Appendix B — The Steward's Plan

Chapter Eleven argued that holding a position in a work's timeline creates obligations no classical collector faced. This appendix is the template. Fill it in, keep it current, and keep it where it can be found — offline, and never in the casual places Chapter Eleven warned against.

1. The map of holdings. For each work: title · artist · contract address · token ID · the wallet that holds it · where the media lives (chain / IPFS / Arweave / private server / stream) · what the media requires to stay witnessable.

2. The keys. For each wallet: where recovery materials are secured (location, not contents — this document should never contain a key or phrase) · what hardware is involved and where it is · what a trusted party would need to know to act, without exposing keys along the way.

3. The people. Who may act, and under what circumstances · who knows this plan exists and where it lives · who understands the difference between seeing the art and controlling the token — and has confirmed that understanding.

4. The succession. What should happen to each position if you no longer can act: transfer, institutional gift, continued family stewardship · the sequence of steps, written for someone who has never used this technology · the difference, stated plainly for your heirs, between the envelope and the message.

5. The review date. A plan decays like any record. Set a date, annually, to confirm every line above is still true.

Without this, even the most important work can disappear into silence: present on-chain, yet unreachable. The author has lived a version of that silence; her case, told in Chapter Nine, ended in recovery. Most do not.