Recently, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, fielded a question posed to him on Twitter. The fact that he chose to answer this particular one is notable, primarily due to the timing of it. He addressed it during the ongoing drama of the FTX collapse when arguably, he should have been focused on the FTX fallout. CZ Binance, as he is known colloquially, obviously does not respond to every single tweet sent his way, and the fact that he did, especially under the circumstances, means we should sit up and pay attention.
The Exception That Proves the Rule
The blockchain community has a real problem and, almost no one talks about it. In fact, CZ’s response is remarkable precisely because, otherwise, silence has tended to prevail. Hence, when the CEO of one of the most important firms in the blockchain community breaks that silence on a particular topic, we should take a few minutes to dig into the issue a bit.
The question and CZ’s response to it deserve to be reposted in his own words. See the image below.
Let us recap the interaction for those saving data or those unable to load images.
The question posed to CZ by Mephisto Demon reads as follows:
“If I put all my assets in binance, my family only knows that the account doesn’t know the password. Can I get it back through the kinship certificate?”
To which CZ replied:
“Yes, we have the “inheritance procedure” where we verify the death certificate and kinship, then wait for a month (to see if the account holder does not “come back from the dead”), then give the assets to next of kin. Stay #SAFU.”
Digital Succession
Firstly, we must commend Binance for having a publicly articulated policy for dealing with account succession. The fact that CZ and his team have gone on record with an unambiguous inheritance policy already laid out indicates that they have grappled with the issue internally, and have thought through and established a protocol to address it. As the digital asset industry grows, this problem will only grow in scale and volume as time passes. It appears that the Binance team recognizes the issue as well.
While this exchange should give us some confidence that at least one of the most important and powerful people in the space has addressed it publicly, CZ remains the exception that proves the rule. Even then, while Binance has established an internal solution, that solution suffers from all of the very problems blockchain technology and web3.0 technology was originally devised to solve.
Not Enough
Consider this. CZ’s comment proves that their succession policy is based on centralized human decisionmaking and action. Nothing about that policy is automatic. It does not carry with it the cold assurances of immutable code. This “wet” problem is intrinsic to any corporate standard and procedure not backed by automatic, immutable failsafes – like blockchain.
Policy generally fails to factor the human element, the ultimate failure point that code is intended to address. Policies, just like the people who create and enforce them, often prove arbitrary and unpredictable. Fundamentally, the blockchain community has neither solved succession issues, nor relishes talking much about it. CZ’s comment proves it.
Luckily, we do not have to rely on promises and policies much longer. The development of new and novel blockchain-native, decentralized technologies will provide us with the most promising ways to achieve the ultimate solution.
A True Blockchain-Native Solution Has Arrived
The Serenity Shield team has developed the first fully on-chain data security solution for digital succession and bulk digital data storage.
Because Serenity Shield uses blockchain technology to solve a blockchain problem, our solution means that users need no hardware to employ our solution. Moreover, users do not compromise their privacy or security. Everything remains entirely on-chain. At the most fundamental level, Serenity Shield’s StrongBox utility provides users a cryptographic, fully on-chain, data storage solution.
Originally intended for protecting seed phrases and passwords, the solution will soon provide our users completely decentralized, fully encrypted, entirely on-chain data storage that eliminates the need for a physical security device and counterparty risk for security and custody concerns.
Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins
Remember that at the end of the day, the Prime Directive of the blockchain space stands. Not your keys, not your coins. Regardless of your opinion of Michael Saylor, his straightforward suggestion in a recent interview bears repeating. “Don’t trust. Verify.” And indeed, he offers the best advice one can ever take. As Warren Buffett once famously said long ago, “Mind your own business.”
Fundamentally, this problem seems tailor-made for smart contract technology. Smart contracts do not care about anything that has not already been coded into them. Once engaged, they do not operate at the arbitrary whim of anyone. Code is law. The predictable outcome is one wherein the contract details fulfill themselves, and the conditions agreed upon as part of a given smart contract are met.
With our solution’s rollout, the entire space will soon have a reliable, robust, inexpensive blockchain solution to not just the issue of asset succession, but an entire litany of problems that reach far beyond the industry itself. Join us, and bring some Serenity to your life.
Join Us
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