Skip to main content
This guide walks you through the exact steps to secure your first digital asset in Inheribase, starting from a completely fresh account. By the end, you will have a non-custodial encrypted vault with a trusted Guardian protecting it — in 10 minutes or less.
1

Create your account

Your Inheribase vault begins at the application dashboard.
  1. Navigate to app.inheribase.com.
  2. Enter your email address to begin the account creation process.
  3. Open the email from Inheribase and enter the secure one-time code to verify your identity.
Once verified, you are taken directly into the onboarding flow.
2

Connect your wallet

Inheribase uses non-custodial smart accounts to ensure you maintain absolute ownership over your vault. No third party — including Inheribase — can access or freeze your assets.
  1. After email verification, you are prompted to connect or generate a secure wallet.
  2. The protocol automatically provisions a smart contract wallet bound to your identity. You do not need MetaMask or any external wallet for this step.
  3. You receive $1.00 in trial credits automatically, which you can use to test file uploads before purchasing additional Vault Credits.
An external crypto wallet (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet) is only required for advanced on-chain operations. See Requirements for details.
3

Set up your passkey

Your passkey is the cryptographic root of your vault. It ties your encryption keys to your biological footprint or dedicated hardware — making them impossible to phish or brute-force remotely.
  1. Click Set Up Passkey when prompted during onboarding.
  2. Use your device’s built-in biometric authentication: Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, or a hardware security key.
  3. Complete the biometric or PIN prompt from your operating system to register the passkey.
Save your emergency recovery codes immediately. Inheribase provides one-time recovery codes during passkey setup. Store them in a physical safe or a location that does not depend on your device. If you lose access to your passkey device and do not have these codes, your vault cannot be decrypted.
4

Upload your first file

With your vault cryptographically secured, you are ready to seal your first asset.
  1. From the dashboard, navigate to the Vault view.
  2. Click Secure Asset, or drag a file directly into the upload zone. Start with something simple — a scan of an important document or a private text file works well.
  3. Inheribase encrypts the file using AES-256-GCM locally in your browser. Your unencrypted data never leaves your device.
  4. Click Confirm. The file is sent to the high-speed temporary cache and concurrently anchored permanently on the Arweave network. Once Arweave confirms the transaction, the file status updates from temporary to permanent.
You receive an Arweave Transaction ID (TXID) for each uploaded file. This ID is cryptographic proof that your file exists permanently on the permaweb, independent of Inheribase’s infrastructure.
5

Invite your first Guardian

Encryption protects your data while you are alive. Guardians make inheritance possible. They hold encrypted fragments of your vault key using Shamir’s Secret Sharing — no single Guardian can access your vault alone, but a threshold of them can cooperate to release it to your heirs.
  1. Navigate to the Network tab, or go to People → Guardians.
  2. Click Add Guardian.
  3. Choose someone you trust with your legacy — a spouse, an attorney, or a close friend.
  4. Enter their name and email address. They receive a secure invitation to store an encrypted fragment of your master key.
  5. (Optional, but strongly recommended) Invite two additional Guardians to complete a standard 2-of-3 Shamir’s Secret Sharing threshold. With this configuration, any two of your three Guardians are sufficient to reconstruct the key — protecting against one Guardian becoming unavailable.

​
What’s next?

You have established a non-custodial digital vault, sealed an asset with zero-knowledge encryption, and designated a Guardian to protect it. From here, you can deepen your estate plan:

How It Works

Understand the full Seal, Assign, Monitor, Deliver succession lifecycle.

Guardians

Learn how guardian key sharing works and how to choose the right threshold.

Heirs

Designate recipients and understand the heir claim experience.

Release & Monitoring

Configure your Dead Man’s Switch cadence and release triggers.