# What is Redacted’s emergency exit?

The emergency exit opens by itself if no active Redacted node carries an action or sends a heartbeat for 7 days. Anyone can then withdraw from the Reserve, or close positions and move funds out of Spending, by submitting the action from their own wallet.

## Why it exists

Private actions normally reach the chain through nodes, and the emergency exit makes sure the way out never depends on them. Nothing can close it, delay it or change its 7 days, whether a node vote, the DAO’s safety multisig or a DAO setting, and the first node activity closes it again.

## While it is open

- You submit your own withdrawal, from your own wallet.
- The app switches to this mode when it sees the exit open.
- The Reserve takes no new deposits until a node is live again.

## Withdrawals the rest of the time

Withdrawals are always open. No vote, pause or delay applies to them, because every brake acts only on money coming in.

## Status

Coming soon with the node network. Withdrawals work today.

More: [How the node network works](https://redacted.gg/docs/node-network/node-network.md)

## Related terms

- [Node network](https://redacted.gg/glossary/node-network.md): Redacted’s node network is a group of independent, bonded operators who carry private actions on-chain and approve every deposit, each choosing what it checks before it approves. No single node can send a deposit back or pause deposits alone.
- [Relayer](https://redacted.gg/glossary/relayer.md): A relayer submits a transaction to the blockchain on someone else’s behalf and pays its network fee. Privacy tools use relayers so that a private action doesn’t have to come from, or be paid for by, the user’s own wallet.
- [Self-custody](https://redacted.gg/glossary/self-custody.md): Self-custody means you hold the keys to your funds yourself, so no company can freeze, lose or move them on your behalf.
- [The Reserve](https://redacted.gg/glossary/reserve.md): The Reserve is the shared space where every Redacted user’s deposits live together as sealed notes. From the outside all notes look alike, so an action from the Reserve could have come from anyone who has the same coin in it.
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Page: https://redacted.gg/glossary/emergency-exit/