Vault Relay
How BlockWill works out that something has happened to you, and hands your vault to the people who should have it.
Vault Relay is the handover machinery. It is the part of BlockWill that actually does the thing you signed up for, and it is worth understanding rather than just switching on.
There are two ways a handover can begin, and they behave very differently.
The two paths
| Inactivity timer | Dead Man's Switch | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts when | You have not signed in for X days | A fixed date you chose arrives |
| Executor confirmation | Required before anything moves | None |
| Can be stopped | Yes, by signing in, or by an executor saying it is a false alarm | No |
| Best for | Almost everyone | A hard backstop you want to run regardless |
The inactivity timer is the safe default: hitting it notifies your executors and asks them to confirm, and nothing transitions until they do. The Dead Man's Switch is an absolute commitment that fires on its date whether or not you are fine.
Reading your status
The VaultRelay page has a Relay state & settings card on the left and Handover settings on the right. The card shows VaultRelay Active, the vault status, your Dead Man Switch date, the Inactivity Timer and the Beneficiary Cooldown. Under Inactivity Timer a line says when the timer would reach its limit.
The page will not open until you have at least one Legacy Vault, so add a beneficiary and assign them an asset first.
If you have invited executors and none has accepted yet, a yellow No executor can confirm your status warning shows. When the timer runs out your executors are asked to confirm your status, and the vault is not released automatically.
Setting the inactivity timer
Pick a preset under Inactivity Threshold (30 Days, 60 Days, 90 Days, 180 Days, 1 Year) or use Custom, then click Update VaultRelay. The first time, the button reads Enable VaultRelay. Saving takes 10 to 15 seconds, and you get a "VaultRelay settings updated!" message.
Any sign-in resets it. You do not have to do anything special, and you will get warning emails well before it fires.
Your inactivity timer must be shorter than your Dead Man's Switch. If it is not, the save is blocked with "Your inactivity timer is longer than your Dead Man's Switch".
Setting a Dead Man's Switch
Under Dead Man's Switch, pick 30 Days, 60 Days, 90 Days, 6 Months, 1 Year, 2 Years or Custom Date, then click Update VaultRelay.
Choose this deliberately. There is no executor confirmation, and the date cannot currently be cleared from the interface once set. You can still change it to a later or earlier date.
Wellness check-ins
BlockWill can email you periodically to ask whether you are still around. Answering counts as activity and resets the inactivity timer. It does not affect a Dead Man's Switch, which is a fixed date by definition.
This is a single on/off switch called Wellness reminders. Find it in Settings, on the Privacy & your data tab, under Email preferences. It is not a cadence you choose. The check-ins run on a fixed quarterly schedule. You get a "Preferences updated" message when you flip it.
Turning them off does not disable Vault Relay. The inactivity timer still runs; you just stop getting the nudge that would have reminded you to reset it.