Digital asset custody and provenance in ultra-long-term scenarios : A framework for 100-year preservation and biological latency

Abstract

As digital assets transition from speculative instruments into institutional-grade securities, the financial industry faces a novel custodial challenge: ultra-long-term preservation exceeding a century-long horizon. Existing custodial frameworks, predicated on the continuous legal personhood of the owner and the operational longevity of centralised intermediaries, are ill equipped to manage scenarios involving biological latency, such as cryonics or prolonged medical suspension, which creates a legal vacuum regarding the legal personality dissolution and the exercise of property rights upon reanimation, challenging the core of existing custodial frameworks. This paper identifies the dual threats of the century horizon: the evolution of quantum cryptanalysis and the degradation of human cognitive interfaces. To address these vulnerabilities, the author proposes a decentralised time-locked cryptographic vault framework. Key technical contributions include the Delayed Public Key Revelation (DPKR) protocol, which provides a mathematical defence against Shor’s Algorithm, and the Deep-Priority Traversal (DPT) algorithm, which utilises logographic mnemonics to mitigate memory bit-rot. Beyond its technical contributions, this framework offers three strategic implications for the custody industry: (1) it provides a blueprint for developing deep-time custody as a premium service for intergenerational wealth; (2) it underscores the imperative to integrate quantum risk assessment into future service-level agreements (SLAs); and (3) it demonstrates that cognitive ergonomics is a critical security factor, advocating for human-centric design in asset recovery. These findings guide custodians in evolving their risk management for an era of century-scale digital wealth preservation. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.