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For keyholders and witnesses

I am a witness. What is different?

Updated September 2026

You hold no key, and no exit request will ever reach you. There is nothing for you to approve or to keep, and there is no decision page and no status page in your name. You see a narrower version of what a keyholder sees, and Fold'em emails you twice at most: once if you are removed, and once if the account closes. Everything else reaches you on the Wallet pass or not at all.

The role, and where it stops

A person using Fold'em has one keyholder and may add up to three witnesses. A witness is an observer, and the boundary is enforced by the server rather than by copy.

The exit approval code and the decision link are minted only for an active keyholder link, so a witness card carries neither, even for somebody who listed themselves with their own address. The decision page refuses a witness outright, and so does the status page feed: there is no web dashboard in a witness's name at all. The pass is your whole surface.

Your own card says the same thing on its back, where a keyholder's card states what they hold: you stand with them, you hold no key and approve nothing, their keyholder gets the alerts and you get the picture.

What your keyholder sees, and what they never see Two columns. On the left, the eleven things a keyholder can see: your first name, whether protection is on and which status word, how far through the term you are, a count of blocked attempts, milestones you reached, an exit request, which alerts you muted, a lapsed subscription, the deletion lock, a handover, and a notice if you close your account. Six of them carry a dot: a witness sees only those six. On the right, four things struck through that never reach anyone: which apps or sites, anything you browse, any amount of money, anything you typed. WHAT MARIA CAN SEE NO ONE SEES Your first name Protection on, and its word How far through the term A count of blocked attempts Milestones you reached An exit request Which alerts you muted A lapsed subscription The deletion lock A handover If you close your account A witness sees only these six Which apps or sites Anything you browse Any amount of money Anything you typed The money you keep is worked out on your phone
A keyholder can see eleven things, from your first name to a notice if you close the account. A witness sees six of them. No one sees which apps or sites, anything you browse, any amount of money, or anything you typed.

What you see

You see less than a keyholder does, and it is items 1 to 5 and 7 of the list a keyholder is shown, plus the date protection ends if they end early.

You do not see the exit request itself, the app deletion lock, a handover, or a lapsed subscription's end date. If they do end early, what reaches your card is the outcome and its date rather than the ask: an ending date, and a status line written for a witness.

Everything a keyholder never sees, you never see either. No apps, no sites, nothing browsed, no amount of money, and nothing typed.

Two letters, at most

The alert letters go to the keyholder. The routine that decides who receives them resolves the keyholder link only, so no ordinary alert reaches a witness by email at all.

Two letters do. One arrives if you are removed from the circle, sent only for an accepted witness; a pending invite that is cancelled is silent, because nothing was ever accepted. The other arrives if they close their account, so that the arrangement ending is told to you rather than discovered when your card stops answering.

Beyond those two, your card is the whole channel. Milestones reach it silently: a witness gets no push of their own for one, so the milestone row appears or steps at the card's next natural pull, with no banner. Nothing is missing when it arrives that way.

Living with a witness card

  1. Read the front for the state

    Your card carries the same status vocabulary, the same day count and the same sky as a keyholder's, minus the ask. Role reads Witness, because a partner should never have to work out which of the two they are.

    A Fold'em Wallet pass on its calm face, with Role and Status at the top right, a starlit sky with a crescent moon, and Days left 78 of 90.

    The pass, calm face

  2. Turn it over for the door

    A witness card carries a step away row where a keyholder's carries the decision link, because a card that offers a decision never also offers the door. It states the consequence rather than being a control: they keep their lock and their term either way.

  3. Step away if it is not for you

    A witness resignation removes your link and nothing else. No mode changes, no flag is written, and no exit floor is raised, so their protection is exactly as it was a moment before. There is no device check on it either, because there is no key and no decision behind it.

If your card goes quiet

A witness card pulls at no fixed time, so a slightly stale card is the ordinary case rather than a fault. The Refreshed row on the back names the day it was generated, which is the only place the card says how current it is. Opening the pass in Wallet is what asks it for a fresh copy.

If it stops answering entirely, the arrangement has ended: a removed card keeps one word for seven days and then stops. If you have simply lost it, the person you stand with can send a fresh one from inside their app.

What this does not do

Being a witness gives you no authority of any kind. You cannot keep the lock, cannot approve an exit, cannot change their term or their blocks, and cannot change which alerts anyone receives. Nothing about their protection depends on you, and nothing changes about it when you leave.

The role also does not scale into a keyholder's by accumulation. A user has exactly one keyholder, and the only route from witness to keyholder is a handover both sides consent to, which starts in their app rather than yours.

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