What “We Don’t Hold Your Keys” Should Mean In A Vendor Contract

“Non-custodial” is a word people print because it sounds safe. The test is simpler. Can they sign? Can they restore your wallet without you? Can they freeze the asset? If yes, they hold something you were told they do not.

The same test applies to AI vendors. Who has the recordings. Who can use them to train. What you get back when you leave. A homepage that says “your data is yours” is not a contract.

The SEC Investor Bulletin Crypto Asset Custody Basics for Retail Investors, December 12, 2025, tells retail holders to decide self-custody versus a third party, and never to share private keys or backup phrases. Third-party custody means someone else controls access to the keys. Ask where the assets live and who can touch them.

Our own Terms say the quiet part first. Block9 does not custody, transmit, hold, or have access to client funds, private keys, backup phrases, or wallet credentials. Clients execute every on-chain action. We will never ask for a seed, a private key, third-party login credentials, or a screen-share of those. Payment in bitcoin, when it happens, goes to a Block9 invoice address you verify on a second channel.

Agents are a different contract on purpose. Data handling for that product is written on the Agents site. Per-business isolation. Commercial models not trained on your customer data. Retention you set. Export, then delete, on the way out.

Consulting work — including a custom tokenization build — lives on block9.app. The product sites are separate. Any page promising a vb9 presale or an airdrop is not us.

Ask the other vendor the ugly questions before you sign. Can you move my funds without my signature? Do you ever ask for a backup phrase, even “to help recover”? Where do recordings and customer lists live, and who else sees them? What do I get back on the last day, and what do you delete? Which legal entity am I contracting with, and which state’s courts?

If they cannot answer those in writing, the slogan was the product.

We help U.S. shops read the sentence, not the homepage.

Talk with AgentB9 on block9.app. Call or text (636) 224-8069. sales@block9.app.

A chain is not a bank portal or a card processor. Payments can be slow, hard to reverse, or lost if a key, a device, or a backup is mishandled. Apps, wallets, and protocols change. We help you set things up; we do not hold your keys or watch your systems after you leave. Security, backups, and day-to-day practice stay with you. This is not legal, tax, or investment advice.

Sources

• SEC Investor Bulletin, Dec. 12, 2025
• Block9 Terms
• Agents by Block9 data page