Challenges
Build on Base 🔵
We used Base to store our anchors, the Merkle tree root hashes with quantum-resistant signatures, and to host the smart contracts used for our decentralized Oracle of Death. Base was a fantastic blockchain to work with for these purposes: it was fast, reliable, familiar, and chatting with Rowan and Jesse it sounds like it could be 10x cheaper than other L2 alternatives. We even went and implemented support for Coinbase Wallet to use for our demo instead of Metamask, because we’re excited about potential synergies within the Coinbase ecosystem. We believe in this pattern of showing the power of blockchains by having them work in combination with other technologies, and we were really impressed with Base!
#BUIDLathon 2023 Infrastructure + Scalability
Our infrastructure method of anchoring Merkle Tree root hashes to Base provides an exponential return on scalability, with GDPR-compliant privacy to boot. * To put all of the data for a Will on-chain would be prohibitively expensive; putting just the Merkle Tree root hash is very feasible however, moreso when it’s done on an L2 like Base. * Putting the data directly on-chain would also be illegal to boot, as GDPR compliance necessitates an erasure obligation, and you cannot delete from public blockchains. * Our quantum-resistant dilithium signatures also are a novel way to guarantee that the will won’t be spoofed even in a future scenario where quantum computing is prevalent. * Finally we love that we can use technology like Weavechain to leverage all of this security technology without having to build it from scratch. We believe that the future of Web3 is dependent on leveraging composable tools and frameworks, and hope that other projects see the potential of this approach.
Project details
Inheritable is a Web3 Will solution for secure, decentralized inheritance that’s Anchored on Base and powered by Weavechain.
Traditionally, inheritance is managed by a centralized party like a lawyer, whom estates pay to act as a trustworthy party that can declare when they're dead and distribute their assets. Inheritable decentralizes this process by building verifiable Merkle trees of claims, and then utilizing a consensus process among trusted witnesses to determine death. This process is then hardened by being anchored to the Base blockchain with Quantum-Resistant Dilithium signatures, and maintains GDPR compliance by leveraging off-chain storage.
Here’s a detailed breakdown,
1. Estates create verifiable Merkle Trees of claims that inheritors can validate against.
2. Weavechain Anchors the hash of the Merkle Root into smart contracts on Base to give inheritors cryptographic guarantees that the Will hasn’t been tampered with.
3. Quantum-Resistant Dilithium signatures are used as well to further ensure that the will cannot be spoofed.
4. Estates identify Witnesses who make a consensus attestation to death as a replacement for a centralized lawyer. These attestations are also managed by Weavechain in a smart contract on Base.
5. GDPR compliance is maintained because Weavechain stores the raw data off-chain with the estate, so that the will can be revoked and changed if necessary.
These security features aren’t just jargon; they are essential building blocks that enable privacy-preserving verifiability. Inheritable brings these tools together to create a secure, decentralized, and trustworthy inheritance system.
For a short video under 3min, see this version without the live product demo: https://youtu.be/zrtqQGYB2ws