Intelligence Archive

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News, tutorials, and deep dives on digital estate planning, encryption, and secure will transfer.

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  • sysadmin
  • template
  • threshold cryptography
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AES-256-GCM Encryption for Estate Planning: Why It Matters
11 min read

AES-256-GCM Encryption for Estate Planning: Why It Matters

A technical explanation of AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption, why it is the right choice for digital wills, and how Burning Ash Protocol implements it to protect your estate documents.

Read Protocol Analysis
Best Self-Hosted Dead Man's Switch Software (2026)dead-mans-switch
13 min

Best Self-Hosted Dead Man's Switch Software (2026)

A comprehensive comparison of the best self-hosted dead man's switch tools in 2026, including Burning Ash Protocol, LastSignal, Seppuku, Posthumous, storopoli/dead-man-switch, and EmergencyWP.

dead-mans-switch
Bitcoin Inheritance with Shamir Backup: A Developer's Guidebitcoin inheritance
14 min

Bitcoin Inheritance with Shamir Backup: A Developer's Guide

A technical deep-dive into Bitcoin inheritance using Shamir's Secret Sharing, covering SLIP-39 vs application-layer approaches, threat model analysis, Docker self-hosting, and hardware wallet integration.

bitcoin inheritance
How to Create a Crypto Inheritance Plan (Without a Lawyer)crypto inheritance
14 min

How to Create a Crypto Inheritance Plan (Without a Lawyer)

A practical guide to creating a cryptocurrency inheritance plan using multisig, social recovery, seed phrase splitting, and dead man's switches, with step-by-step instructions and comparison of approaches.

crypto inheritance
5 Ways People Lose Access to Crypto After a Deathcrypto after death
15 min

5 Ways People Lose Access to Crypto After a Death

Five real-world scenarios where cryptocurrency is permanently lost after an owner's death, with documented cases, statistics, and practical solutions for each failure mode.

crypto after death
Building a Dead Man's Switch API: Architecture Decisionsarchitecture
13 min

Building a Dead Man's Switch API: Architecture Decisions

A technical deep-dive into Burning Ash Protocol's Go API architecture: Chi router, GORM, scheduler design, liveness check polling, encryption layer, and the engineering tradeoffs behind each decision.

architecture
Dead Man's Switch vs Google Inactive Account Manager: A Complete Comparisondead mans switch
12 min

Dead Man's Switch vs Google Inactive Account Manager: A Complete Comparison

An in-depth comparison of dead man's switch systems and Google's Inactive Account Manager, covering features, limitations, encryption, and when to use each approach for digital estate planning.

dead mans switch
Deploy Burning Ash Protocol on Your Homelab in 15 Minutestutorial
10 min

Deploy Burning Ash Protocol on Your Homelab in 15 Minutes

A step-by-step tutorial for deploying Burning Ash Protocol on your homelab using Docker Compose, with reverse proxy setup (Caddy or Nginx), DNS configuration, and HTTPS.

tutorial
Digital Estate Planning Checklist (Free Template)checklist
13 min

Digital Estate Planning Checklist (Free Template)

A comprehensive digital estate planning checklist organized by category: accounts, cryptocurrency, documents, subscriptions, social media, and business assets. Includes a downloadable markdown template.

checklist
The Digital Executor Role: What You Need to Knowdigital-executor
13 min

The Digital Executor Role: What You Need to Know

A comprehensive guide to the digital executor role: what they do, legal frameworks, responsibilities, how to appoint one, and how Burning Ash Protocol's Survivor system relates to digital executorship.

digital-executor
Digital Will for Developers: A Sysadmin's Guidedevelopers
11 min

Digital Will for Developers: A Sysadmin's Guide

A practical guide for developers and sysadmins to organize SSH keys, API tokens, infrastructure secrets, CI/CD credentials, DNS management, and server access for digital estate planning.

developers
Is a Digital Will Legally Valid? Country-by-Country Guidelegal
14 min

Is a Digital Will Legally Valid? Country-by-Country Guide

A country-by-country legal analysis of digital will validity covering the US (state-by-state overview), UK, EU, Australia, and Canada. Understand where digital wills stand legally and how to protect your digital estate.

legal
End-to-End Encryption vs At-Rest Encryption for Digital Willsencryption
11 min

End-to-End Encryption vs At-Rest Encryption for Digital Wills

Understand the difference between end-to-end encryption and at-rest encryption, why it matters for digital wills, and how Shamir's Secret Sharing adds threshold protection to your estate plan.

encryption
LastSignal vs Burning Ash Protocol vs Posthumous: Which Open-Source Dead Man's Switch?dead-mans-switch
12 min

LastSignal vs Burning Ash Protocol vs Posthumous: Which Open-Source Dead Man's Switch?

An in-depth three-way comparison of LastSignal, Burning Ash Protocol, and Posthumous -- the leading open-source dead man's switch projects for digital estate planning.

dead-mans-switch
Why Your Password Manager Isn't a Digital Willpassword-manager
11 min

Why Your Password Manager Isn't a Digital Will

Password managers solve credential storage, but they fail at succession planning. Learn why a dedicated digital will system with dead man's switch, threshold recovery, and encrypted document storage is essential.

password-manager
How Shamir's Secret Sharing Protects Your Digital Willshamir secret sharing
12 min

How Shamir's Secret Sharing Protects Your Digital Will

A clear, accessible explanation of Shamir's Secret Sharing: its history, how polynomial interpolation works, why threshold cryptography outperforms single-key systems, and how BAP uses it to protect digital wills.

shamir secret sharing
What Happens to Your Online Accounts When You Die?digital estate planning
11 min

What Happens to Your Online Accounts When You Die?

A comprehensive guide to what happens to your Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and social media accounts after death, including each platform's inactive account and legacy policies.

digital estate planning

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