These get discussed as if they were competing products. They are not. They defend against entirely different failures, and choosing between them starts with being honest about which failure is actually yours.
The short version
| Cold storage | Timelock | |
|---|---|---|
| Protects against | Theft, exchange failure, malware | You, changing your mind |
| Can you access it early? | Yes, any time | No - the network refuses |
| Who holds the keys | You | Depends on the setup |
| Ongoing cost | None after the device | A fee, if someone runs it for you |
| Recovers from your death | Only with a plan | Delivers on the date regardless |
| Main failure mode | Lost seed phrase | Wrong date, wrong recipient |
Cold storage protects coins from other people
A hardware wallet puts your keys somewhere malware cannot reach. It is the correct answer for "I own bitcoin and I do not want it stolen," and for the overwhelming majority of holders it is the only thing they need. It is also nearly free once you own the device.
What it cannot do is stop you. The drawer opens, the device works, and the sell button is four taps away at three in the morning during a 40% drawdown. Cold storage guide if that is the problem you have.
A timelock protects coins from you
A timelock is a rule written into the Bitcoin script itself: this output cannot be spent before a specific time. Every node on the network enforces it. There is no override, no support desk, no emergency exception - attempting the spend early gets the transaction rejected as invalid, the same way a forged signature would be.
That is a strange and absolute thing to do to your own money, and it is only worth doing if the alternative is worse. For some people it genuinely is: the plan says hold for five years, and every dip is a fresh negotiation with yourself. A timelock ends the negotiation.
You can do this yourself
This is the part a company selling timelocks is supposed to skip, so: you do not need us.
A timelock is a standard Bitcoin script. If you can run Bitcoin Core, or use a wallet with
advanced scripting support, you can construct a OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY output where you
hold the key, lock it for as long as you like, and spend it yourself when the date passes.
Nobody takes a fee and nobody has to still exist on the unlock date. How the script
works, if you want to build one.
The catch is real but it is a competence catch, not a conceptual one: you must not lose the key over the intervening years, you must construct the script correctly, and you must still be able to spend it at the end. A mistake in any of those is unrecoverable, and you will not find out until the unlock date arrives.
What we actually sell
VaultUntil builds and holds the timelock for you. Worth being precise about what that means, because it is easy to imply more than is true:
- Before the unlock date, the coins genuinely cannot be moved by anyone - not you, not us, not someone who steals our keys. That is Bitcoin consensus, not a policy.
- At the unlock date, the key that signs the payout is ours. We send it to the recipient you fixed at the start. That part is us keeping our word.
So a long lock with us is a long bet that we are still here, still solvent, and still honest on the delivery date. We think that is a reasonable trade for people who want the mechanism without the key management, and we would rather you understood it before depositing than after. The risk page says the same thing in more detail.
Which one you probably want
Cold storage, if you want to hold bitcoin safely and can leave it alone. This is most people. Buy a hardware wallet, back it up on metal, stop reading.
Both, if you hold a meaningful amount and have a specific date in mind - most in cold storage, a portion locked.
A self-built timelock, if you have the technical confidence and want no counterparty.
A hosted timelock, if you want the date enforced by the network but do not want to be responsible for a key for the next decade, and you accept the trust you are taking on.
What neither one fixes
Both are useless if nobody knows they exist. A hardware wallet in a drawer and a lock with an unlock date in 2041 are equally invisible to a family sorting out your affairs. That is a separate problem with a separate plan.