Ascend

Ascend empowers users to define and protect their digital legacy—securely, privately, and on their own terms.

When creating an Ascent, you choose who will inherit your assets. Each beneficiary must prove that they are a unique individual through a privacy-preserving Zero-Knowledge proof. This ensures fair distribution and prevents impersonation or duplicate claims.

ZK-based identity verification is our first key innovation.

The second is automated asset consolidation: Ascend brings together your assets from multiple blockchains into a unified vault—so your loved ones won’t need to search across chains when the time comes.

If you stop sending periodic heartbeat signals, your verified beneficiaries can claim what’s theirs—without middlemen, legal friction, or privacy loss.

In life’s hardest moments, Ascend ensures friends and family can focus on saying goodbye—not dealing with wallets, chains, or legal hurdles.

Our project is built around three main components:

1. The Frontend

We use Next.js to build a mobile-first frontend, optimized for compatibility with future mini app stores. Through this interface, grantors can configure their Ascent – a zero-knowledge inheritance plan for their on-chain assets.

Each Ascent includes:

• A heartbeat mechanism, requiring the grantor to check in periodically to confirm they are alive.
• A list of beneficiaries, who will inherit the grantor’s assets if no heartbeat is received within a specified timeframe.

To simplify the claiming process, we use Avail Nexus to consolidate the grantor’s ETH and stablecoins from different chains into one unified destination. This eliminates the need for beneficiaries to track assets across chains, solving a major pain point and reducing the risk of forgotten or inaccessible funds.

2. Identity Verification with zk-Self

We integrate the Self app and custom on-chain ZK verification contracts to ensure that each beneficiary is a unique human being.

During the initial Ascent setup:

• Each beneficiary proves their uniqueness by generating a zero-knowledge proof from their passport using the Self app.
• The proof is verified on-chain, and the result is stored, linking the verified identity to their wallet address.

At the time of claiming:

• Beneficiaries must re-prove their identity with a new zk proof to confirm they are the same individual who was originally verified.
• This protects against stolen keys or fraudulent claims and ensures that only rightful heirs receive assets.

Additionally, this mechanism enables custom claiming logic, defined by the grantor. For example, a parent can enforce that a child may only claim assets once they turn 18, verified via the age in the zk passport proof.

3. Smart Contracts

Using Hardhat, we developed and deployed two core contracts:

• A Factory Contract that creates and registers new Ascent contracts. It serves as a global registry for both grantors and beneficiaries.
• The core Ascent Contract, which stores:
  • Grantor and beneficiary addresses
  • The heartbeat interval and last check-in timestamp
  • Beneficiary verification status
  • Claiming logic and payout handling

Once a heartbeat is missed and verification is completed, the contract automatically handles asset distribution according to the grantor’s wishes.

Notable "Hacky" Bits

• Leveraging zk proofs to verify identity without revealing personal data.
• Using a re-verification step at claim time to defend against key theft and fraud.
• Consolidating multi-chain assets with Avail Nexus to create a single-point claiming experience.
• Modular smart contract design with factory pattern for easy management and scaling.