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ZENODO
Preprint . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: ZENODO
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5...
Article . 2025 . Peer-reviewed
Data sources: Crossref
ZENODO
Preprint . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Preprint . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
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The Digital Will: A Blockchain-Based Governance Framework for Post-Mortem Sovereignty of a Digital Personality

Authors: Sorokin, Rodion; Nikolaichuk, Serhii;

The Digital Will: A Blockchain-Based Governance Framework for Post-Mortem Sovereignty of a Digital Personality

Abstract

The emergence of generative AI personalities and other complex digital assets has created a significant legal vacuum, as traditional inheritance law is ill-equipped to govern entities that are neither static property nor passive information. This gap leaves the post-mortem intent of creators vulnerable to misinterpretation, manipulation, and unauthorized commercial exploitation, challenging the principle of individual sovereignty over one's digital legacy. This paper introduces The Digital Will, a novel techno-legal framework designed to address this challenge. We propose a system built on blockchain technology and smart contracts that transforms a creator's governance wishes into immutable, self-executing, and publicly verifiable code. The framework provides a robust mechanism to manage the post-mortem rights, permissions, and usage restrictions of a digital personality. Key architectural components include the encoding of rules into a smart contract, the use of oracles to trigger execution upon verifiable real-world events, and the cryptographic sealing of the AI model itself to the contract, ensuring the integrity of the asset being governed. By formalizing this architecture, we present a new standard for digital inheritance that ensures the creator's sovereignty is preserved and enforced with cryptographic certainty, without reliance on a trusted intermediary. This work offers a foundational solution for the future of digital law, providing a clear path to protecting personal legacy in an increasingly autonomous world.

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    popularity
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    influence
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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
Green