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Can I change who holds my key?

Updated September 2026

Yes, through a handover that both people consent to, and it takes about a day. You name a successor, your current keyholder approves, the successor accepts, and the key moves 24 hours after that. Early exit is frozen for the whole handover, and the moment you ask for one the server writes a floor on your commitment so no exit can finish sooner than 14 days later. That is deliberate: changing keyholder is never a faster way out than going solo.

A handover, not a swap

Fold'em has no way for the phone to change a keyholder. The change is a small state machine on the server with four steps: waiting on the current keyholder, waiting on the successor, the countdown to takeover, and complete. One function is the only writer of it, and it checks every condition again inside the transaction that moves the state.

You can name a successor in two ways: pick one of your existing witnesses, or invite somebody new for the seat. A new person invited to take over does not count against the three witness places, because otherwise a circle already holding three witnesses could never replace its keyholder at all.

Your current keyholder keeps full authority the whole time, including keeping the lock on if you had already asked to leave. Nothing about the key moves until the countdown ends.

The two windows

The person you named has 24 hours to answer. If they do nothing, the change expires and the current keyholder simply keeps the role. When both sides have agreed, a second 24 hours runs before the key actually moves, and the new keyholder becomes the keyholder of record only when that lands. Both windows are absolute instants stamped on the server and swept there, so nothing on your phone counts them.

Why a change is never a shortcut

Asking for a handover writes an exit floor on your active commitment set to 14 days ahead. The write takes the later of the existing floor and the new one, so chaining changes can only push the earliest possible exit further out, never pull it back. Every function that decides an exit reads that floor inside its own transaction, so even a keyholder who wanted to could not approve a faster way out.

Three acts write that same 14 day floor: asking for a handover, a keyholder stepping away, and removing your keyholder. Do not read the number as one of the exit waits: the exit's own wait after an approval is at least 72 hours, and this floor is a separate limit sitting under it.

While the change runs, an early exit cannot be opened at all. The keyholder rows and the request slider dim under one sentence saying why. The witness door stays open, because adding a witness collides with nothing, and the SOS route above the slider is never touched.

Handing the key to a new keyholder Maria holds the key. You invite Ben, who has 24 hours to accept. Once Ben accepts, the handover takes effect 24 hours later, and the key moves from Maria's card to Ben's. Below, Maria's old pass keeps answering for seven days, then expires. CHANGING KEYHOLDER A Maria keyholder 24 h to accept B Ben accepts 24 h a day later, it takes effect Handover Ben holds the key now Maria's old pass keeps answering for 7 days then it expires
A new keyholder has 24 hours to accept, and the handover takes effect 24 hours after that. The old keyholder's pass keeps answering for seven days, then expires.

What the Circle shows while it runs

  1. Waiting on an answer

    The keyholder place draws both people whole and equal with the key crossing between them, headed Changing hands. The row underneath names whoever has not answered yet, first the current keyholder and then the successor, and opens the stepped sequence when you tap it. Cancelling from there is one tap and needs no approval from anybody.

    The Circle tab showing Sam and Jonas with a key crossing between them, and a row reading Waiting for Jonas to approve.

    Both sides asked

  2. The countdown to takeover

    Once both have agreed, the row becomes the countdown and the glyph changes from an hourglass to the swap arrows. Your witnesses are untouched throughout, and the count beside them still reads how many of the three places are filled.

    The Circle tab with the same two people, a swap arrows row reading Jonas takes over in 18 hours, and the Witnesses row below still reading 1 of 3.

    The key about to move

Declines, cancellations and time running out

Either side can decline, and the change closes with a row naming who declined it. You can cancel your own request at any point before it completes, and your own cancellation raises no row, because your own confirmed act is not news to you. If the 24 hour window runs out, the row reads that the handover ran out of time. A term ending during a change closes it too. Every one of those outcomes is written to your receipt whether or not a row is shown, and every closed row can be cleared once you have read it.

When the takeover lands, the successor is issued their own credential and their own pass. The old keyholder's card is stamped to retire at the takeover instant, and the server keeps an ending face answering it for seven days after that. The seven days here is the retiring card's life and is not one of the exit windows.

What this does not do

A handover does not shorten your term, does not lift a shield, and does not release anything. It cannot even be requested while an exit request is open, and an approved request stays open until you take the release, so replacing the person who approved is not a way to undo an approval. It cannot run twice at once. It does not remove your witnesses, and it does not change what anybody sees: the successor sees the same eleven things the previous keyholder did, and no more.

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