by design, but that same property becomes a liability in an emergency. There is no account recovery, no next-of-kin form, no institution to call. Deadman Vault closes this gap by turning the simple act of checking in into an on-chain proof of life. As long as you check in before each deadline, your vault stays locked and only you can access it. The moment you stop — whether by choice or circumstance — the protocol takes over.

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How the Protocol Works

The core loop is four steps:
  1. Lock — you deposit USDCx to your vault’s dedicated keeper address. The keeper calls FlowVault’s setRoutingRules() and deposit() to lock the funds on-chain until a deadline block.
  2. Heartbeat — before each deadline, you send 0.01 USDCx to the keeper. It extends the lock via FlowVault’s lock-stacking mechanism, resetting your countdown.
  3. Grace Period — if a deadline passes without a check-in, a 48-hour (288-block) grace period begins and an urgent notification goes out.
  4. Payout — if the grace period expires, vault status becomes triggered. The keeper automatically withdraws the full balance and sends USDCx to each beneficiary according to their configured allocation percentage, respecting any vesting cliffs along the way.

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Built On

Deadman Vault is built on Stacks, a Bitcoin-anchored smart contract platform, using FlowVault — a composable token-routing protocol that provides programmable LOCK, SPLIT, and HOLD primitives for USDCx. The application layer is a Next.js 15 app with a Supabase PostgreSQL backend, @stacks/connect for Leather and Xverse wallet integration, and Resend for lifecycle email notifications. Automated settlement is handled by Vercel Cron Jobs acting as the keeper.

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Key Features

  • Configurable intervals — heartbeat periods from 7 days to 2 years
  • Multi-beneficiary splits — up to 100% allocated across any number of Stacks addresses
  • Vesting cliffs — per-beneficiary vesting_days delays staged inheritance releases
  • Automatic settlement — keeper cron triggers payout without any beneficiary action
  • Warning notifications — email alerts 3 days before deadline and immediately on grace period entry
  • On-demand claim — beneficiaries can manually trigger settlement via the /claim/[vaultId] page if the cron hasn’t run yet
  • Encrypted keeper keys — per-vault Stacks keypairs are AES-encrypted at rest using KEEPER_ENCRYPTION_KEY
  • TypeScript strict mode — end-to-end type safety across the full stack
Testnet only — custodial keeper. The current build uses a server-held private key (the “keeper”) to act on the owner’s behalf once a vault flatlines. This is custodial: the keeper key can move funds. It is a deliberate, clearly-labeled shortcut to demonstrate end-to-end settlement on testnet without a custom Clarity contract. Do not use this on mainnet with real funds. The production path is a permissionless claim function in a wrapper Clarity contract so no server ever holds a key that can move real assets.

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Explore the Docs

Quickstart

Set up your local development environment and run Deadman Vault in under 10 minutes.

How It Works

A step-by-step walkthrough from vault creation through automatic beneficiary payout.

Vault Lifecycle

Deep dive into every vault status — funding, active, warning, grace period, triggered, claimed.

Security Model

Understand the custodial keeper trade-offs, encryption at rest, and the path to trustless settlement.

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