Look at Bitwardens Emergency Access:
https://bitwarden.com/help/emergency-access/
Would also cover banking details or whatever else you want to put in there.
Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
131–140 of 243 posts
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#132Interesting approach. I like that this is explicit about human recovery rather than pretending crypto alone solves catastrophe.
That said, this design and fully stateless systems like mine (deterministic derivation, no escrow) are solving opposite failure modes. Shamir-based social recovery assumes:
trusted third parties remain reachable,
they are willing and able to cooperate,
and that recovery is an exceptional event.
Stateless systems assume the inverse:
no one can be relied on,
recovery is impossible by design,
and the primary threat is silent compromise rather than lockout.
Neither is “better” universally; they’re value judgments. What I appreciate here is that the tradeoffs are made explicit instead of buried behind UX.
One open question I’d be curious about: how you reason about coercion risk over time (friends change, incentives change), and whether you see this as something users should periodically re-shard as relationships evolve.
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#133Look at Bitwardens Emergency Access: https://bitwarden.com/help/emergency-access/ Would also cover banking details or whatever else you want to put in there.
> Trusted emergency contacts must be existing Bitwarden users
While the motivation is similar this basically kills the feature. It requires that your friends not only use but continue to maintain their accounts.
From my understanding of OP's implementation, being completely offline they can basically just keep the key on a USB or file store of any kind.
Personally I think the most robust solution is single key access (a la emergency kit), distributed in one or more secure bank vaults for redundancy (many still do offer these for free or cheaply for small boxes). Put instructions in your (living) will and done.
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what I do too, but be warned about “fire proof” - a fire that results in the total loss of your house will create enough heat for enough time that fireproof gun safes and smaller fireproof lockboxes will be destroyed, or even if not, their contents will get hot enough to combust anyway. A bank safe deposit box offers a different security profile that’s probably more robust against fire because banks burn less…
Just went through this. Sample size one: While the fire resulted in the total loss of the house it was actually the water from the fire department not the heat that did proportionally more damage. As a mental model you shouldn’t think of it as “what if my house burns down?” so much as “what if nice strangers roll up to my windows and chainsaw through my roof and spray 50,000 gallons of water in here?” Yes everything…
> I am very anti black and yellow tubs.
Would you mind sharing more about these tubs and why you are against them?
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what I do too, but be warned about “fire proof” - a fire that results in the total loss of your house will create enough heat for enough time that fireproof gun safes and smaller fireproof lockboxes will be destroyed, or even if not, their contents will get hot enough to combust anyway. A bank safe deposit box offers a different security profile that’s probably more robust against fire because banks burn less…
Just went through this. Sample size one: While the fire resulted in the total loss of the house it was actually the water from the fire department not the heat that did proportionally more damage. As a mental model you shouldn’t think of it as “what if my house burns down?” so much as “what if nice strangers roll up to my windows and chainsaw through my roof and spray 50,000 gallons of water in here?” Yes everything…
My insurance agent has recommended that once a year or so I carefully walk through the house with a video recorder, opening every cabinet and drawer and tool box and so on. It's easier than constructing a detailed inventory, but gives you the raw data you need to construct one in the unlikely even that you need it.
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#136See also: Horcrux. https://github.com/jefdaj/horcrux
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#137This kind of thing, widely implemented, would be a game-changer for dealing with assets after someone's death! I maintain my family's IT infrastructure (Google Enterprise admin, webserver etc) and I've been tempted to write down 1/4 of my password manager root password and give it to each of my family members - but then we run into the problem where if any one of them loses their shard, it's unrecoverable. Some kind…
yes! I am starting to do some planning on that myself, that's why I'm in that kind of mindset. If you know more people in this space, please share this with them! would love to get feedback
I wrote a project to do this a few years ago[1], it's mainly missing an automated mechanism to scan the PDFs and a GUI. Maybe you'll find it interesting.
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#138I like it. Perhaps you can use a weird idea of mine. You can discard/modify part of a password before sending it to your backend. Then, when you log in the server has to brute force the missing part. One could extend this with security questions like how many children pets and cars you own. What color was your car in 2024. Use that data to aid brute forcing. The goal would be to be able to decrypt with fewer than 5 s…
This makes little sense, IMO. Information is information. There is no difference between this and just having a short/simple passphrase with the PKBDF iterations turned very high. You might as well shard secrets using Shamir and encode it via a modified version of BIP32 words.
I'm no crypto expert, just fooling around.
The security questions are like extra shares of lower value.
My mental model is something like burying the password in your 100x100 yard. You give one friend the X and a different friend the Y coordinates both rounded down to a multiple of 10 meters. The security questions can be added to the X and Y coordinates.
X = 30 + 2 + 3 + 1
Y = ?? + 3 + 5 + 1
You only have to dig 9 holes now.
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#139I like it. Perhaps you can use a weird idea of mine. You can discard/modify part of a password before sending it to your backend. Then, when you log in the server has to brute force the missing part. One could extend this with security questions like how many children pets and cars you own. What color was your car in 2024. Use that data to aid brute forcing. The goal would be to be able to decrypt with fewer than 5 s…
ohhhh that's brutal haha! for context my app runs entirely clientside, but I get it, it's an interesting idea...
I wonder if they even need a file. They could pick some question and type their secret into the app, something like the name of their first date etc
If you are to hand out files maybe it is wonderful to write them a letter that serves as their shard? They might actually store it some place safe and it wouldn't scream I'M A SECRET!
Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?
#140Start treating the Future-You like a Stranger. Write for that stranger, your Future-You will thank you. We think we will remember, but we won’t. So, don’t be too harsh on yourself and make it easier for your future-you. If that stranger finds it easier, it will also be for others; your relatives, kids, etc. Unless your work and life need to be very secretive, or involve matters of national or international importance…
This comment right? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41220059
(Funny how I can remember this comment from many months ago after never implementing the bowls, but I currently can’t remember where my car keys are. Should have implemented the bowls…)