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For keyholders and witnesses

What happens after an exit is approved in person?

Updated September 2026

Nothing unlocks that day. Scanning the code on your pass records your approval and starts a wait of at least 72 hours, and that wait can run to fourteen days after the key changed hands, or after a keyholder stepped away or was removed. Only when it ends does the protection come off, and even then the apps open when they take the release, not on their own.

The wait starts when you approve, not before

An exit is approved face to face: they show you the request, you scan the approval code on your Wallet pass, and that is the moment the clock starts. The wait is at least 72 hours after the approval, counted by the server from the instant it records the scan. If the key changed hands, or a keyholder stepped away or was removed, a floor was written on their account at that moment, and the wait cannot end sooner than fourteen days after it, so a change in the circle is never a faster way out than going solo.

Nothing about the phone changes while the wait runs. Every app stays sealed, the sites stay blocked, and their Home screen shows the wait counting down.

What the scan actually does

Your pass carries the code; their phone does the scanning, inside the Fold'em app they are signed in to. The scan sends the code to the server, and the server checks three things before it records anything: that the code carries a valid signature, that it names the request in front of it, and that the account scanning it is the account the request belongs to.

That third check is why a photograph of your card is not a spare key. A code copied from your pass still names one request on one account, so it cannot approve anybody else's exit, and it cannot approve the same request twice: the second scan is refused as already decided.

The code is minted when the request opens and minted again each day the request stays open, so the one on your card today is the one that works today. It is scoped to the day it was issued, which is why a screenshot taken last week does nothing.

The road out of a term, when you have a keyholder You ask to leave early on the Shield tab. Your keyholder has seven days to decide, and can keep the lock or approve in person by scanning your pass. On an approval a wait of at least 72 hours starts from the moment they say yes. A second arm leaves the same decision: seven days of silence approves the request as if you had no keyholder, and the wait that follows is fourteen days, not 72 hours. Both arms end at the same place, where the server marks the release ready and the phone holds every shield until you take it, for up to seven days. The two sevens are different: seven days to decide, seven days for the release to wait for you. LEAVING EARLY You ask on the Shield tab Maria decides 7 days to decide Keep the lock APPROVED 72 h at least 72 hoursfrom the yes SILENCE, 7 DAYS 14 d fourteen daysnot 72 hours The release is ready the server says so Held 7 days for you every shield stays up Two sevens: 7 days to decide, 7 days to take it.
With a keyholder, an early exit runs: you ask, they have seven days to keep the lock or approve in person, then at least 72 hours count from that approval, then the release waits seven days for you to take it. Seven days of silence approves it instead, and the wait becomes fourteen days.
The Wallet pass with an exit request open: the middle band reading Alex asked, You decide, 7 days = yes, Apps open; the facts row reading Early exit, Decide by Aug 31; and the approval code below it.

The code an approval is scanned from

Only they can call it off

During the wait, the person you hold for can withdraw the request and end it. You cannot take an approval back, and support cannot shorten it or extend it. The rules that guard the request let its owner change its state and let nobody else touch it, so there is no page, no email link and no support action that would move the date. If you have second thoughts, the person to talk to is them.

If they do withdraw, your card is pushed a fresh copy and the ask leaves its face. Nothing else is sent to you about it.

What your card shows while the wait runs

The approval resolves the request, so the ask and the Decide by date come off the front of the pass and the status word goes back to the one the account is in. The card is refreshed by the same server step that records the decision, so it does not wait for you to open it.

The approval code stops being useful the moment the request is decided, because the request it names can be decided only once.

What happens when the wait ends

The server marks the release available and their app tells them it is ready. The apps do not open by themselves: they have to take the release, and the offer stands for seven days. If they let it pass, the server closes the window with a reason, the release is not taken, and the block simply carries on with the term unchanged.

Taking the release is one tap in their app, and the server is what grants it. The phone applies whatever the server last said and nothing else; it never decides on its own that a wait has finished.

What this does not do

Approving does not end their term early on its own, and it does not remove you as their keyholder. It does not let you unlock anything from your own phone: the only thing your pass can do is record an approval you gave in person, and there is no remote approval anywhere in Fold'em. Approving is also not a way to shorten the wait for somebody who has already asked twice, because the floor written by a change in the circle outlives the request that met it. Nothing you do here reaches a second device or a desktop.

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