A dead man’s switch for your digital life
They shouldn’t have to guess.
Deadswitch holds everything the people you love would need — accounts, bills, policies, passwords, crypto keys, and the things you’d want to say. Encrypted on a drive only you can open. Check in when it asks. Stop checking in, and the people you named receive it.
- Encrypted on the drive
- You set the check-in rhythm
- One price, yours for life
Pay once. Never think about it again.
The drive is a one-time payment for the software, the check-in service and the hardware. Prefer nothing to keep? The same Deadswitch runs entirely in the cloud, by the month.
$69.99/ month
No hardware · cancel any timeEverything the drive does, as a login. Nothing to keep in a drawer, nothing to lose.
Start in the cloud$249$149.00
Yours outright. Encrypted on the drive, released only if you stop checking in.
Buy one$747$399.00
One for you, one for your partner, one for the person you would both name.
Buy the bundleDrives go straight to checkout and ship worldwide in plain, unbranded packaging. The cloud plan is billed monthly and can be cancelled any time.
Every option includes
- Encrypted vault for accounts, documents, keys and letters
- Check-in reminders by email and SMS
- Up to 10 beneficiaries, each with their own assignment
- Escalating reminders before anything is released
The gap nobody plans for
The money is findable. The knowledge isn’t.
When someone dies, the accounts are usually traceable. What is not is everything they carried in their head — and the person left holding it is often the one who never handled any of it.
- Which accounts exist, and which to close
- Where the will, the deeds and the policies are kept
- What is on autopay, and what to cancel
- The password that unlocks twenty years of photographs
- The things you would have said in person
What it actually does
A switch, not a safe
A safe keeps people out. Deadswitch keeps people out until the one moment they need to be let in — and then makes sure they are.
Encrypted the moment it lands
Drag accounts, documents, keys and notes onto the drive. The software encrypts each item with AES-256 as it arrives. Your passphrase is the only way in, and it never leaves the device.
You set the rhythm
Weekly, monthly, quarterly — whatever suits a life. Deadswitch messages you on that schedule, and one tap says you are still here. That is the whole ongoing commitment.
It will not fire by accident
A missed check-in starts a sequence, not a countdown: another email, then a text, then a message to a backup contact you nominate. A fortnight off-grid will not trigger anything.
Each person gets only their part
Assign items to people. Your partner gets the household and the letters, your accountant gets the tax folder, your co-founder gets the company files. Nobody sees what was not meant for them.
We cannot read any of it
Everything is encrypted before it leaves the drive. Deadswitch holds a schedule and a set of key shares that are useless on their own — not your data, and not your passphrase.
One price, yours for life
The drive, the software and the check-in service are a single purchase, so there is no subscription to lapse at the worst possible moment. An encrypted cloud mirror is available as an optional add-on after checkout.
How it works
Four steps, then one tap a month.
Setting it up takes an evening. Keeping it current takes seconds. The part that matters happens without you.
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Fill it
Plug it in and drag in what matters: accounts, documents, keys, instructions, and anything you would want said. It encrypts as it lands.
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Name them
Add the people who should receive it, how to reach them, and which parts belong to whom.
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Check in
Deadswitch messages you on your schedule. One tap resets the clock. Miss one and nothing happens yet — it simply asks again.
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If you can’t
Reminders escalate through email, text, and your backup contact. Only then does each person receive their own key and instructions.
When it fires
Handed over, not hunted for.
On the day it matters, each person you named gets an email in plain words: what has happened, what they now have access to, and exactly what to do next — written for someone who has never done any of this before.
- A key that is theirs alone
- Step-by-step instructions, no jargon
- Only the parts you assigned to them
- Your own words, if you left any
Self-custody
The keys that die with you.
Crypto held properly is held by nobody but you. That is the point, and it is also the problem: a seed phrase no one else knows is indistinguishable from one that never existed. Exchanges have a process for death. Self-custody does not.
- Seed phrases and recovery details, encrypted
- Which wallets exist, and what is in them
- Instructions written for someone non-technical
- Released only if you stop checking in
Where it sits
Against the alternatives
A password manager holds credentials. A will holds decisions. Neither one reaches your family on the day they need it, with the context that makes it usable.
| Capability | Deadswitch | Password manager | Will or lawyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reaches your people without waiting on probate | Yes | No | No |
| Carries context, not just credentials | Yes | No | Partly |
| Covers self-custody crypto keys | Yes | Partly | No |
| Releases only if you actually stop checking in | Yes | No | No |
| Nothing exposed while you are alive | Yes | Partly | Yes |
| You can change it in a minute, for free | Yes | Yes | No |
| Works even though nobody knows your master password | Yes | No | Partly |
| Written for a non-technical person to follow | Yes | No | Partly |
Specification
The whole datasheet
- Encryption
- AES-256, applied on the drive
- Unlock
- Your passphrase, never transmitted
- Software
- Runs from the drive. Windows and macOS
- Check-in
- Email or SMS, one tap
- Check-in schedule
- Weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly
- Grace period
- Escalating reminders across 30 days
- Backup contact
- One nominated person, contacted before release
- Beneficiaries
- Up to 10, each with their own assignment
- Release
- Each beneficiary emailed their own key and instructions
- Cloud mirror
- Optional add-on, encrypted off-site copy
- Licence
- One purchase, lifetime. No subscription required
- Capacity
- 128 GB
- Interface
- USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- Housing
- Anodised aluminium
- Dimensions
- 64 × 20 × 9 mm
- Weight
- 22 g
Check-in timings are the defaults and can be changed at any time. The encrypted cloud mirror is optional and is set up after checkout.
Who it is for
For the people who will still be at the table.
Deadswitch is bought by the person who handles things — and it is for everyone who would otherwise have to work it all out alone. A partner who never touched the bills. Kids who are years from being able to sort any of it out themselves. A friend you trust more than a solicitor.
- Different people, different parts
- A backup contact in case someone cannot be reached
- Changes any time, in a minute, unannounced
Questions
The things people ask first
Still unsure? Write to us. A human who has set one up will answer.
What if I miss a check-in because I am away?
Nothing happens quickly. A missed check-in starts a sequence of reminders — another email, then a text, then a message to the backup contact you nominated — spread across weeks, not hours. It is built on the assumption that people are busy, ill, travelling, or simply forgetful.
Can Deadswitch read what I put on it?
No. Everything is encrypted on the drive with a passphrase we never receive. What our systems hold is a schedule and a set of key shares that are useless on their own. There is no version of this where your vault is readable to us, which also means we cannot be compelled to open it.
What happens if Deadswitch the company stops existing?
The right question to ask of anything meant to outlive you. Your vault lives on your drive, not on our servers, so it does not disappear with us. Each drive also ships with a printed recovery card that lets a beneficiary unlock their share directly from the drive without our involvement.
Does this replace a will?
No, and it is not trying to. A will decides who legally owns what. Deadswitch makes sure the people involved can actually find and use it. Keep the will — this is the part a will was never able to do.
What do my beneficiaries actually receive?
An email explaining what has happened and what they now have access to, a key that is theirs alone, and step-by-step instructions written for someone who is not technical. With the cloud add-on they receive the contents directly; without it, the key unlocks their share on the drive.
Can I change who gets what?
Any time. Plug the drive in, move items between people, add or remove a beneficiary. Changes take effect immediately, and nobody is notified that anything changed.
Is this useful for crypto?
It is one of the most common reasons people buy one. Seed phrases, wallet inventories and instructions for a non-technical person live in the vault and release the same way as everything else — only if you stop checking in.
One decision, once
One less thing they would have to work out.
Set it up on a quiet evening. Check in once a month. If the day comes that you cannot, the people you named will not be starting from nothing.
- One price, no subscription
- Plain, unbranded packaging
- Straight to checkout
- We never see your data