Problem
The Dilemma: Self-Custody vs. Succession
In the current decentralized landscape, users face a paradox: "Not your keys, not your crypto," but also "If you die, your keys die with you." There is no native safety net.
The "Bus Factor" & Private Key Paradox
Self-custody is the gold standard of crypto, but it creates a single point of failure.
The Reality: If you pass away or become incapacitated today, your private keys go with you.
The Statistic: Billions of dollars in crypto are estimated to be lost permanently due to lost keys or death of the owner.
The Result: Total loss. Without a protocol like LegacyVault, your family cannot access your digital wealth, no matter how much you have accumulated.
Traditional Wills Don't Work for Crypto
Relying on lawyers and paper wills for digital assets is fundamentally flawed.
Trust Issues: Giving your seed phrase to a lawyer or family member now creates a massive security risk while you are still alive.
Slow Settlement: Probate courts take months or years. Your family might need the funds immediately, but legal bureaucracy freezes everything.
Incompatibility: The legal system does not understand smart contracts or DeFi wallets.
The "Idle Legacy" Problem
Existing Dead Man's Switch solutions force you to lock up funds, rendering them useless until the event occurs.
Opportunity Cost: If you lock 10,000 USDC for your children today, it sits idle for years.
Inflation Erosion: While waiting for the inheritance event, the locked funds lose purchasing power every year due to inflation.
Dead Capital: Most inheritance protocols act as "digital coffins" rather than active vaults.
High Maintenance Costs (Gas Anxiety)
On standard EVM chains, maintaining an inheritance contract is expensive.
Costly Heartbeats: Regularly "pinging" a contract to prove you are alive can rack up significant gas fees over years.
Complex Logic: Executing complex date calculations and multi-asset transfers on Ethereum Mainnet is prohibitively expensive for average users.
The Cost: Because of these barriers, most crypto users simply hope for the best and leave no instructions—guaranteeing that their hard-earned assets will effectively vanish from circulation upon their death.
The Market Gap
There is a massive disconnect between Secure Self-Custody and Seamless Inheritance. LegacyVault bridges this gap by offering a trustless Dead Man's Switch that not only protects your assets but grows them (via Lending Pool) while you are still alive.