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What happens when they accept, or do not?

Updated September 2026

They open the link and answer one question: will they hold the key. Accepting takes two steps, the decision and then an email address proved with a six digit code sent to it, and the link goes live only once that code is confirmed. Their Wallet pass is issued the moment it does. If they decline, or if nobody opens the link before it expires, the invite closes and you carry on solo, with a row in the Circle saying which of the two happened.

What they see when they open it

The link opens a page on foldem.app that needs no app, no account and no sign in. It names both of you, says what you did in one card, and states the job in three rows: the term, what is asked of them, and what is never shown to them. The whole ask is one sentence: if you ask to leave early, they are the person who answers.

The token rides in the URL fragment, the part after the hash, which browsers never send to a server and never write into a log. So the page reads the invite from something the network never carried.

Why the six digit code

Every alert about you reaches your keyholder by email, so the address on the link is a safety backstop rather than a contact detail. Anyone who opens a shared link could otherwise type any address at all and quietly become the person your alerts go to. The code closes that: the server mails a one time code to the address they typed and refuses the acceptance until the code comes back. Without a valid address the acceptance is refused outright.

A phone number on that page is optional. It is stored with their invite and shown to you inside the app, and it reaches nobody else. Fold'em never sends anybody a text message.

Once the code is confirmed the acceptance runs, the link becomes active, and the pass is offered first, ahead of the Face ID step, because the pass is the thing they actually keep.

Inviting a keyholder, from their name to their first status Five steps down the page. You type their first name. You share a link, which lives 72 hours. They open it and enter the six digit code. The pass lands in their Wallet. The card shows its first status, Setting up, and reads Protected once you seal. INVITING A KEYHOLDER Maria Type a name their first name only Share the link it lives 72 hours 4 8 2 9 1 7 Maria accepts with the six digit code A pass in Wallet their one artefact Setting up The first status Protected once you seal
You type a first name and share a link that lives 72 hours. They accept with the six digit code, the pass lands in their Wallet, and its first status is on the card itself.

The two steps, and the third outcome

  1. They decide

    The page leads with the ask and the three rows under it, then offers Yes, I will hold it and a plain decline beneath. It also warns them that your setup may still be finishing, and that a card reading Not confirmed at first goes live the moment you seal.

    The accept page on foldem.app: Alex wants you to hold the key, a What Alex did card, three rows and a Yes, I will hold it button.

    The ask

  2. They prove the address

    Step two of two asks for an email address, an optional phone number, and the six digit code mailed to that address. The field is a real one time code field, so an iPhone offers the code above the keyboard. Every Fold'em email comes from hello@foldem.app, and the page carries a Send it again link for a code that does not arrive.

    Step two of the accept page: an email field, an optional phone field, six code boxes and a Confirm the code button.

    The code

  3. Or the invite closes

    A decline closes the invite immediately and kills its tokens. An unopened link expires on its own 72 hours after it was minted. Either way a row appears in your Circle naming the outcome and the role it was for, and you can clear the row once you have read it.

    The Circle tab with two closed rows: Priya declined your invite, and That witness invite expired.

    A decline and an expiry

A decline never strands you

You were already solo while the invite was out: the server marks you as having a keyholder at the moment of acceptance and not before. So a decline or an expiry does not take anything away, it closes the row and leaves you where you were, and an early exit runs on the solo road until somebody accepts. The person who declined is not named in blame and is free of the whole thing; nothing about your block changes.

A witness declining is quieter still. Witnesses hold no key, so a witness decline closes that one invite and touches nothing else at all, not your mode and not your exit wait.

What this does not do

Accepting does not install anything, does not create an account, and does not give them a way into your phone. It does not let them approve an early exit from where they are: the only approval Fold'em recognises is scanning the code on their pass while standing with you. It does not let them see which apps or sites you sealed, anything you browse, any amount of money, or anything you typed. A declined or expired invite cannot be reopened, so inviting that person again means sending a fresh link.

Still stuck? Email support@foldem.app and we answer within two working days.