Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dead Man's Switch

deadmansswitch.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 101 posts

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#51

Post by licnep »

Vespasian wrote: post #4

Hmm I don't like the idea of involving a third (untrusted party) with what could be basically the key to your whole online identity. I would love to see a system which allows your heirs to access online accounts without having to fear that a simple government request will hand them everything they need on a silver plate (including stuff not obviously related to you). Probably physical objects need to be involved (cod…

>Does anyone know of such a solution?

I coded something like this myself a while ago. You can run it on a server or a local computer. The data is encrypted, no need to trust third parties:

https://github.com/licnep/afterlife-plans

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#52

Post by jonalmeida »

I too have thought about this. How am I going to pass on my account information/bitcoins and other secret detective work?

My idea was to open a security box in a bank that contained hand written keys to open an encrypted password store in some publicly accessible location.

If I died, that security box should go to the next family members who would be the only ones that can get access to it.

I fear there are loop-holes in that idea now..

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#53

Post by baby »

bentcorner wrote: post #32
baby wrote: post #27

I've thought about that service a lot and this solution is not working because : * I have to constantly check my mails to prove I'm not dead * The other person's mail will without any doubt change if I die in 10+ years * Can this service live up to 50+ years? I'm really doubting that as well.

> * I have to constantly check my mails to prove I'm not dead It nag mails you so you don't forget. Otherwise, add a reminder with a link to click on on the first of every month. > * The other person's mail will without any doubt change if I die in 10+ years You'll be clicking on this thing every month, I'm pretty certain if your SO's email changes you'll update it at that time. > * Can this service live up to 50+ ye…

> you're clicking on this thing every month

That's a huge problem. You tell me I have to click on a link at least once a month for the rest of my life.

First, I don't know if I'll have the same email for the rest of my life, if I change I'll have to think about changing that notification, that will have become spam in my mind.

Second, There surely will be a month in my life where I won't check my mails.

I can't think further, the thing has become a "hassle" that I have to constantly check and correct if someone change its mail, or in case it would think I'm dead, and this, for the rest of my life.

IMO there are better solutions for this type of problem, we just haven't found them yet.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#54

Post by hatu »

chrisBob wrote: post #38

30 days seems long, but I guess if I am in a hurry I could set up 10 of them with 3 days in between so that it is always 72 hours out...

We're pretty much surrounded by internet wherever we go these days but still, I could imagine taking four weeks off without any access to the internet and wouldn't want people to think I died.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#55

Post by benmanns »

steveklabnik wrote: post #37
whywhywhy5 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a site where you enter your SSN? Then if you're ever listed as deceased in the Social Security Death Index, that will be the trigger.

SSNs aren't unique, so this seems quite risky.

Wow! I had no idea. According to http://www.idanalytics.com/news-and-events/news-releases/201...

> More than 15 percent of SSNs are associated with two or more people. More than 140,000 SSNs are associated with five or more people. Significantly, more than 27,000 SSNs are associated with 10 or more people.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#56

Post by tlrobinson »

arielweisberg wrote: post #30
eudox wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously the solution is a DeadManSwitchCoin.

I proposed this in an earlier thread and got some push back on the utility of the concept https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6509824

gwern has a great summary of "time-lock encryption" possibilities: http://www.gwern.net/Self-decrypting%20files

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#57

Post by tlrobinson »

I wouldn't trust a random service like this with anything worth putting on a dead man's switch. At a minimum you should use PGP, but sadly most the people I'd want to use this with have no idea what PGP is. Maybe Keybase.io will eventually help with that.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#58

Post by steveklabnik »

benmanns wrote: post #55
steveklabnik wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSNs aren't unique, so this seems quite risky.

Wow! I had no idea. According to http://www.idanalytics.com/news-and-events/news-releases/201... > More than 15 percent of SSNs are associated with two or more people. More than 140,000 SSNs are associated with five or more people. Significantly, more than 27,000 SSNs are associated with 10 or more people.

Yup. It was stated over and over again that SSNs were not supposed to be a form of ID, but nobody pays attention...

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#60

Post by tlrobinson »

john_b wrote: post #17

This is something I've thought about, and as I see it a lot of the problems common to crypto software are manifest in this space as well. Specifically with regard to security vs useability/ease-of-adoption issues. This particular implementation transmits sensitive data in the clear and does the encryption server-side, so it's hard to take it seriously except as a remote (and unsecure) notification service. Aside from…

"it's unclear what the motivation for running an instance of this kind of P2P application would be"

Incentivising P2P applications is one of the interesting problems Bitcoin could solve.

People have talked about building P2P storage applications using Bitcoin, which is essentially what this would be, except if you stop paying into the network the files should be transmitted to some 3rd party of your choosing instead of being destroyed.

Perhaps some splitting scheme such as Shamir's Secret Sharing could be layered on top.

Post reply on HN