§Configuring a programmable Dead Man’s Switch to solve the paradox of self-custody.

by Alien Investor

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“Not your keys, not your coins.”

This is the first law of Bitcoin sovereignty. But have you considered the second law?

“Lost keys, lost coins.”

The greatest paradox of self-custody is mortality. If you secure your setup so well that no thief can access it, your heirs likely won’t be able to either. If you make it accessible to them (a paper in a safe, a lawyer with a key), you create security holes that could cost you everything while you are still alive.

Millions of Bitcoin are already lost forever because owners died and took their secrets to the grave. Until now, solutions required complex schemes or trust in third parties.

This changes with Liana Wallet. We can now build a programmable “Dead Man’s Switch” directly on the blockchain.

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§The Problem: Why Traditional Inheritance Fails For a Cypherpunk, traditional options are flawed:

The Lawyer/Notary: You hand keys to a third party. This breaks the “Don’t Trust, Verify” principle. Lawyers can be hacked or dishonest.

Shamir’s Secret Sharing (SSS): You split your seed into pieces. While mathematically sound, it is an operational nightmare. Can your grieving family really reconstruct a complex SSS scheme?

The “Paper in the Safe”: Simple, but risky. If a burglar finds the paper, the money is gone (“Wrench Attack”).

We need a system that is maximally secure while you live (no one can spend without you) and automatically accessible when you die.

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§The Solution: Liana and the “15-Month Strategy” Liana applies logic to your transactions using Bitcoin Timelocks.

How the Dead Man’s Switch works:

1. The Primary Path (You are alive): You use your standard hardware wallets (e.g., a BitBox02). You can move your coins at any time.

2. The Recovery Path (The Heir): There is a second key. It is embedded in the wallet code, but it is cryptographically invalid until a specific time has passed.

3. The Timer: We set an on-chain timer, for example, 15 months.

Every time you make a transaction—or send a transaction to yourself once a year (a “Refresh”)—the timer on the blockchain resets. The heir’s key remains useless.

The Scenario: If you die or become incapacitated, your transactions stop. The timer runs out. After 15 months (approx. 65,000 blocks), the recovery path becomes valid on the blockchain. Only then can the heir’s key move the coins.

Why 15 months? In the technical community, this has become a standard.

12 Month Cycle: Every sovereign user should perform a security audit once a year (firmware updates, backup checks).

3 Month Buffer: If you are hospitalized or simply forget, you have a 90-day safety margin before the heir key becomes active.

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Under the Hood: Miniscript & Decaying Multisig Liana utilizes Miniscript. This language makes Bitcoin Script (the machine code of Bitcoin) readable and secure. It allows us to link conditions like “AND”, “OR”, and “OLDER THAN”.

A powerful feature is “Decaying Multisig”. Imagine a high-security setup requiring 3 out of 5 keys. If you lose 3 keys, the coins are usually lost. With Liana, you can program entropy:

• Today: 3 of 5 keys are required.

• After 4 years of inactivity: 2 of 5 keys are required.

• After 5 years of inactivity: 1 of 5 keys is required.

This transforms the risk of “total loss” into the risk of a “temporary lock”.

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§The Workflow: Setup in 4 Phases

Liana is not a wallet you install and forget. It is an active protocol.

Phase 1: Design & Topology

Decide on a structure.

Primary (Daily): E.g., a Single Sig or a 2-of-3 setup for high security.

Recovery (Heir): A separate signing setup (e.g., a Ledger or a SeedSigner combined with its SeedQR) stored securely with the heir or in a bank vault.

Vault note: A safe deposit box is not a trust boundary. Do not store an unencrypted seed/SeedQR there. If you use a vault, protect the secret (e.g., BIP39 passphrase stored separately or a split scheme) and use tamper-evident sealing. A stateless device like SeedSigner is replaceable; the Seed/SeedQR is the secret.

⚠️Important: With stateless devices like SeedSigner, the device itself stores nothing long-term; the Seed/SeedQR is the actual secret that must be secured. The hardware is replaceable.

Phase 2: Key Generation

Generate the heir’s key on a separate, clean device. This key must never touch your regular computer. Secure the seed on steel and seal it. Only the public key (xpub) is imported into the Liana software.

Phase 3: Configuration

Install the Liana Desktop App. Link your primary key and the heir’s xpub. Set the timelock (e.g., 65,000 blocks).

Operational Rule: In Liana, timelocks are applied per UTXO and are relative (CSV-style). If you want the recovery path to stay unusable while you’re alive, you must periodically “refresh” by moving funds to a new output before the timelock expires (even if it’s just to yourself).

Critical OpSec Note: With Liana, the seed is not enough! You MUST back up the Descriptor.

The descriptor is the blueprint that tells the wallet: “This seed belongs to a timelock script.” Without the descriptor, your heirs cannot reliably derive the right addresses/policy to locate and spend the coins.

Best Practice: Export and store Liana’s backup (e.g., an encrypted descriptor backup such as a .bed file) in multiple, independent locations. The descriptor alone can reveal wallet structure and addresses, but it does not let an attacker spend without the keys.

Phase 4: The Handover Package

Your heir receives a physical package (personally or via notary) containing:

1. The Recovery Seed (sealed).

2. The Descriptor (on a USB drive or as a QR code).

3. Instructions: “Install Liana, load this file, enter the seed.”

4. The Condition: “Check my address. If nothing has moved for 15 months, you can claim the funds.”

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§Hardware & Nodes Liana is a software coordinator. The security comes from your hardware.

> Recommended Hardware: BitBox02 The BitBox02 Bitcoin-only Edition is ideal here because it supports Miniscript natively. It displays the exact conditions on its screen (“Spendable after 65,000 blocks”), preventing hacked software from tricking you.

👉 https://alien-investor.org/bitbox (Use code ALIENINVESTOR for a 5% discount at the official shop)

To verify if 15 months have passed, Liana needs to know the chain state. You do not need 600 GB of storage. Liana offers a “Managed Pruned Node” option, requiring only about 10–20 GB on your laptop.

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§Verify First: The Fire Drill Do not put your life savings into a script you haven’t tested. A typo in the code could lock coins forever.

Do not test on the mainnet. Do not test on the chaotic Testnet3. Use Bitcoin Signet.

1. Get worthless Signet coins (Faucet).

2. Set a timelock for 20 blocks (approx. 3 hours).

3. Simulate your death (wait 3 hours).

4. Attempt to recover with the heir’s key.

Only when this “Fire Drill” succeeds should you set up the real wallet.

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§Final Thoughts Liana transforms the “Bus Factor” from a catastrophe into an automated process.

It requires discipline—you must perform the “Refresh” transaction annually. But the reward is absolute certainty: Your coins belong to you. And when you are gone, they belong exactly to whom you decided. Not the state, not the bank, and not the data void.

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Further Resources

• Official Liana Website https://wizardsardine.com/liana/

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/wizardsardine/liana

• Research: Wasabi Wallet & Privacy https://primal.net/Alien-Investor/wasabi-wallet-a-research-overview-on-coinjoin-and-privacy

• Master Bitcoin Security with Liana Timelock Technology: Master Bitcoin Security with Liana Timelock Technology

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Money, power, Bitcoin — and OPSEC. I write about financial sovereignty, privacy, and cybersecurity in a world built on control. More at alien-investor.org 👽 (German Only)