Safe Haven — Building solutions for inheritance, asset distribution, and asset control on the VeChainThor Platform

Safe Haven
15 min readJun 17, 2018

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Safe Haven is building cutting edge security and continuity solutions for various markets by integrating legal entities into a decentralized solution for the inheritance of passphrases, bank accounts, social media accounts and cryptocurrency.

NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER JURGEN SCHOUPPE:

“Every year around this time I reflect on life and realize that slowly but surely I see what is truly important. As a son, growing up, Fathers Day didn’t mean a ton to me, not many things of note did. But as a father? It means the world. It isn’t because of the lovable yet poorly made gifts, or the little extra hugs and kisses, but because being a father is so much more than honor, its about love and responsibilities. Being with who I love and loving them the way only I can is the only thing that truly brings me that inner peace that no amount of success has yet to offer. As I have grown older and more in love with my children, I learned to fight. Fight for life, and fight for the lives I hold dear.

As a worker I learned a different type of fight. For over 13 years I commited 100% of my time to the European Parliament and building solutions that I knew made a impact on the world around me. This experience as a security engineer prepared me for what is now the thing most prevalent in my passions, assuring that my loved ones are cared for in my absence.

As an early investor, developer, and on-looker of all things cryptocurrency I became infatuated with the technology and how it could be applied to my work in Parliament. Over time I began to find myself more and more fearful to realize that this technology, though potentially saving millions and revolutionizing modern business processes, could not assure my ability to plan for my families future.

As I thought of brining this technology into my families everyday life, I knew then and there that my legacy would not pass with it. If I make a paper wallet and the house burns, everything is gone. If I trust an exchange and I am compromised, I lose everything. If I misplace my private key, all is lost with it. There is no way to assure my assets safety in the brink of the world’s least forgiving situations. I have never felt more compelled to do anything in my life than to develop this product, because that legacy, my wife and children? That is everything. So I quit my job in Parliament and began moving forward with Safe Haven.

Safe Haven is just that to me, it’s my safe haven. Safe Haven allows me to fulfil my inner desires as a man. Not only does it fuels my entrepreneurship desires, but because it fuels my true goals, to take on the responsibilities of a father and leave behind all that I sacrificed to acquire and leave it to the ones that I love. As a boy I didn’t understand this call and I know now when I explain it to my children, they don’t understand either. But Safe Haven is more than just a great product, its an extension of your legacy, it is the fulfillment of your business’s core values, it is a process for continuity when the worst things in life come your way. Safe Haven is your safe haven for distributing your data, possessions, and wealth to those that you earned it for.”

On Father’s day 2018 and also my birthday,

Jurgen Schouppe, Founder Safe Haven

Please watch our teaser video here:

Introducing Safe Haven

The crypto-space has been plagued with stories of lost Bitcoin and other digital assets. These stories can be pinned to carelessness, misplacement of private keys, death, or even mistakes during a blockchains planned fork. The market is young, both in age and challenging. With these variables comes an understandable lack of concern regarding the loss of digital assets due to an unforeseeable circumstance. More specifically, no one person is invincible from sudden unforeseeable loss. Management of cryptocurrencies is on an individual operational basis, which means that everyone is responsible for themselves and their holdings; no one is being liable to hand holding.

Blockchain is immutable, once a careless mistake is made, the mistake is lasting. If a private key is lost or compromised, then it’s gone and the digital assets along with it. What will happen to one’s digital assets in the situation that they are no longer able to be obtained? Their digital assets could become another story of loss being told commonly across the industrys.

Safe Haven’s platform will be launched on the VechainThor Blockchain incorporating cutting edge smart contracts and a patented Trust Alliance Network (TAN). The Trust Alliance Network is a group of legal entities that has a secure relationship with Safe Haven. Safe Haven provides security and continuity features that have kept entities from utilizing crypto-assets in their businesses. Safe Haven resolves the question that everyone should be considering: how would your loved ones and partners gain proper access to your digital legacy when you are gone?

Now, how does this all work?

Within the protocol the investor who wants to protect their legacy is called the “initiator”. Initiators can distribute seeds and private keys with any amount of stakeholders that they define. The Initiator does this by going to a member of the TAN. The Trust Alliance Network is a group of legal entities that has a secure relationship with Safe Haven.

The legal entity selected from the TAN, referred to as “validator” within Safe Haven’s protocol, handles the distribution of shares as defined by the initiator within a smart contract. Shares are an encrypted piece of data that represents a portion of the asset the initiator desires to be distributed when the conditions of the smart contract are met. The shares are managed as a legal certificate by notaries within the TAN. Depending on the conditions of the smart contract, one person or all members of a defined group would need to present the needed shares to unlock the assets. This means that the initiator maintains 100% control as long as they are living or other conditions are unmet.

Safe Haven’s Platform and The Trust Alliance Network (TAN)

The Safe Haven platform and the TAN are two different things and hold different data structures, the platform itself is what allows the smart-contracts to be carried out in distribution of assets in accordance with one of the four plans (described below).

The TAN is an autonomous social networking hub for blockchain-related legal affairs. The goal is to connect the necessary legal entities (i.e lawyers, notaries, accountants, etc.) that specialize in crypto-asset management with the owners of crypto-assets. The TAN will become a hub for legal related blockchain information, articles, laws, etc. It will be the world’s first legal reference for distributed ledger/blockchain applications, users, and companies. Legal entities will be able to offer their services and highlight their fields of specialization to potential clients. A profile page will be available for each legal entity containing their contact information, remunerations details and a short description of themselves and their services. This enables users to be able to chat between themselves and legal entities via our platform. Legal entities will be able to:

  • Login/subscribe to the TAN
  • Invite other users to the TAN
  • Comment on articles on the TAN
  • Publish articles and legal documents (references and clarifications about crypto-based law)
  • Moderate legal documents
  • Earn tokens for their efforts
  • Grow their revenue and expand their client base

Legal entities need to pay an annual fee to offer Safe Haven’s services to his/her clients. Legal entities need to lock a minimum amount of SHA tokens to be able to use the Safe Haven platform

Token Utilization

Safe Haven’s SHA token, is used as fuel for creating/executing each of the following smart contracts on the blockchain:

  • Fail Safe Share(s)
  • Contract Validator
  • Share(s) Contracts

In order to use Safe Haven’s services and platform, the initiator will need to deposit SHA tokens in a time-locked smart contract. The SHA tokens will be released over-time relative to the conditions written in the smart contracts after validation within the TAN. Those locked tokens will become available as soon as the release procedure is initiated.

A legal entity is required to lock more tokens than a standard user in order to utilize the TAN to foresee his customers with services. These tokens will be locked into Legal Entity — Time-Locked Smart Contracts.
The number of tokens that will need to be locked depend on the terms and conditions of the smart contract.

What Products Will Safe Haven Offer?

  • The Family Circle Plan (TFC)

The TFC is for those who want defined members of their inheritance to access their assets on the day of their passing. Within the platform the inheritance distribution possibilities are almost endless; shares can be divided in flexible ways, while safekeeping the input in a secure and a transparent manner. The decentralized database validator (smart contract mapping) adds an extra security feature combined with a state-of-the-art, simple, secret sharing protocol. The advantage of this solution is that every share is not stored on the blockchain, only a portions of the share The specifics of this process depends on the parameters defined by the initiator at the shares creation. The release and/or execution of the shares protected by smart contracts rely on a third-party involvement from a member of the TAN, if you choose to use one.

  • Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

The BCP is similar to the TFC. The main difference is the terminology used: stakeholders instead of family members and the validation process differs when unlocking shares. In a BCP, the notary does not need medical rustication documents to obtain the missing share through our services, but rather notarial acts prepared by the holder when the terms of the contract are met.
In this plan the initiator can also choose whether to include the TAN or have an entirely automated process.

  • Investment Circle

The Investment Circle is for those looking to create and manage a fund amongst friends, family members, or business stakeholders. For example: five friends want to invest in various cryptocurrencies, each buying in for $1000.00. What are their options? Creating a multi-sig wallet is a flawed option. Even when it is completely secure, one will always need trust everyone within the group, so how can this be fixed? Simple, through Safe Haven’s Share Distribution protocol holders encrypt the private keys and Safe Haven splits the passphrase into shares. The stakeholders will then receive an equal number of shares. The conditions to liberate/release this share can be anything from price thresholds, to milestones, to simply having full consensus to do so, etc. The group may also choose to include the TAN, to help define and manage these conditions and distribution procedures. It is very important to know that Safe Haven has no access to the information that has been encrypted. Our protocol is developed to guarantee the piece mind from the initiator. The encrypted information is only known by the initiator himself.

  • Safe Haven Vault

With Safe Haven’s Vault, you have the possibility to protect any digital asset (private-keys/seeds/passwords from FB, Google, documents, …) on the blockchain. The release of associated shares happen by the initiator him/herself, or he/she can add a watchdog mechanism that transfers the shares to another user of our platform in an autonomous way. Smart contracts are triggered once the contracts are overdue and the monitoring stops.

  • Safe Haven’s 100% Open-Source Hardware Ledger

Safe Haven and Nitrokey proudly announce the intention to co-develop and co-finance a full open-source hardware ledger. Safe Haven praises high security and is convinced that the only way to achieve this, is to utilize software and hardware that is open source. Nitrokey shares those thoughts and together will revolutionize the current hardware ledger market.

Why does Safe Haven need to have hardware keys and ledgers?

One deliverable of this partnership is to implement a secure login mechanism into our digital inheritance platform for our legal entities using Nitrokey products.

Secondly, we want to store the shares from our initiators and their heirs together with their digital assets on the hardware ledger. The Safe Haven hardware ledger will allow us to utilize the safest measures possible. In order for us to guarantee this, we will not use non-open source products. Thus, the need to be able to offer our own ledger.

Initial Development Phase

1. Safe Haven will build the decentralized solution to make the market more safe and secure
2. Safe Haven will build the Trust Alliance Network and integrate legal entities into their protocol
3. Safe Haven will build a 100% open source hardware ledger.
4. Safe Haven will utilize their partner’s existing network and knowledge to expand and secure the platform

Current Development Progress

Safe Haven Platform
  • The Safe Haven Family Circle Distribution Protocol is already being tested on the Ropsten network as of the end of may, we will implement the other protection plans into our platform very soon. Our developers are preparing our alpha release on the VeChainThor Network.
  • The Trust Alliance Network blockchain or TAN chain is ready and will be uploaded to our Github: https://github.com/Safehaven-io
  • The Safe Haven MultiSig wallet is ready for use and code will uploaded to our Github:
    https://github.com/Safehaven-io
  • The GUI/public site of our TAN is still under development and more updates will be published soon.

Why VeChainThor Platform?

When Safe Haven came onto the market in December 2017, the logical choice was to have our project run on the Ethereum network. Prior to this decision, there wasn’t a network that gave us the satisfaction and assurance to build a long-term solution. When we had the opportunity to present our project to the VeChain team, and our developers were able to read the code from the new VeChainThor network, it immediately became clear to us that we had found the ideal partner with VeChain. Safe Haven and VeChain would together be able to propose the long-term solutions that other protocols would not be able to.

In conversations between both organizations, it was clear that the vision, values, norms and market insights were decisive. Both Safe Haven and VeChain believe that blockchain technology should be an additive to our lives and solve problems that cannot be solved using today’s current standards. Blockchain technology should be used by the public without the public even knowing it, while still benefiting from all that the blockchain has to offer, seamlessly. With the support of VeChain, Safe Haven will succeed in their intention to become the leader in digital inheritance. Resources available to Safe Haven through VeChain are endless: a comprehensive business network, marketing resources that will allow for Safe Haven solutions to be known throughout the space, and core developers that will work hand-in-hand to deliver a product that aligns precisely with the VeChain ecosystem.

What do we bring to the VeChain Ecosystem?

Safe Haven will bring the first inheritable digital asset to the VeChain community through the utilization of the Thor Protocol. Safe Haven will showcase the Thor Protocol as the premier protocol for digital inheritance within the crypto-sphere. A truly seamless, regulated and revolutionary inheritance platform will only further legitimize VeChain’s adaptability, scalability and long-term viability.

Lastly we pledge through the facilitation of VeChain Foundation, to enable VeChain X-Node holders to have methods to achieve different tiers of rights of purchase and discounts.

Safe Haven Directors

Jurgen Schouppe, Founder & Security Architect

Jurgen is the brain behind the Safe Haven platform and Trust Alliance Network. Jurgen has over 10 years experience in development and network security for the European Parliament in Brussels. Jurgen left his official position within Parliament to expand and build the Safe Haven project demonstrating his dedication to Safe Haven and unwavering support.

Logino Dujardin, Co-founder & Account Manager

Logino is passionate about blockchain technology. With his experience in a multinational environment as Account Manager he is the right guy to bring the right partnerships and strategic advisors into the Safe Haven company.

Andy Demeulemeester, Co-founder & Software Architect

Andy is a crypto and blockchain enthusiast, co-founder and co-developer of Safe Haven. Andy has more than 10 years experience in various developer languages and platforms. He used his skills to work for several international companies. Andy has an exceptional open-minded vision in developing.

Safe Haven Strategic Advisors

Sunny Lu — VeChain CEO
CREAM Crypto Merchant Bank
China Blockchain Partners

Safe Haven Dedicated Team

Andrew Kamal, Blockchain Architect

Andrew has been interested in the cryptospace since 2011 and is creator and founder of WeCrypto.net. His expertise relies on hash protocols, distributed computing and mathematical physics. Andrew Kamal’s IQ average is 231.734 (232) on 5 different scales, psychological analysis, and levels of testing. This makes him world record holder for highest IQ at the age of 16.

Alain Degreffe, DevOps Engineer

Alain is Network and System Engineer for European Institutions and Open Source Developer. Alain is a very skilled System Administrator and developer in many languages.

Karim Archok, GDPR Consultant

Karim is an IT Security professional. Over 14 years of experience, he specializes in the field of IT Security SIEM Cybersecurity. Karim joins Safe Haven as IT Compliance Officer, Data Protection and Privacy GDPR.

Danielle Ambrosia, Press Manager

Danielle has experience in newspaper content writing and publishing, as well as editing. Her graduate degree is in Curriculum and Instruction, giving her a unique perspective on writing for a multitude audience and purposes.

Ivan Pauker, Digital Marketer

Ivan is a experienced digital marketeer with a sharp knowledge and vision in marketing and advertising. He is studying at the Algebra University College; the only of such in Europe for digital marketing. With his outside the box thinking and his skills he is dedicated to each project with an unique approach.

Thomas Ambrosia, Business Management

Thomas has an extensive background in business management. He possess a highly desired mix of traditional and crypto-space marketing techniques, along with a wealth of start-up experience, analytical prowess and strong focus on Community Management and Business Management.

Hadrian Matti, Public Relations Trust Alliance Network

Hadrian is a United States based entrepreneur with extensive experience in PR and HR. Hadrian has legal experience and is pursuing a law degree. Hadrian is the perfect fit to expand our Trust Alliance Network.

Public Relations Manager

Luke is a serial entrepreneur who has gained extensive experience in E-Commerce, Digital Marketing and Public Relations over the last 5 years. He has experience founding and managing multiple startups in the united states and is knowledgeable in the cryptocurrency and investment space.

Josh Finley, Community Moderator
Carlos Reyes, Community Moderator
Aaron Myslinski, Community Moderator

Featured Partners

https://www.vechain.com
https://hosho.io/
https://www.verime.mobi/home
https://www.blueprotocol.com/
https://mywish.io
https://exchangelisting.io/
https://www.nitrokey.com/
http://www.blockchainassociation.be/

The dates to begin the VET private and public offerings will be announced at a later date. For more information and news, please follow our social media accounts:

The full version of the white paper, along with more detailed plans of the ICO process will be out soon, please stay tuned.

The Token Allocation and Roadmap

Please wait for WP release, the information will be there.

Join Us

If you are an expert in insurance, law, inheritance or just feel passionate about the industry and love the to be part of our cause, please contact info@safehaven.io if you would like to walk this journey together.

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Safe Haven
Safe Haven

Written by Safe Haven

Safe Haven provides advanced FinTech solutions powered by blockchain, and our own patent-pending protocols along with our ‘SafeKey’ HSM cold-storage devices.