RIP Final Message

I have some bad news. You will die. If your the only one who knows where your bitcoin keys are, your bitcoin dies with you. That's fine. It is a noble gesture. I know some people who plan on doing this. I suspect this is what Satoshi did, but I obviously cannot verify this.

“Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.”--Satoshi Nakamoto

For those of us who want bitcoin to continue beyond our graves, there are dead man's switches. A dead man's switch is like a Rube Goldberg machine. Instead of opening a door like in the movie Goonies, it sends an email to your next of kin if you die. I have used a couple of these, but final message.io is my favorite since I find it the most secure. Final message.io is essentially ransomware. That's a scary ass word for most people, but have no fear. We are doing it to ourselves like Krugman thinks we owe money to ourselves.

I am certain you already know how ransomware works.

• A company gets hacked.
• Some asshole encrypts all their files using a passphrase.
• The asshole holds the passphrase hostage.
• The company pays the ransom for the passphrase or the asshole tells the company to GFY.

How Final Message Worked:

Final Message works like a ransomware attack, but you're the hacker hacking yourself. You write your secret, say a key for a 2-of-3 multisig wallet.

• You encrypt this secret
• Give the passphrase to your wife, husband, child, etc.
• You upload your encrypted message to finalmessage.io
• You pay for a certain number of months.
• If you pay for more months final message will not send your encrypted secret message
• If you get hit by the proverbial bus, you stop paying the ransom and final message sends the encrypted message to your spouse.

Final Message Is Dead

I first wrote about final message in May of 2022. I intended to re-create it on nostr, but while doing this I noticed some sad news. Final Message is dead. They are no longer in business. That's too bad because I liked how it does not let you access your information unless you do not pay. It was the most secure dead man's switch I was aware of.

If you need to decrypt a message, you can do so by using the demo page here.

#TODO: Add decryption tutorial