This section elaborates on the Safient workflow and lists out the glossary.

Who is involved in the protocol?

Just like any other protocol, Safient relies on a few actors to function. In addition to the users of the protocol, it also has a few core participants who help the protocol behave in a purely trustless manner. These are the incentivized actors who collectively perform a few tasks to guarantee that the safes are safeguarded and claimed by the beneficiary whenever needed without relying on one single party. One such incentivized actor is Safe guardians and we call them Safiens. Their main task is to guard the safes and help the right beneficiary recover them only after the claim conditions are met.

As shown in the below diagram, each one of them interacts with the safe at one or the other phase of Safient flow. Refer to the workflow section for the entire Safient flow.

                              Safient actors - Safe creator, guardians, arbitrators, and beneficiary

                          Safient actors - Safe creator, guardians, arbitrators, and beneficiary

Core actors of Safient protocol:

<aside> 👨‍🔧 Safe creator:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/9244e47b-15b4-4951-b4cd-722a9222f7a9/User_Icon.svg

Anyone who has an account on Safient can create a safe by adding the beneficiary and safe data (seed phrases or any other secret note). The safe creator may decide to pay a safe maintenance fee during the safe creation or at any time later.

</aside>

<aside> 🙎 Safe beneficiary (inheritor/ claimer):

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/9da7ee3b-de3a-4de6-91b5-afb878fd52bb/User_Icon_(1).svg

Safe beneficiaries are the ones who can claim the created safes. The safe creator themselves can be the beneficiary (for safe backup) or they can be their loved ones (for safe inheritance). It is a requirement that safe beneficiaries should be part of Safient (should have registered).

</aside>

<aside> 💂 Safe guardians (Safiens)

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/13ea60f6-ec6e-4d8e-9890-081c73772224/Safe_guardians.svg

Safe guardians (We are calling them Safiens) are responsible for guarding and recovering the safes. No single guardian or set of guardians can recover the safe data entirely unless a threshold number of guardians agree. They make sure that the beneficiary can claim the safe data only after the "safe claim" has been verified. Safe guardians are trustless in nature. That means neither the safe creator nor the beneficiary needs to trust these guardians. These guardians are appointed at random based on their protocol credentials. The guardians will be eligible for incentivization (the safe maintenance fee and protocol reward) whenever they participate in the safe recovery process.

</aside>

Secondary/ optional actors:

<aside> 👩‍⚖️ Claim arbitrators:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/7a5a79fb-1dee-4f6f-a3cc-759c675ec56e/Safe_arbitratirs.svg

Currently, claim arbitrators are not the direct participants of the Safient protocol but they help to verify the safe claims created through a decentralized dispute resolution process. Currently, Safient uses Kleros for creating and resolving safe claims.

</aside>


<aside> 🙎 Safe executor: Safient doesn't explicitly require an executor to claim the safe. Instead, beneficiaries themselves act as safe executors. Safe executors can be optionally nominated by the creator in case they feel that an entity is needed to confirm or moderate the claim process. Close relatives or estate planning lawyers can become the safe executor in case there is one.

</aside>

Entire application flow:

The technical workflow of Safient may seem slightly elongated, but we are making sure that this doesn't hamper the user experience of any participant. Here is how the application flow and a life cycle of a safe on Safient will look like: