Anonymous Inheritance Vaults and Beneficiaries

Anonymous vaults are a new type of vault that allow you to store your data without linking it to your identity. This is useful for those who want to keep their data private and secure, even from us.

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Diagram of standard vault and beneficiaries Standard accounts are accessed via an email/password combination.

Standard Accounts

Standard accounts are attached to a name, email, and payment method. They make it easy to host multiple vaults, receive notifications, and be given beneficiary access to other vaults all via the same account. They have support for all features and are designed for most use cases.

Linked to an email address.
Notifications, grace periods, death certificate verification, and all features.
End-to-end encrypted.
Diagram of anonymous vault and beneficiaries Anonymous accounts are accessed through a computer generated random key.

Anonymous Accounts

Anonymous accounts log in using a single key to access the vault, and have no personally identifiable metadata about who manages the key. Each anonymous account is linked to only one vault, either as the owner or a beneficiary. They have a limited feature set and should only be accessed through Tor to prevent IP tracking.

Log in with an anonymous key.
No notifications, grace period, or death certificate verification possible.
Should be accessed over Tor.

Anonymous Keys

A versatile format used for anonymous vault owners, anonymous beneficiaries, and embedded document keys.

Key Format

Keys contain a randomly generated UUIDv4 user ID and a randomly generated secret key. They are generated by the vault owner, and cannot be changed or regenerated by the beneficiary. The vault owner should share vault keys through other secure channels.

Read our security whitepaper

Document Keys

Embedding a release key in your will or other documents is also done using anonymous keys under the hood. They are generated in the same way, and are set to only use the release beneficiary role to ensure that if the document is published (as many wills are) or stored insecurely, a viewer can only partially trigger the release of the vault, and prevents them from accessing any vault contents.

Who are anonymous vaults for?

Whistleblowers and Activists

For those working in high-risk environments, anonymous vaults provide a safe place to store critical documents, with access granted only to trusted recipients when the time is right.

Upon for whistleblowers and journalists

Crypto and Digital Asset Holders

If you're managing a large portfolio of crypto or NFTs, anonymity can be as valuable as the assets themselves. Upon ensures these remain secure and privately transferred after you're gone.

Upon for cryptocurrency holders

Politically Exposed Individuals

Ensure your private vaults cannot be targeted by adversaries. Anonymity guarantees nation states cannot target specific vaults on our servers.

Automated Vaults

Services requiring automated third party vaults, such as multi-party escrow, may be best served by accounts controlled with API keys.

Payment and Notifications

Cryptocurrency Payments

Anonymous vaults must be funded by cryptocurrency to avoid being tied to an identity during payment. We plan to accept a wide range of currencies, including Monero, Bitcoin, USDT, USDC, Ethereum, Solana, and PAXG.

SimpleX Chat Notifications

SimpleX Chat is a truly privacy-preserving protocol with no user identifiers or centralised servers. We are considering allowing anonymous vaults to set up a SimpleX Chat feed for vault notifications.

Questions & answers

Who are anonymous vaults for?

Anonymous vaults are primarily for those who believe they are at risk of being targeted by state-sponsored threats, to ensure that their vault is not able to be identified as belonging to them amongst all of the other vaults hosted by Upon. This ensures they cannot prevent the release of the vault, target your beneficiaries, or monitor your vault activity.

The audience for anonymous vaults are primarily those who hold millions in cryptocurrencies, whistleblowers, journalists, and other politically exposed individuals.

What is the difference between standard and anonymous inheritance vaults?

Standard inheritance vaults are linked to a user account, which is tied to an email address and payment method. Anonymous inheritance vaults are not linked to any personally identifiable information, and are only accessible via a key.

What is the difference between standard and anonymous beneficiaries?

Standard beneficiaries are linked to an email address and password. Anonymous beneficiaries are only linked to a randomly generated key.

With a standard account, a beneficiary can use the same account to host their own vaults and act as a beneficiary to other people's vaults. Anonymous beneficiaries can only act as a beneficiary for a single vault.

Are there recovery flows for anonymous accounts?

No, key recovery is not possible with anonymous accounts. Anonymous beneficiary keys are fully controlled by the vault owner who can add, remove, and regenerating the beneficiary keys. Anonymous vault owner keys have no method of recovering a lost key.

Are anonymous keys randomly generated?

Yes. Anonymous keys contain a randomly generated UUIDv4 user account ID, and a randomly generated secret key for authorization and encryption of the user key store.

Can standard vaults use anonymous beneficiaries?

Yes, any vault type can use anonymous beneficiaries.

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