Solana Dead Man's Switch

A trustless inheritance vault built on Solana. An owner deposits SOL, names a beneficiary, and chooses a check-in interval. If the owner stops checking in, the beneficiary can claim the vault after the deadline.

The core program is intentionally simple: no custodian, no keeper service, and no privileged server decides when funds move. The beneficiary's claim transaction checks the deadline on-chain.

Built for the Solana track of a hackathon. The current deployment is a devnet prototype and has not been audited. Do not use it to custody real funds.

Live Status

• Anchor program deployed on Solana devnet
• Full owner flow wired in the browser: initialize, check in, deposit, update, and cancel
• Beneficiary lookup and claim flow wired against live on-chain state
• Optional email and Telegram reminder service implemented with Supabase Edge Functions
• Anchor tests and a live devnet lifecycle smoke test included

Devnet program: 6gbTnghr3AXPbCTjieq3veCmt656ALbEd7VUGX9z5fFu

How It Works

sequenceDiagram
    participant O as Owner
    participant P as Solana Program
    participant B as Beneficiary

    O->>P: initialize(beneficiary, interval, amount)
    O->>P: check_in()
    Note over P: Deadline resets on every check-in
    B->>P: claim()
    alt Owner is still active
        P-->>B: Revert with StillActive
    else Deadline has elapsed
        P-->>B: Close vault PDA and release SOL
    end

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Each owner has one vault PDA derived from ["switch", owner_pubkey]. The program stores the owner, beneficiary, last check-in timestamp, interval, and deposited amount.

Instruction	Who can call it	Effect
initialize	Owner	Creates the vault PDA and deposits SOL
check_in	Owner	Resets the liveness timestamp
deposit	Owner	Adds SOL to an active vault
update_config	Owner	Changes the beneficiary or interval
claim	Beneficiary	Releases SOL after the deadline
cancel	Owner	Closes the vault and returns SOL

Optional Reminders

The on-chain vault does not depend on an off-chain service. The optional Supabase integration sends reminders before a deadline so the owner has time to check in.

• subscribe registers or updates an owner's notification preferences after verifying the vault on-chain.
• reminder-tick checks active subscriptions and sends email or Telegram notifications inside the configured warning window.

If the reminder service is unavailable, the program still behaves exactly the same way. Contact details remain off-chain. See supabase/SETUP.md for deployment details.

Repository Layout

.
├── programs/deadman-switch/   # Anchor program
├── tests/                     # Local Anchor integration tests
├── scripts/                   # Devnet smoke test and demo seeding script
├── app/                       # Vite + React frontend
├── supabase/                  # Optional reminder service
├── target/idl/                # Committed IDL consumed by the frontend
└── DEMO.md                    # Short live-demo walkthrough

Run Locally

Prerequisites

• Rust and Cargo
• Solana CLI configured for devnet
• Anchor CLI
• Node.js and npm
• A funded devnet wallet at ~/.config/solana/id.json

Program

npm install
solana config set --url devnet
anchor build
anchor test

Frontend

cd app
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173, connect Phantom or Solflare on devnet, and follow the owner or beneficiary flow.

Live Devnet Smoke Test

The smoke test creates a vault, proves that an early claim fails, waits for the deadline, claims the vault, and verifies that the PDA closes.

ANCHOR_PROVIDER_URL=https://api.devnet.solana.com \
ANCHOR_WALLET=$HOME/.config/solana/id.json \
npx ts-mocha -p ./tsconfig.json -t 1000000 scripts/smoke-devnet.ts

Demo Mode

For a fast live walkthrough, use /arm?fast=1. It exposes second-based intervals so the full create-to-claim lifecycle can run during a short demo.

The UI also supports ?demo=1 on /cockpit and /watch for rehearsal-only state previews. These previews do not replace the real devnet transaction flow. See DEMO.md for the full walkthrough.

Security Notes

• Deadline enforcement happens in the Solana program, not in the reminder service or frontend.
• Only the configured owner can check in, deposit, update, or cancel.
• Only the configured beneficiary can claim.
• Claims before last_checkin + interval fail with StillActive.
• The devnet program is upgradeable and controlled by the deployment wallet.
• This prototype has not received a security audit.

Current Limitations

• SOL deposits only; SPL token support is not implemented.
• One active vault per owner wallet.
• Beneficiary discovery currently requires the owner's address.
• The activity feed is session-local rather than a persistent event index.
• The frontend is configured for devnet.

Documentation

• app/README.md: frontend architecture and routes
• supabase/SETUP.md: optional reminders deployment
• DEMO.md: live demo walkthrough
• DEMO_QA.md: project Q&A

License

ISC