Proposals and guardian approval.

01What a proposal is

A proposal is an account-level change that takes effect only after guardian approval. The account holder creates it in the app. Every guardian is notified, shown the change as recorded by Summo, and votes to approve or decline. When approvals reach the required number, the change takes effect automatically, with no further step from anyone.

A proposal expires after 24 hours if unresolved, and can be cancelled by the account holder at any time. Only one proposal of a given kind can be pending at a time; a new one replaces it. A proposal also closes early once enough guardians have declined that approval can no longer be reached. Both sides follow a proposal’s progress in the app’s Approvals screen. Every change that requires guardian approval uses this same flow.

02Approval

Every vote is signed on the guardian’s own device. A proposal is approved by a strict majority of the account’s active guardians: one of one, two of two, two of three, three of four, and so on. Removing a guardian counts the majority of the guardians who would remain.

Guardians approve; they never initiate. A guardian cannot create a proposal, cannot move or spend funds, and cannot change anything on the account unilaterally, whether an account has one guardian or many. Who guardians are, and how they are added, is covered in recovery and guardians.

03What can be proposed

The set of actions that can be proposed is fixed, and none of them moves funds.

• Loosening a spending limit. Raising or removing a limit, either permanently or for a temporary window that reverts on its own. Tightening a limit needs no proposal.
• Adding a trusted address. An address exempted from the spending limit. Removing one needs no proposal.
• Adding or removing a guardian. Every guardian after the first is added by proposal, and removed the same way. Removing the last guardian instead requires confirming possession of the recovery phrase.
• Revealing the recovery phrase. On an account with guardians, showing the phrase in the app requires their approval.
• Recovering access on a new device. Uses the same flow, with one step added: a verification code the account holder reads to each guardian over a live call.