What you see in the photo is me, 8,000 km away from home, on one of the highest mountains in the world, smiling and happy that this won’t be my last night alive.
💡 A Near-Death Realization
10 minutes before capturing this image, I was in tears, desperately on the phone with Anita, the call center assistant from my health insurance.
“Andrea, you won’t die on Annapurna, the diagnosis rules out appendicitis; you have a muscular issue near your abdomen.”
Reading through several NDEs (near-death experiences), people in those moments encounter visions of loved ones, a world without wars, or even a four-day workweek—like reaching nirvana.
But my thoughts? Far less serene:
“My wallets, my passwords, my encrypted disks, my will written at 13…my entire digital identity lost forever.”
🛠️ Birth of Casper
This existential crisis led me to create Casper—my digital alter ego designed to securely distribute my digital identity to my heirs (who don’t even know they are heirs).
For security reasons, I won’t dive into the technical implementations but will discuss the challenges Casper must overcome to fulfill its role after I cease to exist.
💀 Are You Alive?
Casper must periodically verify if I’m still alive. Since no technology is infallible, it uses redundant and diverse strategies, including:
- Robocalls, push notifications, SMS, email.
- Sensors (medical devices included).
Key Considerations:
- Redundancy: Signals must be sent repeatedly if there’s no response.
- Resilience: If I’m out climbing Nanga Parbat, Casper shouldn’t assume I’m dead.
Only after multiple attempts and checks does Casper declare me deceased and distribute my identity as planned.
🌍 Redundancy
Casper must be distributed globally to ensure resilience. This includes:
- Multiple instances worldwide.
- At least one self-controlled instance (hardware included) to mitigate cloud-specific disasters.
Complete redundancy requires planning for:
- Power sources.
- Data lines.
- Hardware failures.
🔒 Security
Casper is a courier, not an inspector. It must:
- Use end-to-end encryption.
- Rely on secure hardware for keys, such as YubiKey.
✅ Test, Test, Test
Everything related to Casper should:
- Be open source.
- Be stable and extensively tested.
- Undergo rigorous security checks using tools like SonarQube or Kiwan.
💣 Self-Destruct in 3…2…1
Casper must include a self-destruct mechanism to irreversibly erase data across all instances if tampering is suspected.
🛠️ Maintenance
Casper isn’t a “set it and forget it” project. It requires:
- Periodic reviews, from the kernel level to user space.
- Continuous updates to adapt to technological evolution.
👼🏼 Was It Necessary?
Absolutely NOT. 😄
While there are safer ways to safeguard one’s digital legacy, Casper was a deeply personal project, driven by my fascination with solving seemingly insurmountable technological challenges.
Final Thoughts
To this day, Casper ensures I’m alive—and hopefully, it has sparked your curiosity as much as it did mine. 🙂